Despite Remand For A Recalculation Of Damages, The Fees/Costs Award Was Not So Disproportionate To The Value Of The Legal Services Provided So As To Equate To An Abuse Of Discretion.
In Alchemy Communications v. Carlsberg Lax Center, Case No. B278068 (2d Dist., Div. 1 December 3, 2019) (unpublished), commercial Landlord and one of its Tenants got into a dispute over fees for electricity.
During the first few years of this Tenant’s lease, Landlord was suffering an approximate $30,000 per month deficit in electric bill reimbursements. An investigation revealed the source to be three outdated, inefficient chillers used to provide cool air for the HVAC system that were not metered. Tenant exclusively used two of these three chillers for its space and computer equipment. After Landlord updated the equipment and added meters to the chillers, it sent Tenant a bill for its share of the cost of the improvements, the metered usage for the two chillers used by Tenant, and for an estimation of the electrical costs prior to the installation of the updated equipment and meters. Tenant refused to pay – claiming Landlord was responsible for the costs of the chillers. The trial court disagreed – awarding Landlord $585,383.61 in damages, which included estimated electricity fees for 6 months prior to the installation of the meters, and also awarded $895,163.42 in prevailing party fees/costs.
Tenant appealed both awards. With respect to the fees for electricity, the 2/1 DCA reversed with instruction to amend the judgment to reduce the amount of damages by the 6 months of estimated electric fees prior to the installation of the meters. As to the fees/costs, the 2/1 DCA, while noting that there was “room for disagreement with respect to the amount of the award,” found the trial court’s decision did not amount to an abuse of discretion and affirmed.
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