Rent Stabilization Ordinance: Winning Plaintiffs In Wrongful Eviction Action Awarded $306,321.50 In Attorney’s Fees

Lodestar Is the Standard, and Attorney Still Entitled to Lodestar Fees Even Where Client Agreement Was Below Market or Discounted in Nature.

The lodestar method is the one used most often by trial courts in awarding both attorney’s fees under contractual provisions and fee-shifting statutes. What about county ordinances containing fee-shifting sections? Answer: lodestar also.

In Chacon v. Litke, Case Nos. A1220261/A123883 (1^st Dist., Div. 2 Jan. 19, 2010) (unpublished), winning plaintiffs in a wrongful eviction suit against defendants were awarded $306,321.50 in attorney’s fees and costs under a section of the San Francisco Rent Stabilization and Arbitration Ordinance that simply allows the trial court to award a prevailing party reasonable attorney’s fees and costs “pursuant to court order.” The lower court did just that, also determining that $350/hour was a reasonable lodestar rate for plaintiffs’ lead attorney. (Lead attorney, in a contingency arrangement, agreed to charge plaintiffs $300/hour.) Miffed defendants appealed, challenging use of the lodestar and allowance of an hourly rate in derogation of the contractual agreement with client.

Result: affirmed.

The lodestar is the presumptive method in all fee-shifting statutes, unless some contrary intention appears. (Ketchum v. Moses, 24 Cal.4^th 1122, 1126 (2001).) The Court of Appeal also relied on treatise writer Mr. Pearl’s commentary that Ketchum so held. The appellate panel presumed that the Board of Supervisors also intended to use the lodestar method in setting a fee award.

The trial court’s fee award was not excessive. The lower court rejected a 1.5 multiplier request and plaintiffs’ request for a $400/hour rate for their lead attorney. However, the appellate court found no abuse in allowing $350/hour as a reasonable hourly rate. Beyond that, it held—citing Mr. Pearl’s CEB treatise at § 12.26—that the lodestar applies even if the attorney charges nothing, charges below market, or charges at a discounted rate.

Above:  Evicted sharecroppers along Hwy. 60.  New Madrid County, Missouri.  Arthur Rothstein, photographer.  January, 1939.  Library of Congress.