$305,000 Fee Award Sustained For Violation Even Though No Damages Awarded.
Anderson v. AG Seal Beach, Case No. B228683 (2d Dist., Div. 7 Dec. 14, 2011) (unpublished) is a case where a successor won a $171,000 jury verdict for her mother’s alleged skilled nursing home injuries, even though the jury did not enter any specified damages but did determine that defendant violated California’s Patient Bill of Rights by apparently failing to provide mother with requisite personal hygiene and to prevent bedsores. Subsequently, the lower court granted mother’s successor attorney’s fees of $305,000 under the Patient Bill of Rights fee-shifting provision (Health & Safety Code section 1430(b)), even though the fee request was much more–about $600,000 in fees.
Defendant appealed the fee award, but was rebuffed in its bid to overturn the award.
Section 1430(b) is a mandatory fee-shifting statute, only requiring a violation. So, the failure of the jury to award a specific monetary amount was not fatal as long as a violation was found (as the jury did in a special verdict). Defendant argued that the work should have been apportioned between the section 1430 claim and other negligence, elder abuse, and wrongful death claims. However, there was a lot of factual overlap such that the claims were intertwined,
not requiring any allocation. Finally, the $450 hourly rate for lead trial counsel and $275 hourly rate for an associate were reasonable for the L.A. venue where the trial occurred.