Costs, Employment: Labor Code § 1194(a) Mandatory Prevailing Employee Statute Prevails Over Discretionary Routine Costs Provision Giving Discretion To Deny Fees For Limited Success

Reasonableness Of Fees Will Be An Issue On Remand.

               Justice Viramontes, in Gramajo v. Joe’s Pizza on Sunset, Inc., Case Nos. B322697 et al. (2d Dist., Div. 8 Mar. 25, 2024) (published), confronted a situation where an employee recovering $7,659.93 for minimum wage and overtime claims in a long jury trial then sought $296,920 in Labor Code § 1194(a) prevailing employee fees.  The trial court denied fees entirely as unreasonable under CCP § 1033(a) which gives lower courts discretion to deny prevailing plaintiffs their litigation costs when plaintiffs file their case as an unlimited civil case but only recover an amount available in a limited case.  The 2/8 DCA panel reversed, finding the Labor Code provision was mandatory and entitled employees to reasonable litigation costs irrespective of the amounts recovered.  However, the panel expressed no opinion on the reasonableness of the fees, with the code provisions irreconcilable such that the Labor Code provision prevailed in this context.  In doing so, the appellate court narrowed Chavez to a FEHA situation (where fees are discretionary), but not a mandatory fee shifting situation.