California Court of Appeal

Trial court orders which awarded the People of the State of California $2,943,920.63 in contractual attorney fees as the prevailing parties in an action to enforce a consent decree and final judgment (Consent Decree) entered on a master settlement agreement (MSA) are affirmed, where: 1) the trial court did not abuse its discretion by finding the People were the prevailing parties under Civil Code section 1717; 2) the trial court did not abuse its discretion in using San Francisco Bay Area market rates for calculating the award of attorney fees rather than local San Diego rates; and 3) the trial court did not abuse its broad discretion under section 1717 by not further reducing the lodestar amount.

Appellate Information

• Decided 05/20/2013
• Published 05/20/2013

Judges

• McCONNELL

Court

• California Court of Appeal

Counsel