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Wong v. 396 Investment Co.5/17/2005
focus exclusively on their contingency fee agreement. As indicated above, they also stated that the $202,000 was entirely reasonable, inasmuch as it was less than they would have owed had they agreed to pay their attorneys at an hourly rate. Attached to their fee request was a declaration of their attorney, Robert L. Green. He stated that he had spent 805 hours on the case and that his standard billing rate was $275 per hour. He also stated that Attorney John T. Griffin had put 83.2 hours into the case and that his standard billing rate was $225 per hour. Attorney Green concluded that the fees for the two attorneys alone would amount to more than $240,000, if they were charging at an hourly rate rather than on a contingency basis. In addition, he said that his law firm had incurred approximately $1,500 in paralegal fees and $2,000 in costs on the case.
In fixing the amount of the attorney fee award, the court took this information into account. It stated that the Williamses had, in essence, asserted two bases for the requested fee amount, i.e., the contingency fee agreement and the amount of attorney fees calculated by reference to hours worked times the attorneys' standard billing rates. When the court ruled, it stated that it took both bases into consideration. It further stated that it took into consideration the difficulty of the litigation, the reasonableness of the attorneys' billing rates, the reasonableness of the number of hours spent on the litigation, the length of the trial and the multiple phases. These are all appropriate factors for consideration. (See Salton Bay Marina, Inc. v. Imperial Irrigation Dist., supra, 172 Cal.App.3d at pp. 957-958.) Anaheim makes no mention of the court's analysis and makes no effort to state why 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 Williamses 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].) We affirm the portion of the award fixing attorney fees for the Williamses at $202,000.
(b) Offset
However, this does not preclude Anaheim's request for an offset of $60,000 against the $202,000 amount. As indicated in our discussion of offsets against the damages award, Anaheim asserts that 396 paid certain fees to some of the plaintiffs' attorneys pursuant to the sliding scale settlement agreements. Anaheim also contends, albeit without citation to the record, that 396 recouped those fees as part of its award against Anaheim. Anaheim insists that it is, therefore, entitled to an offset with respect to the Williamses' $60,000 portion of those fees, as against the $202,000 attorney fee award in favor of the Williamses.
The Williamses indicated both in their May 16, 2002 responsive brief on issues submitted to the court, and at a July 18, 2002 hearing at which the parties addressed offsets affecting the damage awards, that a $60,000 offset for attorney fees should be taken against an award of attorney fees. Moreover, in their January 16, 2003 reply brief in support of their attorney fees motion, the Williamses expressly stated: " he Williams are entitled to an award of fees in the amount of $202,000.00. The Williams acknowledge that Anaheim is entitled to a credit against this sum in the amount of $60,000.00. In November and December of 2001, the Williams received payments from Defendant 396 Investment Company in the amount of $206,709.85. Of this amount, $60,
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