Tibbetts v. Sight 'n Sound Appliance Centers9/16/2003
__ P.3d __
We decide here if the trial judge erred in awarding $375,000.00 in attorney fees to plaintiffs/appellees in their class action suit brought against defendant/appellant, Sight 'n Sound Appliance Centers, Inc., d/b/a Sight 'n Sound & Cost Warehouse under the Oklahoma Consumer Protection Act (OCPA), 15 O.S.1991, ยง 751 et seq., as amended. We hold the trial judge erred, and the Court of Civil Appeals (COCA), Division I mistakenly affirmed, because the only reasonable attorney fee in this case is no fee, plaintiffs seeking solely money damages, but recovering zero damages (i.e., nothing) via a jury verdict. We also overrule Tibbetts v. Sight 'n Sound Appliance Centers, Inc. (Tibbetts I), 2000 OK CIV APP 47, 6 P.3d 1064 (cert. denied 3-30-00), a prior COCA, Division IV opinion involving the same case, as it wrongly held these private plaintiffs may recover attorney fees in this OCPA case merely by showing a violation of the OCPA without an attendant showing of damages or actual injury.
This Court's decision in Walls v. American Tobacco Co., 2000 OK 66, 11 P.3d 626, followed shortly by Patterson v. Beall, 2000 OK 92, 19 P.3d 839, held that for a private plaintiff to have a viable claim under the OCPA the plaintiff must show as an essential element of the claim, actual damages, i.e., injury in fact. To the extent plaintiffs argue Tibbetts I is the law of the case such that the propriety of at least some attorney fee award may not now be challenged as they have been determined to be the prevailing/successful parties by Tibbetts I, we hold an exception to the law of the case doctrine applies as Tibbetts I is palpably erroneous and a gross or manifest injustice would be done were we to allow the award for fees to stand when it is clearly not authorized by law and plaintiffs cannot be deemed to have prevailed because they recovered nothing.
PART I. STANDARD OF REVIEW.
What constitutes a reasonable attorney fee is a matter addressed to the sound discretion of the trial court to be decided based on various factors and a judgment awarding attorney fees will not be reversed absent an abuse of discretion. Continental Natural Gas, Inc. v. Midcoast Natural Gas, Inc. , 1996 OK CIV APP 157, 935 P.2d 1185, 1188; see also State ex rel. Burk v. City of Oklahoma City, 1979 OK 115, 598 P.2d 659, 663 (review standard is abuse of discretion when reasonableness of attorney fees awarded is issue on appeal). As a general matter, an abuse of discretion review standard includes appellate examination of both fact and law issues [Christian v. Gray, 2003 OK 10, 43, 65 P.3d 591, 608] and abuse occurs when the ruling being reviewed is based on an erroneous legal conclusion or there is no rational basis in the evidence for the decision. Fent v. Oklahoma Natural Gas, Co., 2001 OK 35, 12, 27 P.3d 477, 481; Abel v. Tisdale, 1980 OK 161, 619 P.2d 608, 612 (reversal for abuse of discretion proper if trial judge makes clearly erroneous conclusion and judgment, against reason and evidence).
Further, when an assigned error is one of law a de novo review standard applies [Christian v. Gray, supra, 2003 OK 10, at 43, 65 P.3d at 608], a non-deferential, plenary and independent review of the trial court's legal ruling. Samman v. Multiple Injury Trust Fund, 2001 OK 71, 8 and n. 5, 33 P.3d 302, 305 and n. 5. Though normally when reviewing the reasonableness of an attorney fee award an appellate court affords the trial judge's finding(s) much deference because of the nature of the factual inquiry into the factors delineated in State ex rel. Burk v. City of Oklahoma City, supra, in that here the overriding and critical factor of the results obtained is undisputed and leads to
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