Costs, Employment, Prevailing Party: $3,881.39 In Routine Costs, Out Of A Requested $38,813.96, To A Prevailing Wage Claim Plaintiff Was No Abuse Of Discretion

Reason Was That Plaintiff Only Had Limited Success, So No Abuse Of Discretion In The Reduction By The Lower Court.

            So, a plaintiff prevails on a wage/hour claim for unpaid wages under Labor Code section 218.5, but only gets a minimal award which was limited success when other claims are considered?  Does that plaintiff get full requested costs as the prevailing party?  Answer:  Of course not, not automatically.

            Pak v. Joo, Case Nos. G055470/G055978 (4^th Dist., Div. 3 Mar. 11, 2020) (unpublished) illustrates this point well.

            There, plaintiff appealed from a 10% routine costs award of $3,881.39 out of a requested $38,813.96, when she recovered only $12,500 on a Labor Code section 218.5 unpaid wage claim in a lawsuit seeking much, much more.  That award was affirmed on appeal.  Plaintiff only obtained limited success of her litigation objectives as a whole, such that the trial judge had discretion to reduce prevailing party routine costs based on this end result.  (Sharif v. Mehusa, Inc., 241 Cal.App.4^th 185, 192, 195 (2015).).