Missing: Causal Link “Based Upon” Statutory Language of CCP
1021.4
Automobile Wreck of 1910. Puck. Library of Congress.
Corenbaum v. Lampkin, Case Nos. B236227/B237871 (2d Dist., Div. 3 Apr. 30, 2013) (published) dealt in part with the statutory interpretation of CCP § 1021.4, which allows for discretionary recovery of fees to a prevailing party “[i]n an action for damages against a defendant based upon that defendant’s commission of a felony offense for which that defendant has been convicted ….” Although plaintiffs won an automobile accident personal injury action against defendant and most aspects were sustained except for a limited retrial on compensatory damages, plaintiffs did not recover § 1021.4 attorney’s fees.
The appellate court affirmed. The problem with fee entitlement was that the statute has crucial causal link “based upon” language which prevented recovery to the prevailing parties in this matter. The penal violations involved fleeing the scene of the accident, statutes penalizing the fleeing rather than the occurrence of the accident itself. Given that liability was based upon the accident itself, the “based upon” language was correctly found by the lower court to not allow fee entitlement to plaintiffs.