Costs: Reasonable Attorney And Paralegal Expenses To Compile Administrative Record Are Compensable To Prevailing Party In Land Use Writ Proceeding Under CCP Section 1094.5

 

Analogy To CEQA Decisional Authority Found Persuasive.

     In No Toxic Air, Inc. v. Lehigh Southwest Cement Co., Case No. H040047 (6^th Dist. July 28, 2016) (published), prevailing party in a legal nonconforming use writ petition sought to recoup the expenses for compiling an administrative record which were incurred by its attorneys and paralegal. Code of Civil Procedure section 1094.5(a) allows a prevailing party to recover the expenses of preparing all or any party of an administrative record. Although finding a prevailing party’s claimed expenses to be reasonable, the lower court denied claimed expenses based on the lack of appellate authority of determining they were recoverable.

     The administrative record expense denial was reversed because an analogous CEQA action decision on the same issue did allow for such recovery, even though it came down after the briefing in the extant case. (Otay Ranch, L.P. v. County of San Diego, 230 Cal.App.4^th 60, 70-71 (2014).)