Lower Court Did Reduce The Fee Request About $121,000 In Fashioning Its Award.
We have a category “Trade Secrets” describing some fairly hefty fee “sanctions” awards under Civil Code section 3426.4, part of the California’s Uniform Trade Secrets Act. To this list can be added the award in SASCO v. CSI Electrical Contractors, Inc., Case No. B322686 (2d Dist., Div. 4 Dec. 19, 2022) (unpublished).
There, a lower court awarded the defense $299,647.50 in attorney’s fees under section 3426.4 after plaintiff lost a trade secrets misappropriation case which the trial judge found to be frivolous, although the fee request was reduced by about $121,000. On appeal, plaintiff did not contest that the action was objectively specious, but it argued that there was no required subjective bad faith. The appellate court disagreed based on plaintiff losing other cases against former employees and refusing to comply with discovery orders. No allocation was required between trade secrets and other claims, because they were inter-related.