Opinion ID: 1134428
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 7

Heading: Necessity and financial burden of private enforcement

Text: The final factor affecting plaintiffs' attorney fee request under section 1021.5 is whether the necessity and financial burden of private enforcement are such as to make the award appropriate. Inasmuch as the present action proceeded against the only governmental agencies that bear responsibility for the subdivision approval process, the necessity of private, as compared to public, enforcement becomes clear. (See, e.g., La Raza Unida v. Volpe, supra, 57 F.R.D. 94, 101; Comment, Equal Access, supra, 122 U.Pa.L.Rev. 636, 671.) It is unclear from the present record, however, whether the financial burden of private enforcement in this case is such as to make an attorney fee award appropriate under the private attorney general theory. (11) As the Court of Appeal recently explained in County of Inyo v. City of Los Angeles (1978) 78 Cal. App.3d 82, 89 [144 Cal. Rptr. 71], An award on the `private attorney general' theory is appropriate when the cost of the claimant's legal victory transcends his personal interest, that is, when the necessity for pursuing the lawsuit placed a burden on the plaintiff `out of proportion to his individual stake in the matter.' [Citation.] (2g) In connection with their claim that the benefits of this litigation are confined to a small group of neighboring homeowners, defendants contend that the plaintiffs' victory in the underlying suit did not transcend [their] personal interest and that the litigation expenses did not place a disproportionate burden on plaintiffs. Plaintiffs directly challenge these claims, pointing out that in defense of their attorney fee motion they introduced evidence to demonstrate that their fiscal resources are minimal, that their personal financial interest in the present action is small and that the litigation expenses entailed in actions of this type are considerable. The trial court made no findings on these issues. Once again, we conclude that on remand, the parties should be permitted to introduce evidence on these matters, so that the trial court may determine whether the financial burden in this case is such that an attorney fee award is appropriate in order to assure the effectuation of an important public policy. (12) A question has also arisen as to the propriety of an apportionment of attorney fees under section 1021.5. Although section 1021.5 does not specifically address the question of the propriety of a partial award of attorney fees, we believe that if the trial court concludes that plaintiffs' potential financial gain in this case is such as to warrant placing upon them a portion of the attorney fee burden, the section's broad language and the theory underlying the private attorney general concept would permit the court to shift only an appropriate portion of the fees to the losing party or parties. (Cf. Note, Awarding Attorneys' Fees to the Private Attorney General: Judicial Green Light to Private Litigation in the Public Interest (1973) 24 Hastings L.J. 733, 761.) [13] Thus, in sum, we conclude that the portion of the judgment denying plaintiffs' motion for attorney fees must be reversed and the case must be remanded to the trial court so that it may pass on the motion pursuant to the provisions of section 1021.5.