Fourth District, Division 1 Also Finds Waiver Where Apportionment Argument Not Made in Trial Court. A short unpublished decision, K2 Construction, Inc. v. Anjani Investments, Inc., Case No. D053717 (4th Dist., Div. 1 June 15, 2009), stresses a couple of important principles that may be encountered when appealing a fee award. (Plaintiff won a […]
Illinois Sitting Judge Shadur Raises Alchemy Analogy in Court of Appeal Decision. Federal court costs are routinely rewarded to the prevailing party—especially the party winning a summary judgment motion or trial against a plaintiff. Even though this happened in the context of a summary judgment proceeding, the plaintiffs in the next case tried to
Fourth District, Division 1 Rejects “You Won One, I Won One” Scoreboard Approach to Section 1717. This next case shows that appellate courts do indeed apply a pragmatic test when deciding whether a “prevailing party” determination rightfully gauged who obtained greater relief for purposes of awarding attorney’s fees under Civil Code section 1717. (For
Fifth District Overturns Based on a Pragmatic Assessment of Litigation Results. Who says that appellate courts are not pragmatic in their assessment of who prevailed for purposes of awarding attorney’s fees? That is the law after all, and the next case is an illustration of where a cause was reversed because neither side prevailed
Result Was An Adverse Fee/Cost Award of Over $275,000 In Gupta v. Shue, Case No. B198449 (Apr. 30, 2009) (unpublished), both sides engaged in bitter, protracted litigation over whether each received, by assignment, a general partnership interest in a real estate limited partnership—with the limited partnership caught in the middle of the litigation. After
Second District Panel Splits 2-1 on Whether Contractual Clause Allowed for Fee Recovery From Post-Arbitration Judicial Proceeding Win Before the “Dispute” Was Finally Resolved. The next case illustrates how even appellate jurists will come to different conclusions when construing a contractual fees clause where the matter is one for de novo review based on
Second District, Division 7 Remands for Further Fee Proceedings. City of Los Angeles won attorney’s fees against a replacement contractor selected by a bonding surety, where surety and replacement contractor entered into contractual agreements incorporating original agreements between City and the replaced contractor. Replacement contractor lost in the construction litigation, with the trial court
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
Owners Did Not Prevail Because Contractor Withdrew Cross-Claim During Deposition and Never Pursued Recovery Under It. Courts like to encourage narrowing of disputes by litigants. The next case illustrates how a non-prevailing contractor avoided attorney’s fees exposure under Civil Code section 3260(g), which authorizes fees/costs to the prevailing party involving a claim that
Who Says David Letterman Has The Only Good “Top Ten List”? Part 1 of 2: Five of the Top Ten Decisions We may not have the panache of David Lettermen, but we do offer our “Top Ten List” of 2008 attorney’s fees decisions although we have no guest star to count them off!
