Given Some Reductions For The Cross-Complaint And Other Issues, Fee Award Had To Be Reassessed—Initial Award Was $388,541, A 50% Reduction From The Original Request.
In Perera v. Moine, Case No. B319315 (2d Dist., Div. 7 Sept. 18, 2023) (unpublished), plaintiffs were the prevailing party in a breach of contract dispute (based on an initial $750,700.16 compensatory award to plaintiffs after some reductions, including a reduction for a $61,000 on the defendant’s cross-complaint), with the lower court awarding $388,541 in attorney’s fees under a contractual fees clause—a 50% reduction from the $788,072 “ask” for excessive hours for a one-week bench trial, unreasonable charges, and duplication by having too many attorneys working on the case. In a contemporaneous decision, the 2/7 DCA determined that no recovery was allowable on the cross-complaint and more recovery was owed to plaintiffs, which resulted in a remand of the fee award as described below.
Defendant argued that plaintiffs were not the prevailing parties, but that was not the case. If anything, they were more so given the contemporaneous opinion which increased plaintiffs’ recovery by more than $300,000.
Given the reversal, a remand was necessary on the fee recovery. The appellate court did not express any opinion on whether the original trial judge’s (Judge Terry Green’s) reductions were or were not appropriate. It did observe that he has retired from the bench such that the fee motion should be adjudicated before a new judge who was urged to make an order indicating the amount of the award under lodestar principles, recognizing that no statement of decision is mandatory in fee proceedings.
BLOG OBSERVATION—Judge Green (Ret.) is now a neutral with Signature Resolution.
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