Questionable Billing Practices, Amount At Stake, And Relative Success Of Both Parties Justified Awarding Less Than 10% Of Fee Request.
Tenant won a utility cap lease dispute with landlord in a case involving both a complaint and cross-claims, with the trial judge eventually awarding tenant $27,919.11 who also lost on other claims. Tenant requested attorney’s fees based on a $150,000 lodestar but the trial judge awarded only $10,000 after observing that there were questionable billing practices by the prevailing party’s attorneys, only about $25,000 in claims were involved on both sides, tenant was unsuccessful on some claims, and there were contentious skirmishes of an unreasonable nature.
The fee award was affirmed by the Third District in Morpheus Technologies v. Sperber, Case No. C075874 (3d Dist. Oct. 31, 2017) (unpublished). The trial judge’s reasons for awarding less than 10% of the request were sustainable, with the record failing to show that the lower court intended to punish the prevailing party—which failed to hurdle the abuse-of-discretion for review of fee award reasonableness.