Lemon Law Plaintiff Obtained Significantly Less Fees Based On Rejected Section 998 Defense Offer. On December 30, 2022, we posted on Chen v. BMW of North America, a Sixth District unpublished opinion in which a significantly reduced lemon law fees award to a plaintiff, who rejected a defense CCP § 998 offer, was found […]
The Claimed Fees Did Not Demonstrate That They Were For A “Common Benefit.” In partition actions, Code of Civil Procedure section 874.010 provides that the lower court in a partition action shall award attorney’s fees incurred or paid by a party if there was a common benefit to all the parties—it is not a
Plaintiffs Pled CC&Rs As A Basis For Nuisance Claim, So There Was Fee Entitlement Under Civil Code Section 1717, CCP Section 1021, And Civil Code Section 5975, With The Fee Award Being Reasonable After A Minor Haircut By The Trial Judge. Plaintiff homeowners sued neighboring homeowners in a tree obstruction action based on nuisance
Awards Of Probate Fees And Costs, Which Are Equitable In Nature, Are Hard To Overturn. In Healy v. Donnelly, Case Nos. G060968 et al. (4th Dist., Div. 3 Jan. 17, 2023) (unpublished), co-trustees got into various trust accounting disputes, eventually settling on the eve of trial and agreeing that the probate judge
Trial Court Denied Fee Motion, So It Was Remanded For A Rehearing To Fix Reasonable Fees. “Arising out of” language in a contractual fees clause can indeed give rise to fee exposure even where a prevailing party succeeded on a related statutory claim rather than a contract qua contract claim. Varney Entertainment Group, Inc.
Only One That We Could See. To keep readers posted on what is pending in the California Supreme Court as far as fee issues, we only found this pending matter as of year end 2022: Ramirez v. Charter Communications, Inc., S273802. (B309408; 75 Cal.App.5th 365; Los Angeles County Superior Court; 20STCV25987.) Petition for review
Prevailing Party Obtained No Fees For Property Rescission Work, But Did Obtain Partial Fees For Compensatory Damages/Offset Phase Of The Case. This case, Nosrati v. Gonzalez, Case No. B317588 (2d Dist., Div. 7 Jan. 13, 2023) (unpublished) shows how a trial judge can award a prevailing party in some phases of the litigation “prevailing
The Reason Was The Failure To Satisfy Whitley Financial Stake Aspect Of 1021.5. If you know our website, go to Leading Cases, and look under Whitley (No. 14). This is a key case for analyzing financial costs/benefits to satisfy one prong under California’s private attorney general statute (CCP § 1021.5). Although a plaintiff won in Kracke v. City of Santa
Shows How A Nicely Crafted 998 Offer Can Benefit A Defendant In A Lemon Law Case. In a December 13, 2022 post, we reviewed Smalley v. Subaru of America, Inc., a 4/3 DCA unpublished case at the time which showed how a defendant in a lemon law case crafted a nice CCP § 998 offer which
Other Interpretations Would Subvert The Remedial Purpose Of The Reimbursement Provisions. The California Voting Rights Act was passed by the state Legislature to address at-large elections tending to dilute the ability of minority groups to elect candidates (racial block voting), including provisions which allows a prospective plaintiff who gets an ordinance establishing district-based elections to
