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Wong v. 396 Investment Co.5/17/2005
hy the fees as so awarded are unreasonable. In short, it fails to show either that the trial court abused its discretion in making the award of attorney fees to the Wongs or that award was not reasonable. (See id. at p. 950 [award of attorney fees in inverse condemnation action within sound discretion of trial court]; Andre v. City of West Sacramento, supra, 92 Cal.App.4th at pp. 536-539 [in inverse condemnation action, attorney fees must be actually incurred and reasonable].) The attorney fee award is affirmed.
(10) Williams
(a) Reasonable Fees Incurred
The Williamses sought $202,000 in attorney fees. They explained that they had agreed to pay their attorney a contingency fee amount equal to forty percent of their recovery. They multiplied the $505,000 fair market value of their property, as stated in the special verdict, by forty percent to arrive at the amount of their fee request. They also emphasized that the amount sought was less than the amount they would have had to pay had their attorneys billed them on an hourly basis. The court awarded the Williamses the full $202,000 amount sought.
Anaheim cries foul. It claims the Williamses were entitled to no attorney fees at all. Anaheim asserts that the proper attorney fee award should have been calculated in this manner: (1) a net real property award amount of $123,290 should have been multiplied by the forty percent contingency fee amount for a resulting figure of $49,316 in fees actually incurred, and (2) an offset in the amount of $60,000 should have been applied to the $49,316 fee amount, for an attorney fee award amount of zero.
While Anaheim does not take the time to explain, in its opening brief, how it came up with the $123,290 figure for the net real property award, the explanation is contained in its opposition to the Williamses' attorney fees motion. In the opposition, Anaheim stated that the (approximate) judgment amount of $752,393 (which already reflected offsets), minus the amount of relocation expenses and emotional distress damages, was equal to $123,290. Also, we observe that the fair market value of the Williamses' property as reflected in the special verdict, minus the amount of the offset as indicated in the judgment, is equal to $123,288.15.
Anaheim tries to convince us that the application of its proffered formula for determining fees incurred demonstrates that the amount of fees the Williamses incurred in the inverse condemnation portion of the case was less than the amount awarded. However, there is no indication that the Williamses' attorneys are discounting their contingency fees on account of Anaheim's formula. Moreover, Anaheim fails to cite any authority dictating that the attorney fee award must determined by multiplying the "net real property award" that Anaheim suggests by the contingency amount. Indeed, we observe that at least one case has held that the determination of fees should not be based solely on the contingency agreement. (Salton Bay Marina, Inc. v. Imperial Irrigation Dist., supra, 172 Cal.App.3d at p. 957.)
Anaheim largely ignores the various factors that a court should take into consideration in determining the amount of a fee award in an inverse condemnation case. The court is charged with determining both whether the fees were actually incurred and whether the fees were reasonable. (Andre v. City of West Sacramento, supra, 92 Cal.App.4th at p. 539.) Not only has Anaheim failed to convince us that the full amount of the fees awarded were not incurred in the inverse condemnation proceedings, but it has done nothing to show us that the fees were unreasonable.
In their motion for attorney fees, the Williamses did not
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