Also, Fee Expenditure Was Not Disproportionate to Claimed Damages.
We have another case to add to our category “Private Attorney General Statute.” Here, the lack of benefit to a larger class of persons and failure to show disproportionate fee expenditures meant that fees were properly not awarded under Code of Civil Procedure section 1021.5.
In New West Charter Middle School v. L.A. Unified School Dist., Case No. B215777 (2d Dist., Div. 3 Aug. 19, 2010) (certified for publication), New West obtained writ relief requiring LAUSD to provide facilities to charter school in-district students on an equivalent basis, but only with respect to New West and LAUSD’s withdrawal of a specific offer for co-location to Fairfax High School. New West was awarded $175,630.32 in damages following writ noncompliance. However, the trial judge denied New West requested fees of $226,000 under the private attorney general statute, primarily on the basis that New West’s victory did not provide significant benefit to a large class of individuals.
New West’s appeal of the fee denial did not result in any change.
The fee denial was affirmed, whether a de novo or abuse of discretion standard was used, because the benefit below was to New West alone. According to the appellate panel, this was not a “test case” on the school district’s obligations to in-district students. Beyond that, the financial burden of the litigation was not disproportionate, given the comparison between fees of $226,000 to New West’s claim seeking $1 million in actual damages. (This conclusion may have been driven by the appellate court’s observation, in a footnote, that New West did not incur any fees because its counsel’s prosecution of the case was undertaken under a contingency agreement.)