The arbitrator determined that plaintiffs, rather than defendants, were entitled to costs. Plaintiffs submitted a statement of costs and the arbitrator filed an amended award that included the original monetary awards and also awarded costs to plaintiffs. Plaintiffs then filed in the trial court an exception to the award, asserting a right to attorney fees. Defendants also filed exceptions in the trial court, contesting the award of costs to plaintiffs and asserting their own right to attorney fees. The next day, by separate orders, the trial court denied defendants' exception to the award of costs to plaintiffs and sustained plaintiffs' exception to the denial of their attorney fee request.
Defendants appeal from that judgment.
On appeal, defendants assign error to the denial of their request for attorney fees and costs and to the trial court's award of attorney fees and costs to plaintiffs. In their motion to dismiss, plaintiffs contend that defendants' assignments of error challenge rulings embodied in the March 31 judgment and, because defendants did not appeal from that judgment, the appeal from the supplemental judgment is not timely. In Frederickson, the trial court entered a money judgment in favor of the defendant on his counterclaims against the plaintiffs. The plaintiffs timely appealed from the judgment but eventually dismissed the appeal. Several months later, the trial court reversed course, concluding that the defendant was not entitled to fees as a matter of law.