S-CV-0036592 Mandarich Development vs. Arsenault Holdings

This tentative ruling is issued by the Honorable Michael W. Jones. If oral argument is requested, it shall be heard in Department 43:

Defendants’ Motion for Attorneys’ Fees

Ruling on Request for Judicial Notice

Defendants’ request for judicial notice is granted pursuant to Evidence Code section 452.

Ruling on Motion

The motion is granted. In the current request, defendants seek $622,776.50 in attorneys’ fees as the prevailing party in this action. While defendants are entitled to attorneys’ fees, their recovery is limited to the first and second causes of action. Defendants are not entitled to recovery under the third and fourth causes of action. Determining the reasonable amount of attorney’s fees begins with the lodestar method, i.e. the number of hours reasonably expended multiplied by the reasonable hourly rate. (PLCM Group v. Drexler (2000) 22 Cal.4th 1084, 1095; Serrano v. Priest (Serrano III) (1977) 20 Cal.3d 25, 48-49.) The lodestar figure may then be adjusted, based upon factors specific to the case, to fix the fees at a fair market value. (Ibid.)

The court has carefully reviewed the briefing of the parties along with the billing statements submitted by defendants. The court finds that the hourly rates billed by counsel are reasonable under these circumstances and considering the complexity of the litigation. As it pertains to the reasonable number of hours, the court finds that significant entries within the billing statements must be stricken. A review of the billing statements shows that defendants did not consistently identify the work performed for defendants. There are entries that expressly differentiate work performed for the corporate defendants along with identifying the associated causes of action. However, the majority of defendants’ early billings fail to make these distinctions, which is significant since defendants demonstrate a clear ability to do so. As the work performed for the first and second causes of action could have been distinguished in the billing statements and defendants are not entitled to recover for services related to the third and fourth causes of action, the court strikes the majority of billing entries beginning on September 21, 2015 through March 7, 2017 that fail to distinguish work completed for the corporate defendants associated with the first and second causes of action, which totals $213,519.00. The remainder of the billing statements reflects a reasonable number of hours. Defendants are awarded $409,257.00 in attorneys’ fees.

Plaintiff’s Motion to Tax Costs

The motion is granted in part. The court strikes the $1,800 in mediation costs outlined in Item 16. The court also strikes the $40,035 in paralegal costs outlined in Item 16 as defendants have also sought reimbursement for paralegal trial preparation services in their motion for attorneys’ fees and it has not been sufficiently established that the billing for these services do not overlap.

Defendants’ cost memo, filed on December 26, 2017, is stricken in the amount of $41,835.00. Defendants are awarded costs in the amount of $65,222.24.