In Guillory v. Hill, ordered published June 26, 2019, the Fourth District Court of Appeal, Division 3 affirmed a trial court order denying the plaintiffs in a 42 U.S.C. section 1983 case all of the fees they sought. The plaintiffs sued for alleged overdetention after a search. Plaintiffs sued multiple defendants. Eventually one was left. The first trial ended in a directed verdict for the defendant. The decision was reversed on appeal as to the section 1983 causes of action. On retrial, the jury found for the plaintiffs, but awarded combined damages of $5,335. The plaintiffs moved for $3.8 million in fees. The trial court criticized the motion as poorly organized and supported by unclear evidence.
The appellate court ruled that two circumstances justified the denial of the fee motion in its entirety. One was the limited success of the plaintiffs. The plaintiffs sought millions of dollars in damages, and received a fraction of that. The other was the inflated fees sought. The trial court was within its discretion to determine that the plaintiffs' counsel made no effort to confine the fees sought to the issues on which the plaintiffs prevailed, and did not contend that the other issues were so intertwined that it was reasonable to recover on all of them.
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