Trial Court Applied The Incorrect Legal Standard In Determining Causal Link For Defendant Providing The Primary Relief Sought By Plaintiffs When It Denied Plaintiffs’ Request For Fees Under Code Civ. Proc., § 1021.5 Based On The Catalyst Theory.
We discussed Dept. of Water Resources Environmental Impact Cases, Case No. C091771 (3d Dist., May 11, 2022), which was unpublished at the time, in our May 18, 2022 post. In it, the Third District reversed and remanded the trial court’s denial of attorney fees sought by Plaintiffs under Code Civ. Proc., § 1021.5 based on the catalyst theory – finding that the trial court applied the wrong legal standard where it treated a directive issued by the Governor as the superseding cause of the relief obtained without considering whether plaintiff’s lawsuits were a substantial factor in the Governor’s decision to issue the directive. We can now report that the opinion was certified for publication on June 3, 2022.
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