Narrow Public Benefit Exemption In CCP § 425.17(b) Did Not Apply.
In Solomon v. Desert Healthcare Dist., Case Nos. E065066/E065684 (4th Dist., Div. 2 Dec. 8, 2017) (unpublished), a trial judge awarded the successful SLAPP-ing defendant $32,750 in attorney’s fees as against the losing plaintiff. On appeal, plaintiff claimed that his suit fell within a “public benefit’ exemption to fee recovery under CCP § 425.17(b), but that did not resonate on appeal because the exemption applies to a case where the public benefit solely was at issue unlike the plaintiff’s case where personal relief was also being sought. As far as the challenge to the amount of fees, the appellate court saw no abuse of discretion given that there was some reduction in the request and the attorneys for the successful defendant were only charging $180-195 per hour.