Procedural And Excessiveness Challenges Not Successful On Appeal.
Litigants and practitioners are reminded that mandatory SLAPP fees, if granted to a true prevailing defendant, are hard to overturn as to amount where the record is clear that the defendants were true prevailing parties in entirety.
That was the case in Homeport Insurance v. Weltin, et al., Case No. A173086 (1st Dist., Div. 4 Feb. 11, 2026) (unpublished). However, the SLAPP fees motion was contested, with the lower court basically awarding half of the request–$53,000—largely crediting plaintiff’s expert on some reductions. Plaintiff appealed, but to no avail. It raised an argument we have seen many times before, which lacks merit: a trial court does not lose jurisdiction to entertain a SLAPP fee motion while the merits motion grant is on appeal. (Carpenter v. Jack in the Box Corp., 151 Cal.App.4th 454, 461 (2007).) Because defendants achieved complete success on the SLAPP motion, there was no reason for a further reduction. The “haircut” by the lower court showed judgment was exercised in awarding the amount of fees to the defense. Finally, the challenge to the costs award was forfeited, because plaintiff did not challenge them below. Also, the appellate court remanded the case to determine if fees on appeal should be awarded to the defense.