CCP § 1250.410 Allows Discretionary Fee Awards Where Trial Court Finds Final Offer Of Compensation Unreasonable And Property Owner’s Final Demand Reasonable.
Code of Civil Procedure section 1250.410 allows trial courts to award reasonable attorney’s fees and costs (which also include reasonable expert witness and appraiser fees), as litigation expenses, to the property owner in an eminent domain action if the trial court finds that the condemnor’s final offer of compensation was unreasonable and that the property owner’s final demand for compensation was reasonable, considering all of the evidence admitted at trial and the eventual verdict. The trial judge’s award of litigation expenses to condemnee was affirmed in Sacramento Area Flood Control Agency v. Souza, Case No. C074052 (3d Dist. Sept. 7, 2017) (unpublished), in a case involving SAFCA’s taking of 2.256 acres of Souza property to widen a levee along the Garden Highway, to relocate some utility facilities, and to plant grassland as part of the Natomas Levee Improvement Program in Sacramento.
What happened here was that condemnor’s final offer ($250,000) was 54% of the eventual verdict in favor of condemnee with respect to the property value ($455,000). Prior cases establish that final offers that are 60% or less of the jury’s verdict can support a finding that the condemnor’s final offer was unreasonable. (See, e.g., City of Long Beach Redevelopment Agency v. Morales, 157 Cal.App.4th 287, 292 (2007); City of San Leandro v. Highsmith, 123 Cal.App.3d 146, 156 (1981).) Also, condemnor treated its own appraisal as golden, giving no weight to condemnee’s appraisal, a factor which also bolsters an unreasonableness determination. Finally, because SAFCA’s final offer was contingent on approval by its governing body, such a factor also shows unreasonableness under section 1250.410. (City & County of San Francisco v. PCF Acquisitionco, LLC, 237 Cal.App.4th 90, 95-97 (2015).) The litigation expense award to condemnee was affirmed on appeal.
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