Fifth District Finds One Argument Out of Three Contentions Was Not Frivolous. In our July 15, 2008 post, we reviewed Patel v. Sagar, a case involving an appeal from a contractual arbitration award. We summarized the principles from Moncharsh v. Heily & Blase, 3 Cal.4th 1 (1992) according arbitral finality to […]
Second District Reverses Awarding Almost $100,000 To One Partner’s Attorney Where Action At Issue Did Not Involve a Fee Award Against Other Partners. In a rather complicated set of facts, certain partners sued other partners in an oral partnership involving a property and business. Plaintiffs won their oral partnership claims, with
First District, Division Three Affirms Large Fee Award and Adds Costs on Appeal in Favor of Contractor. Fee shifting statutes can have disastrous consequences, shifting the risk allocation in dramatic fashion such that fees get awarded to a winning party even though they dwarf the amount at issue in the underlying
Ninth Circuit Affirms Jury Verdict By Former L.A. Police Officers Against City of Los Angeles and Chief Parks. Three police officers brought federal civil rights claims against Los Angeles governmental entities and officials, arising from prosecutions and acquittals of criminal charges connected with the Rampart scandal. After certain defendants were dismissed
Fourth District, Division Three Remands to Lower Court For Award of Sanctions under Section 271. We reviewed the fee shifting provision in Family Code section 271—which is considered to be akin to a sanction—in our July 7, 2008 post discussion of In re Marriage of MacIntyre and in our July 8,
Second District Affirms Large Fee Award Based on Indemnification Clause in the Parties’ Banking Account Agreement. In our July 12, 2008 post, we discussed what type of indemnification clauses can give rise to attorney’s fees exposure, with the upshot being that the answer depends on the specific wording of the clause
Second District, Division Eight So Holds In Unpublished Decision Showing the Deference Given to Arbitral Decisions. Any practitioner dealing with binding contractual arbitration will have read, many times we believe, the California Supreme Court’s decision in Moncharsh v. Heily & Blase, 3 Cal.4th 1 (1992). Moncharsh gave broad deference to arbitration
Second District Affirms Trial Court’s Decision to Decline Awarding Fees to a Prevailing Anti-SLAPP Plaintiff. Under Code of Civil Procedure section 425.16(c), a prevailing anti-SLAPP defendant is entitled to mandatory fee recovery for winning a special motion to strike. However, the same subsection provides that a prevailing anti-SLAPP plaintiff only obtains
Fourth District, Division Two Adopts Discretionary Factor Test Set Forth In Mann. Patent litigation, which is likely a battle for well-heeled litigants, frequently spawns satellite litigation after someone prevails in federal court. That is exactly what happened in the next case, where the predominant victor then sued for abuse of process
Court of Appeal Sets Forth Factors to Be Weighed Under Family Code sections 2030 and 2032. In In re Marriage of Kline Jr., Case No. D051137 (4th Dist., Div. 1 July 11, 2008) (unpublished), a panel of the San Diego-based appellate court reviewed the principles governing discretionary award of attorney’s fees
