Well, we are closing out a year, but our intermediate California Courts of Appeal are still busy. Here are two from the Second District, Division 6.
Smith v. Vista Grande, Inc., Case No. B242332 (2d Dist., Div. 6 Dec. 31, 2013) (Unpublished) – Homeowners Association.
Lighting hot water heater in house at Kearney Mesa defense housing project. May 1941. Russell Lee, photographer. Library of Congress.
This one involved a 15-year feud about a hot water heater. (We are not kidding.) In essence, there were some mediation settlement agreements reached between the homeowners and housing co-op about the water heater in one housing coop unit, with homeowners accepting $50,000 in settlement at one point under a mediation settlement agreement. Homeowners kept quarreling after the fact, all to their detriment. Co-op finally won a contractual fee award of $75,046.53 under one of the settlement agreements, a determination affirmed on appeal. After all, homeowners got $50,000 in past, kept warring, and eventually got tagged for violating one of the mediation settlement agreements when co-op decided to draw the line/enforce it/had enough. The gift can’t just keep giving, under the circumstances . . . said the DCA, more eloquently than we.
Turner v. Layton, Case Nos. B241809/B246400 (2d Dist., Div. 6 Dec. 31, 2013) (Unpublished) — Arbitration.
In this one, defendant obtained a post-arbitration fees/costs award in a home remodel dispute. The fee/award costs broke down this way: $114,728.20 in fees and $89,902.99 in costs, all arising from a compensatory recovery of $20,833. (Yep, we think this is a correct compensatory tally, based on facts stated in the opinion.) The trial court even added on another $6,615 for post-arbitration confirmation fees. Well, all of this was sustained on appeal. Even though the appellate court agreed that an arbitrator cannot correct substantive errors on a reconsideration motion to the arbitrator (something we can debate upon, actually), there was no error because everyone acquiesced to the reconsideration so that it was invited error. Fee/costs awards affirmed.