Appellate Court Found Trial Court Did Not Abuse Discretion in Awarding Fee Award 600 Times the Damages Award.
Government Code section 12965(b) is a special fee-shifting provision which especially allows attorney’s fees and costs to be awarded to winning FEHA plaintiffs. Strict proportionality is not necessary between damages and fees awarded, with the lower court possessing a lot of discretion even where a case falls far short of the $25,000 unlimited civil jurisdictional threshold. The next opinion illustrates this in dramatic fashion.
A FEHA plaintiff proved a sexual harassment case against an employer based on his female supervisor’s sexually-charged emails. After a 13 days trial, the jury awarded plaintiff $550.00. Subsequently, the trial judge awarded plaintiff $349,313.79 in fees (with plaintiff requesting only 75% of the actual lodestar work) and $11,952.94 (after plaintiff stipulated to a small costs reduction). Shocked by this 600 times damages fee award, defendant employer appealed.
The appellate court affirmed in Froncillo v. Contemporary Services Corp., Case Nos. A133482/A133613 (2d Dist., Div. 5 Aug. 28, 2013) (unpublished).
The defense argument that the trial court could award no fees because plaintiff’s unlimited civil case only resulted in a $550 award was rejected. Chavez v. City of Los Angeles, 47 Cal.4th 970 (2010) held the trial judge has discretion in these instances.
After all, plaintiff did prevail after a lengthy trial and almost obtained punitive damages, so the lower court did not abuse its discretion in awarding fees to plaintiff despite the relatively small verdict award.
Defendant was also appalled by the fact the fee award was 600 times the damages award. In response, the reviewing court observed that strict proportionality is not required in the FEHA (as well as other areas of the law), citing a Second District case where a fee award which was 90,000 times the damages award was sustained on appeal. (Cf. Heritage Pacific Financial, LLC v. Monroy, 215 Cal.App.4th 972, 987 (2013) [fees/costs of nearly $90,000, 90,000 times the $1 damages award, justified under the Fair Debt Collection Practice Act].)