First District, Division 5 So Holds in Unpublished Decision.
Plaintiff had his malicious prosecution action stricken through a SLAPP motion, a ruling that was appealed. After obtaining a dismissal of the appeal because it was untimely filed, defendants filed a motion to obtain appellate fees for successfully defending the SLAPP ruling on appeal. (Earlier, the defense motion for trial court SLAPP fees was denied, because it was untimely filed.) The trial court awarded $48,000 in attorney’s fees out of a requested $52,669 to defendants. Plaintiff appealed on numerous grounds, but primarily contended that defendants were not entitled to appellate fees for upholding the SLAPP ruling.
Not so, said the appellate panel in Laiwala v. Hyundai Electronics America, Case No. A123514 (1st Dist., Div. 5 Sept. 22, 2009) (unpublished). “For over a decade, California courts have consistently held that the fee-shifting provision of section 425.16, subdivision (c) applies to attorney fees incurred on appeal by a prevailing defendant-respondent.” (Slip Opn., p. 5, citing Paulus v. Bob Lynch Ford, Inc., 139 Cal.App.4th 659, 686 (2006); Wilkerson v. Sullivan, 99 Cal.App.4th 443, 448 (2002).) The Court of Appeal followed this line of authority allowing recovery of SLAPP appellate fees.
The equities also figured into the result here. The appellate panel did not feel plaintiff was a victim; after all, he had dodged a bullet when defendants failed to timely seek SLAPP trial fees and invited his own problems by failing to timely appeal the SLAPP dismissal order.