$818,544 In CCP § 1036 Fees And $182,627 In Costs Went POOF!
Code of Civil Procedure section 1036 provides: “In any inverse condemnation proceeding, the court rendering judgment for the plaintiff by awarding compensation, or the attorney representing the public entity who effects a settlement of that proceeding, shall determine and award or allow to the plaintiff, as a part of that judgment or settlement, a sum that will, in the opinion of the court, reimburse the plaintiff’s reasonable costs, disbursements, and expenses, including reasonable attorney, appraisal, and engineering fees, actually incurred because of that proceeding in the trial court or in any appellate proceeding in which the plaintiff prevails on any issue in that proceeding.”
A plaintiff winning a $1.2 million jury verdict (as well as $484,500 in prejudgment interest) in an inverse condemnation action against CalTrans later moved for a fee/costs recovery under CCP § 1036. The trial judge accommodated that by awarding $818,544 in fees and $183,627 in costs.
Alas, all of that went POOF! on appeal. The 2/1 DCA in McChesney v. People ex rel. Dept. of Transportation, Case No. B295879 (2d Dist., Div. 1 Mar. 4, 2020) (unpublished) reversed the inverse condemnation merits judgment; and with that, the prejudgment interest, fee award, and costs award also fell.
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