The Basis For Affirmance: Fee Was Too Big A Bite.
In Purifoy v. Howell, Case No. A144262 (1st Dist., Div. 3 Dec. 18, 2017) (unpublished), plaintiffs’ law firm appealed a $428,142.50 fee award under CCP § 1021.5. Plaintiffs had won a dog impoundment issue where Saturday should not have been counted as a business day for minimum holding periods. (The dog had been taken away by a new owner.) After a remand of a prior order in which the appellate court found all of the section 1021.5 elements had been met, the next battle focused on the reasonable amount of fees to be awarded, with Plaintiffs seeking an aggregate request of $864,340 – $1,527,168, inclusive of positive multipliers. Not happy with the lower fee award, Plaintiffs’ attorneys as intervenors appealed.
The fee award was affirmed. The primary reason was that the request was excessive, allowing the trial judge to deny or drastically reduce the request. Although the Saturday business issue resulted in a prior published decision, it was not that complex of a statutory interpretation issue, the requested hourly rates were found too high for Contra Costa County, and proper lodestar calculation methodology was followed.
NOTE: The appellate opinion does not discuss how Duke the dog felt about the change of owners.