Case Pitted Two Large Los Angeles County Law Firms Against Each Other.
Holy Cow, Batman!
Here is a wow POOF!—showing how substantial fee awards will evaporate upon a reversal of a judgment.
The case of Cussler v. Crusader Entertainment, LLC, Case Nos. B215815/B220761 (2d Dist., Div. 3 Sept. 8, 2010) (unpublished) pitted two sides with titan Los Angeles County law firms (Greenberg Glusker representing Clive Cussler and O’Melveny & Myers for Crusader Entertainment, LLC). After each side sued each other, the actions proceeded to a 14-week jury trial where most of the causes of action were rejected except that Crusader was awarded damages of $5 million for Cussler’s breach of the implied covenant of good faith and fair dealing. While an appeal was pending of that judgment, the trial court awarded Crusader $13,949,131 in initial fees and another $150,000 in fees for its post-judgment enforcement efforts. However, the Second District, Division 3 reversed the judgment, remanding it to the trial court to determine whether there was a prevailing party and if so, which one.
Appeals were taken of the two appeal orders, with Cussler filing a motion for summary reversal and request for restitution of $14,197,581 (an amount actually collected by Crusader pursuant to the initial fee order) while the appeals were pending. Crusader conceded that the fee orders should be vacated, but argued the appeals should be dismissed as moot rather than reversed.
The Second District, Division 3 decided summary reversal was appropriate. Although agreeing that it could have chosen to dismiss the appeals as moot (Kreutzer v. City and County of San Francisco, 166 Cal.App.4th 306, 312-313 n. 3 (2008)), the panel decided that a speedier determination through summary reversal was proper (Weinstat v. Dentsply Internat., Inc., 180 Cal.App.4th 1213, 1224 (2010)). The panel also provided guidance to the trial court, pointing out it needed to decide (1) if any side prevailed, (2) the amount of any fees to be awarded to the prevailing party, and (3) the amount of any restitution to be awarded to Cussler.
So, the fee awards went POOF!, leaving the titans to have more law and motion battles on the remand issues. There just might be another post on the ultimate decision given the hard fought nature of this litigation.