Trial Court’s Discretionary Decision Of No Prevailing Party Affirmed On Appeal.
Under Civil Code section 1717, a trial judge has wide discretion to deny attorney’s fees where there are no clear, unqualified winning litigants such that the results are “mixed.” Even where a party is ostensibly the prevailing party, the trial judge can still deny fees based on a variety of equitable considerations. (Hsu v. Abbara, 9 Cal.4th 863, 871, 874-875 (1995) [our Leading Case No. 2].)
In Nasar Enterprises, Inc. v. BP West Coast Products LLC, Case Nos. B269096/B269104/B276380 (2d Dist., Div. 4 May 2, 2018) (unpublished), no litigant clearly
won—the defense won on breach of contract/implied covenant claims, plaintiffs won on an implied warranty of merchantability claim with positive damages recovery, and BP West Coast Products won on a breach of contract claim against one plaintiff who still had a positive recovery after offsetting BP’s damages when two separate actions were consolidated together. The trial judge determined no one prevailed, denying section 1717 fees
The appellate court affirmed. The results were mixed, and the trial court did not have to designate one party securing relatively more relief as the prevailing party because no unqualified victory was had.