Court Opinion

ID: 9794132
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-31 03:00:08.413314+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T08:12:20.912973
License: Public Domain

Steffen, C. J.,
concurring:
I concur in the judgment and Opinion of the Majority in all respects. I write separately, nevertheless, to address an issue not discussed by the Majority.
A prevailing defendant almost never recovers a money judgment. As a practical matter, the only money award a prevailing defendant can recover without bringing a counterclaim is an award of costs. Thus, by requiring prevailing defendants to obtain a money judgment in order to receive attorney’s fees pursuant to NRS 18.010(2)(a), we have effectively written prevailing defendants out of the statute.
It is clear from its use of the term “prevailing party” that the legislature did not intend to preclude prevailing defendants from recovering attorney’s fees pursuant to the latest revision of NRS 18.010(2). Therefore, applying to prevailing defendants the *295requirement of a money judgment for the recovery of attorney’s fees pursuant to NRS 18.010(2)(a) frustrates the intent of the legislature. Applying the requirement to prevailing defendants also undermines one of the basic premises underlying our civil justice system: to make an aggrieved party whole. This was apparently one of the objectives of the legislature in enacting NRS 18.010. See Hearing on Assembly Bill 223 in Assembly Committee on the Judiciary, 1967, at 151.
On the other hand, were this court to hold that a prevailing defendant need not obtain a money judgment in order to be awarded attorney’s fees under the statute, the lack of any other standard in the statute with respect to defendants would result in the possible recovery of attorney’s fees by defendants in cases involving millions of dollars, such as when a corporate defendant prevails in a large contract dispute or in an action for injunctive or declaratory relief. It does not appear that the legislature intended to abrogate the American rule regarding attorney’s fees for civil defendants, nor do I believe the legislature meant to provide a great advantage in complex litigation to defendants. Instead, the statute appears to have been intended to provide attorney’s fees to the prevailing party in small lawsuits where damages are limited.
It nevertheless remains true that the statute in its present form, which essentially never provides for a recovery of attorney’s fees by defendants while providing for such a recovery for plaintiffs, creates a serious inequity against prevailing defendants, an inequity that was apparently unintended. Amendment of the statute is a matter for the consideration of the legislature, not this court. I therefore strongly urge the legislature to consider whether NRS 18.010 should be amended in some manner to remedy the inequities here noted.