Opinion ID: 1918445
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 6

Heading: Attorney's Fee Awards

Text: Given a proper contractual, statutory, or other legal basis to do so, the award of attorney's fees rests within the sound discretion of the trial justice. See Greensleeves, Inc. v. Smiley, 754 A.2d 102, 103 (R.I.2000); Bucci v. Anthony, 667 A.2d 1254, 1256 (R.I.1995). However, in light of what we have ruled to this point regarding WDC's breach-of-contract claims, we are constrained to vacate the trial justice's order awarding attorney's fees to the city under § 9-1-45 for WDC's assertion of supposedly nonjusticiable contract-based claims. Section 9-1-45 authorizes the award of attorney's fees in breach-of-contract actions when the court finds that there was a complete absence of a justiciable issue of either law or fact raised by the losing party. For the reasons we have already discussed regarding the viability of WDC's breach-of-contract claims and the insubstantiality of the city's material-breach defense, such a finding was unwarranted here. We also vacate without prejudice the trial justice's order under § 9-29-21 and Rule 11 awarding the city its attorney's fees related to the stay-of-execution proceedings. As the city itself admits in its brief, the determinations and assessments of attorney's fees in this case somewhat overlapped. We believe that the trial justice's decision to award Rule 11 sanctions, as well as the amount of the fees and expenses it assessed against WDC, may have been colored somewhat by her earlier determination that WDC had asserted frivolous breach-of-contract claims and then attempted to frustrate the court's judgment in favor of the city on these very claims. Even though the trial justice may decide at some later date that WDC still should be sanctioned for its misconduct in connection with the stay-of-execution proceedings, we conclude that justice would be best served by allowing the court to revisit all the facts relating to that issue after the retrial has concluded.