$125,000 Fee Award Sustained on Appeal.
Although FEHA fee awards are not that common against plaintiffs, they will be assessed and affirmed on appeal under the right circumstances.
Fair Housing Council, San Fernando Valley v. Voleti Properties, Case Nos. B201263 & B202918 (2d Dist., Div. 7 Jan. 21, 2009) (unpublished) is just such a case.
There, plaintiffs—a nonprofit organization and an adult African American—sued defendants under FEHA for discriminatory housing practices in connection with a Van Nuys apartment. The main problem for plaintiffs is that they prosecuted a case where the nonprofit organization’s testers gave discrepant information to the trial court, only after the information had to be judicially compelled for production to the defense. The trial court granted judgment for the defendants under Code of Civil Procedure section 631.8. Subsequently, it assessed an award of $125,000 in attorney’s fees and $10,105.73 in costs against plaintiffs based on the perception that the case was unreasonable, frivolous, and meritless in nature.
Nonprofit organization appealed and lost. Appellants failed to present an adequate record for review and showed no prejudicial error. Respondents did provide the fee hearing transcript so as to demonstrate there was no basis for reversal. The testers’ discrepancies alone seemed to carry the day with respect to sustaining the result.
BLOG APPELLATE POINTER—If you are the respondent and the transcripts of lower court proceedings aid your cause, do not hesitate to request augmentation so that they can be considered. Respondents did it in this case, and it assisted their efforts in supporting the trial court’s determinations.
Left: San Fernando Valley rural rehabilitation client. Chicken farmer making good on rural resettlement loan. He sells one case of eggs a day. Right: San Fernando Valley federal subsistence homesteads. February, 1936. Photographer: Dorothea Lange. Library of Congress.