Second District, Division 7 Affirms Award Under Civil Code Section 1354 Despite Plaintiffs’ Lack of Standing. Here is one with a twist: plaintiffs (who are the daughter and son-in-law of actual property owners) unsuccessfully sued a homeowners association (HOA) for, among other things, enforcement of the CC&Rs. The trial court ultimately concluded that plaintiffs […]
Recent Los Angeles Time Article Explores the Subject. Does a homeowner in a common interest residential subdivision project have the right to review attorney invoices for services rendered to a homeowners association? You betcha. Smith v. Laguna Sur Village Community Assn., 79 Cal.App.4th 641 (2000) so held. For a nice, short article
Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Does Require Better Fee Allocation through a Separate Motion. One of the nice things about blogging is that we do get interactive input from a variety of individuals. Bill Leys, The Deck Expert, who has a blog at Waterproofdeckcoatingadvice.com, liked one of our recent HOA blogs and, in turn,
Fourth District, Division 1 Expresses Displeasure That Inexpensive Forum Was Not Pursued. In our category “Cases: Homeowner Associations,” we have discussed cases where HOAs or homeowners prevailed (or neither side prevailed) in disputes involving proper interpretation of CC&Rs—usually involving maintenance, repair, or view protection disputes. Attorney’s fees are usually the ultimate battle, because they
Ruling Affirmed Where Homeowner Spent Fees of At Least $35,088.50 and HOA Spent At Least $92,335.25. In our category “Cases: Homeowner Associations,” we have examined numerous contests between homeowners and homeowner associations (HOA) in common interest developments where attorney’s fees are often the real battle because most CC&Rs and Civil Code section 1354 allow
Fees Properly Declined To Victorious Defendant Where One Suing Plaintiff Was Not A Legal Entity And The Other Plaintiff Was Not Sued Individually–First District, Division 5 Affirms Refusal To Award Fees in a Unique Case. In our category “Cases: Homeowner Associations,” we previously have canvassed decisions awarding attorney’s fees to either HOAs or homeowners
Part 2 of 2 – We Finish Off With The Last Five Cases And An “Honorable Mention” Oh, the suspense … and the ball has not yet dropped from above Times Square. You have to go to our prior post to see the first part of this list. Here is the rest of
Fourth District, Division Three Finds the Lack of Evidence to be Dispositive. If you are going to challenge a fee claim as being unreasonable or excessive in nature, you need to be prepared to present evidence to back up these arguments. The failure to do so will likely lead to affirmance of a fee
Fourth District, Division Three Reverses Wide-ranging Fee Award and Remands For Narrower Determination. We have seen the litigants in the next case before. (See our posts of June 2, 2008 and August 27, 2008, where the McMahons have suffered adverse fee awards and sanctions in a long-standing battle with a homeowners association.) Here,
First District, Division Four and Second District, Division Two Uphold Two Fee Awards in Favor of HOAs. One of the themes that emerges from our review of appellate decisions is how staggering and financially ruinous litigation can be if a litigant is on the short end of the “prevailing party” determination stick. Although sometimes
