California Court of Appeal

In a suit between an apartment owner and two tenants, a mother and her son, over the leases of two units, judgment of the trial court is: 1) affirmed in part where, given the nature of the cross-complaint and the affirmative relief it sought and the mixed results obtained by the mother in the litigation, the trial court did not abuse its discretion in determining that the mother was not a prevailing party in denying her motion for attorney's fees; and 2) reversed in part where the son's complete defeat of plaintiff's complaint entitled him to a prevailing party designation, and the trial court had no discretion to determine he was not the prevailing party to deny his request for attorney fees based on "unity of interest" between him and his mother.

Appellate Information

• Decided 09/18/2012
• Published 09/18/2012

Judges

• Perluss

Court

• California Court of Appeal

Counsel