Reasonableness Of Fees, Special Fee Shifting Statute: $9,200 Attorney’s Fees Award In Venue Transfer Situation Sustained On Appeal

Reason Was That Both A Surrogacy Agreement Venue Provision And Factual Circumstances Showed The Matter Needed To Be Resolved In Transferee Venue.

            In Omega Family Global, Inc. v. Doe, Case No. D075358 (4^th Dist., Div. 1 June 17, 2020) (unpublished), defendants were granted a venue transfer motion from San Diego to Riverside where a surrogacy agreement had a Riverside venue provision and where the children were born in Riverside.  As a price for the venue transfer, the successful litigants were awarded $9,200 in attorney’s fees under CCP § 396b(b), based on 20 hours of work by a Glendora attorney billing $460 per hour in the San Diego Superior Court.  The opponent’s appellate challenges did not resonate.  To the appellate court, it was clear the dispute belonged in Riverside and, in spite of some complimentary comments by the trial judge on the quality of arguments by both sides, there was no abuse of discretion in giving clear intent to the surrogacy agreement’s venue clause and the Riverside-based venue circumstances.  Although the moving party did not provide any direct testimony on San Diego hourly rates, the trial judge in California state courts can use his familiarity with hourly rates and attorney performance when it comes to awarding the amount of reasonable fees—and nothing in the record showed manifest error in this particular situation.