Reasonableness Of Fees: $1.11 Million Fee Award To Two Prevailing Defendants, As Against Lloyd’s, Was Found To Be No Abuse Of Discretion

Lower Court Reduced Defendants’ Fee Requests By Over $457,720.

            Challenging the amount of an attorney’s fees award as an abuse of discretion is a daunting task, given it must be shown the award was irrational or that it shocks a jurist’s conscience.  Appellant could not satisfy this tough standard in Certain Underwriters at Lloyd’s, etc. v. Zillow Group, Case Nos. A164516 et al. (1^st Dist., Div. 4 June 28, 2023) (unpublished).

            There, Underwriters lost a summary judgment motion against two defendants in an indemnity suit featuring enterprise service agreements with fee clauses.  The lower court awarded one defendant $460,000 in fees (a $228,860.28 reduction from the ask) and another defendant $650,000 in fees (applying even a steeper reduction than the haircut given to the first defendant’s ask).

            The appellate court disagreed with Lloyd’s’ argument that the awards were an abuse of trial court discretion.  The second defendant did additional work than the first defendant, which justified the disparate amounts of the two awards.  Also not to be forgotten was the significant haircut – over $457,720 – made by the lower court in making its awards.