$55,698 Fee Award Justified Based On Broad Fees Clause in Operating Agreement.
Fiscal Funding Co., Inc. v. Dones, Case No. A135451 (1st Dist., Div. 3 Dec. 15, 2014) (unpublished) involved a $55,698 fee award by the superior court to a party to an arbitration successfully defending an arbitrator’s disqualification order in superior court proceedings. (Ironically, after all the superior court proceedings were exhausted, the arbitration was suspended due to nonpayment of fees.) The losing party of both the superior court writ challenge to the arbitral disqualification order and fees award appealed, to no avail.
The appellate court agreed that the superior court lacked jurisdiction to review the arbitrator’s disqualification order, because it is not the type of interlocutory order subject to superior court review. No due process was violated, because the disqualification simply meant the losing party had to proceed with different representation. As far as the fee award was concerned, the parties’ Operating Agreement was broad—in the event of litigation or arbitration among the operating entity’s members, the prevailing party in such dispute was entitled to recover from the other party all reasonable fees, costs and expenses, including, without limitation, reasonable fees and expenses. A very broad fees clause, and one with sufficient breadth justifying fee entitlement in this particular instance.