Appellate Court Finds Statutory Mandate is Clear.
This one shows how appellate court will enforce statutes as written.
The Mobilehome Residency Law has an attorney’s fees and costs provision in Civil Code section 798.85, which requires an award of fees and costs to a prevailing party–with prevailing party defined as one who obtains a favorable judgment or where the litigation favorably dismissed prior to or during trial.
Above: Elderly couple and their automobile “home.” c1911.
What happened in Lee v. Carroll, Case No. C065364 (3d Dist. July 28, 2011) (unpublished) was this: plaintiffs brought an action to force some residents to de-amp their residential units, with defendant residents bring cross-claims. After the cross-claims were lost by two residents, plaintiff dismissed the primary complaint (feeling there was nothing left to litigate). Mistake.
The trial court awarded the two residents fees of $16,583 (out of a requested $80,185) based on section 798.85.
The appellate court affirmed. The dismissal did fall within the fee-shifting statute. Besides that, even in the routine costs context, a defendant is still the prevailing party even in a situation where plaintiff loses on the complaint and defendant loses on the cross-complaint.
