A $119,010 Fee Award Under An Amended Judgment Went POOF! Just to show you how the sequence of events can play a big part on appeal, we explain what happened in Kling v. Horn, Case No. B310164 (2d Dist., Div. 7 June 8, 2022) (unpublished). An original judgment in a matter stated that […]
“Law Of The Case” Doctrine Applied With Respect To Validity Of Prior Judgment. In Hume v. Hume, Case No. A161616 (1st Dist., Div. 3 June 8, 2022) (unpublished), appellant tried to argue that a judgment was void even though, if it was valid, the judgment gave rise to fee exposure. The trial court did
Prevailing Party Can Only Be Determined After A Trial On The Merits. In Senn v. Smith, Case No. 21-35293 (9th Cir. June 8, 2022) (published), plaintiff brought an excessive force 42 U.S.C. § 1983 claim against certain defendants, obtaining a denial of the defense motion for qualified immunity—a determination affirmed on appeal. Plaintiff moved
Decisions Show That Notice Of Entry Document Service Or File Stamped Order Service Will Trigger The 60 Days Appeal Deadline Time Period For Civil Unlimited Cases. This next case is a deadline warning for practitioners whose clients want to appeal a fee ruling, even one where the client is claiming the fees were not
And, At That, It Was 30% Less Than the HOA Request For Award Of Fees! If you visit our “Homeowner Associations” category, you can see a vast array of awards both in favor of homeowners and in favor of homeowner associations (HOAs). We will just say this, the trial court decisions on who gets
Lower Court Retains Lots Of Discretion To Apportion Fees in Partition Action. DeMartini v. DeMartini, Case No. A160849 (1st Dist., Div. 1 June 7, 2022) (unpublished) is a reminder that the partition statutes allow a trial judge broad authority to award and apportion fees to parties in a partition action. In this one, the
Trial Court Applied The Incorrect Legal Standard In Determining Causal Link For Defendant Providing The Primary Relief Sought By Plaintiffs When It Denied Plaintiffs’ Request For Fees Under Code Civ. Proc., § 1021.5 Based On The Catalyst Theory. We discussed Dept. of Water Resources Environmental Impact Cases, Case No. C091771 (3d Dist., May 11,
Section 2030 Needs-Based Trial and Appellate Fees Denied To Husband. On May 7, 2022, we posted on the then unpublished decision of Marriage of Nakamoto and Hsu, Case No. G059102 (4th Dist., Div. 3 May 4, 2022). It decided to deny some further section 2020 trial fees and appellate fees to husband for overlitigating
Section 1717 Does Not Mandate That The Alleged Contract Be Entered Into Evidence. Civil Code section 1717 is a fee shifting statute that renders unilateral fee clauses bilateral under its mutuality-based principles. This statute likely has the most jurisprudence of any fee shifting statute in California published and unpublished decisions. It applies where a
Even Though Plaintiff Principally Brought The Case Based On Greed/Anger, Objective Factors Showed The Denied Commission Calculation Was Complex Such That No Frivolity Was Involved. We have discussed this issue in the past—Labor Code section 218.5 wage/hour cases allow fees to prevailing plaintiffs liberally, but only allow prevailing defendants to recover if a case
