Cases: Prevailing Party – Page 40

Section 1717 and Prevailing Parties: Fourth District, Division One, Rules that Civil Code Section 1717’s Prevailing Party Standard, Mutuality Principle, and Reasonable Fees Standard Apply to an Attorney’s Fees Provision in a Consent Decree

April 6, 2011

Order Granting the People $707,882.50 in Attorney Fees and Costs of $32,673 Goes Up in Smoke, But Not to Worry, Parties Will Get to Light Up Again in Trial Court In this appeal, R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Company challenged an order awarding attorney fees to the People for enforcing a Consent Decree banning participating tobacco […]

Prevailing Party/Section 998: Fourth District, Division 3 Unpublished Opinion Explores Nuances In Scope of 998 Offers And Prevailing Party Status When No Monetary Relief Obtained After Factoring of Prior Credits

Cases: Prevailing Party, Cases: Section 998

March 31, 2011

L.A. County Gets Nada Monetary Relief After Credits, And Is Stung By Affirmance of 998 Offers by Insurers Costing It $5.9 Million. The next one is the apparent conclusion of what our local Santa Ana appellate court analogized as being “easily the 14 Years War of civil litigation in Orange County” between Los

Appealability/Costs/Prevailing Party: Fourth District, Division 2 Faces Wild Decision With A Wide Variety of Appeability, Costs, and Fee Issues

Cases: Costs, Cases: Prevailing Party

March 25, 2011

Published Part of Decision Holds That Order Taxing Costs Allowable After An Appeal Awards Costs Is Itself an Appealable Order. Krikorian Premier Theatres, LLC v. Westminster Central, LLC, Case Nos. E047523/E049537 (4th Dist., Div. 2 Mar. 24, 2011) (certified for partial publication) is a wild decision in that a prior appellate reversal completely

Prevailing Party/Section 998/Section 1717: Defendant Prevailed Under Section 1717 Because Earlier Appellate Court Decision Found Reversal And No Need For Retrial

Cases: Prevailing Party, Cases: Section 1717, Cases: Section 998

March 25, 2011

Plaintiff’s Voluntary Dismissal Without Effect; Offset for Prior Settlements Meant No Change in Result Due to Her Prior 998 Offer. A trifecta of issues was considered by the appellate court in Goldstein v. Williams, Case No. D057826 (Mar. 24, 2011) (unpublished). In this one, plaintiff sued for breach of contract and in

Prevailing Party/Section 1717: Court’s OSC Dismissal of Entire Action, Both Complaint And Cross-Complaint, Meant No Contractual Fees Were Recoverable

Cases: Prevailing Party, Cases: Section 1717

March 24, 2011

. . . However, Remand For Fee Recovery Evaluation on Dismissed Tort Claim. For you folks entertaining voluntarily dismissals of actions, must reading in this area–if you are bothered about attorney’s fees exposure–is our state supreme court’s decision in Santisas v. Goodin, 17 Cal.4th 599, 602, 607-608 (1998) [one of our Leading Cases]. We

Homeowner Associations/Prevailing Party: HOA Was Not Liable For Fees And Costs When It Obtained Injunctive Relief Before Dismissing Its Complaint Voluntarily

Cases: Homeowner Associations, Cases: Prevailing Party

March 24, 2011

Defendant Not Entitled to Fees Where Contractually-Based Complaint Voluntarily Dismissed And Not Entitled to Costs Under Discretionary Prevailing Party Provision. Homeowner association (HOA)/homeowner disputes have resulted in us doing a fair amount of posts under our category “Homeowner Associations.” Here is one more to add to the list, with a homeowner seeking $64,572.84

Costs/Prevailing Party: Trial Court’s Dismissal Of Case Based On Worker’s Compensation Exclusivity Defense Did Not Deprive It Of Jurisdiction To Award Costs To Prevailing Party

Cases: Costs, Cases: Prevailing Party, Cases: Workers' Compensation

March 18, 2011

Fifth District So Decides, But Lays Down No Absolute Rule On Subject Matter Jurisdiction Issue. Brown v. Desert Christian Center, Case No. F060139 (5th Dist. Mar. 17, 2011) (certified for publication) involved a personal injury that was dismissed on the jurisdictional defense that the involved injuries were within the exclusive province of the worker’s

Prevailing Party: Sonoma Risk’s Contract Litigation Insurance Catching On

Cases: Insurance, Cases: Prevailing Party

March 8, 2011

Increased Attention in the Legal Community; Co-Contributor Marc Quoted in California Lawyer; Co-Contributor Mike To Speak At July 8 Century City Panel. In our August 3 and 6, 2010 posts, we discussed contract litigation insurance (CLI), a product being offered by Sonoma Risk Insurance Agency. We described the coverage in depth in those

Prevailing Party: $60,675.10 Fee Award Is Reversed For Failure To Apply Correct Legal Standard

Cases: Prevailing Party

February 10, 2011

Trial Court Found Prevailing Party Based On Costs Recovery Standard, One That Diverges From the Apt One for Fee Award. The next decision illustrates an important distinction often times glossed over or mistakenly ignored with respect to a determination of the prevailing party. The distinction is this: there is a difference between prevailing party

Prevailing Party: Attorney’s Fees Motion Properly Denied Where Moving Party Could Not Point To Contract For Fee Entitlement

Cases: Prevailing Party

January 24, 2011

Lack of Signatory Status in Moving Documents Was Dispositive. One of the ABC’s in moving for fee entitlement is to show a contract or statute forming a predicate basis for a fee motion. Without it, a litigant is generally left with the American Rule, which does not allow a party to recover for fees.