Award Of $23,800 Out Of Requested $185,897 Was An Abuse Of Discretion Under The Circumstances.
Lots of practitioners may assume that the amount of a fee award is impervious to appellate attack under the abuse of discretion standards. This next case may temper that impulsive reaction: the circumstances may well dictate otherwise.
In Roshan, LLC . Peltekci, Case No. E064205 (4th Dist., Div. 2 Sept. 9, 2016) (unpublished), tenant won a heavily contested unlawful detainer action (4 days of trial) and moved to recover $185,897 in attorney’s fees based on a lease fees clause. The lower court, despite prevailing party’s submissions of detailed work effort, apparently selectively only awarded work for 4 days of trial, 3 days of trial preparation, and 2 pretrial motions despite the fact there was lots more in litigation activity involved--$23,800 was the eventual award, less than 15% of the total requested lodestar amount.
The 4/2 DCA reversed the fee award as an abuse of discretion. Although it did find that $300 per hour was a reasonable hourly rate for an unlawful detainer attorney in the Inland Empire (agreed to by the appellate court, as opposed to much higher Santa Monica requested hourly rates), the reviewing court found that the lower court was unduly influenced by three instances of problematic fees rather than operating from the total request, minus any reductions for duplication, excessive work, etc. A more global perspective had to be utilized on remand. Also, even though landlord’s corporate status was suspended when it opposed the fee motion, the appellate court believed this was not a problem given that the court was still charged with determining a reasonable fee in the first place. Remanded for a “re-look.”
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