Plaintiffs Had Financial Incentive Aplenty In Challenging Contemporaneous Source Document Rule.
Plaintiffs, school districts and community colleges, successfully challenged the “contemporaneous source document rule” (guidelines used to audit employee salary and benefit costs in reimbursement claims) as an invalid regulation under the state Administrative Procedure Act.
Plaintiffs then moved for an award of $235,000 in fees under the private attorney general statute in Clovis Unified School Dist. v. Chang, as State Controller, Case No. C068907 (3d Dist. Nov. 20, 2012) (unpublished). Both the trial and appellate courts said “no,” finding plaintiffs did not meet the financial burden element of the statute.
The estimate value of the case (plaintiffs sought $18 million and ended up with a reimbursement award of just over $4.1 million) way exceeded the substantial margin of plaintiffs’ costs, “no matter how one slices it.” So, the financial burden of the litigation was not out of proportion to plaintiffs’ stake in the manner.