Here, Oral Findings Showed Court Justified Awarding Fees to the Defense.
Plaintiff, an American Indian, brought a FEHA/breach of contract/breach of implied covenant case against Stanford University, being nonsuited on the FEHA count (after the trial judge found he only had his own subjective opinion that racial discrimination occurred) and suffering an adverse jury verdict on the other claims “in less than 15 minutes” of deliberations. Stanford then moved to recoup over $235,000 in defense fees under FEHA fee-shifting principles that allow a plaintiff to be exposed to fees if the lawsuit was unreasonable, frivolous, meritless, or vexatious. At the fee hearing, the lower court made oral findings to support the award, even though the Second District in Rosenman v. Christensen, Miller etc., 91 Cal.App.4th 859 had indicated the findings needed to be in writing. The lower court awarded Stanford $100,000 in fees after apportioning out time on the non-compensable contract-based claims.
Plaintiff was unsuccessful in his appeal of the fee award in Robert v. Stanford University, Case No. H037514 (6th Dist. Feb. 25, 2014) (published).
Although seeing no need to depart from the salutary nature of Rosenman’s written finding requirement, the Sixth District did not believe the lack of written findings must lead to an automatic reversal. Rather, there must be a showing of prejudice which was absent in this case: the oral findings at the hearing did support the award, including a record demonstrating the lower court did consider plaintiff’s ability to pay.