Cases: Homeowner Associations

Homeowners Associations And Section 1717: Homeowner Demonstrating Inapplicability of CC&Rs Entitled To Fee Award Under Civil Code Section 1717

Cases: Homeowner Associations, Cases: Section 1717

Reciprocity Principle Underlying Section 1717 Required Reversal of Fee Denial.      Here is a decision emphasizing that Civil Code section 1717 reciprocity principles will prevail, even where a successful litigant shows that the contract (in this case, CC&Rs) was inapplicable. The fees clause had to be construed as mutual in nature. The lower court did […]

Undertaking: Court Of Appeal Holds That A Judgment Solely for Costs and Attorney’s Fees In HOA Dispute Is Automatically Stayed By Appeal, Without The Need For A Bond

Cases: Homeowner Associations, Cases: Standard of Review, Cases: Undertaking

Fourth District, Div. 1 Concludes That Not All Attorney’s Fee Awards Are Equal For Purposes Of Automatic Stay On Appeal.      In the next case, the Court of Appeal has gifted us with a 47 page opinion arising from the fact that homeowners in a condominium association installed two sandstone-colored windows, rather than two dark-brown

Civil Code Section 1717: Easement Dispute Did Invoke Fee Clause In Trust Agreement Between Parties

Cases: Homeowner Associations, Cases: Section 1717

  Third District Reverses Denial of Fee to Prevailing Party.      Ghandour v. Tahoe Sands Time Share Owners Association, Case No. C056395 (3d Dist. July 1, 2010) (unpublished) involved a trial court’s grant of a permanent injunction to plaintiff as against a defendant time share owners association, with the injunction prohibiting association from blocking her

Homeowners Associations: Justice Fybel Provides A Great Quote Regarding Fees Often Times Spent By Both Sides In These Disputes

Cases: Homeowner Associations

Quote Comes from 2002 Unpublished Opinion.      We would like to thank Justice Richard Fybel of the Fourth District, Division 3 for a great quote from a prior unpublished opinion involving a homeowner association-property owner dispute.      In Niguel Shores Community Association v. Buehler, 2002 WL 31121089 (4th Dist., Div. 3 Sept. 25, 2002), both

Homeowner Associations: Trial Court’s Denial Of Separate Fee Requests For Prevailing In Homeowner Dispute Was Erroneous

Cases: Allocation, Cases: Homeowner Associations

Lower Court Erred in Failing to Find Fee Entitlement, to Determine Prevailing Party Status, or to Make Any Apportionments in Summarily Denying Diverse Defense Fee Requests.      Trial courts do have a duty to examine fee entitlement, to determine prevailing party status, and to make any apportionments when examining diverse fee requests by different defendants.

Homeowner Associations: $783,944 Awarded to L.A. County As Winner In Public Hiking/Equestrian Trail CC&R Contest With HOA

Cases: Homeowner Associations, Cases: Lodestar

CC&R Count Justified Fees to County.      We have told you before that HOA contests can be expensive. Yes, they can. Many times, very expensive for the losing HOA, which likely will have to pass losing fees through to homeowners via special assessments or other insolvency options.      In County of Los Angeles v. La

Homeowners Association Awards: Homeowner’s Success In Obtaining Permanent Injunction And Limited Restitution Entitled Him To Routine Costs Award Against HOA

Cases: Homeowner Associations

  Trial Court Properly Denied Fee to Either Side, Says Court of Appeal.      Don’t assume that the prevailing party determination for an award of routine costs and attorney’s fees under Civil Code section 1717/fee-shifting statutes is the same. They do differ, as the next case demonstrates.      In Duclos v. Marina Pacifica Homeowners Assn.,

Homeowner Associations: Occupants Agreeing To Deal With HOA Directly Stung With Substantial Fee Award For Losing CC&R Violation Dispute

Cases: Homeowner Associations

  $88,671 Fee Award Entered Against Both Property Owners and Occupants.      Losing HOA disputes can be costly for homeowners, because Civil Code section 1354 has a mandatory fee-shifting directive in favor of a prevailing party successfully enforcing CC&Rs. It can also extend to non-owner occupants, as the litigants in the next case learned.     

Homeowners Associations: Substantial Attorney’s Fees Awards In Favor Of Adjoining Neighbors and HOA Sustained On Appeal

Cases: Homeowner Associations, Cases: Standard of Review, Cases: Substantiation of Reasonableness of Fees

Almost $500,000 in Total Fees Assessed Against Losing Homeowners.      For all you Olympic watchers out there, this next case will resonate the famous “agony of defeat” line from ABC’s Wide World of Sports.      In Sharp v. Anderson, Case No. B212528 (2d Dist., Div. 1 Feb. 18, 2010) (unpublished), plaintiff neighboring real property owners

Homeowner Associations: Interveners In CC&R Interpretive Dispute Are Entitled To Fee Recovery As Prevailing Parties Under Civil Code Section 1354

Cases: Homeowner Associations

  Fourth District, Division 3 Finds No Contractual Basis For Award, But Does Find a Statutory Basis.      In an interesting first impression issue, the Fourth District, Division 3—in Renezeder v. Emerald Bay Community Assn., Case Nos. G040657 & G041353 (4th Dist., Div. 3 Feb. 8, 2010) (unpublished)—determined that winning interveners in a CC&R dispute

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