Discretionary Call on Prevailing Party Was Given Deference.
Wertheim, LLC v. Currency Corp., Case No. B218547 (2d Dist., Div. 1 May 22, 2012) (unpublished) was a loan dispute donnybrook with some wild assignment issues and the prevailing party basically winning the argument that lender charged more in interest and fees than was permitted by law. Plaintiff argued damages were $102,007, but the jury accepted the opponent’s argument that damages were only $38,554.48.
Then, we get to what we like to blog about: fee recovery. winner requested fees of $316,335, but was awarded fees of only $142,000.
Judgment affirmed on appeal, in a 3-0 decision authored by Justice Chaney. Even though winner only recovered a fraction of what it sought, it did achieve its litigation objective of winning the unlawful interest/fee argument. No abuse in awarding fees here–although we note the fee award was over 3 times the compensatory award.