Both Sides Appealed, But No Difference.
In Kirk v. First American Title Co., Case No. B257508 (2d Dist., Div. 5 June 22, 2016) (unpublished), plaintiff class representative lost a majority of claims involving title charges, but did win one Insurance Code violation. The lower court awarded costs to plaintiff under the routine costs discretionary provision, Code of Civil Procedure section 1032(a)(4), but only gave plaintiff 25% of costs. Both sides appealed to no avail.
As far as plaintiff’s claims to mandatory costs for all subclass members, this did not go very far given that absent class members are not technically parties to the action.
Then, with respect to a discretionary award of costs, the record showed that representative plaintiff only obtained success on behalf of 19% of the subclass as far as the one “win,” such that the 25% apportionment was no abuse of discretion.