Court Opinion

ID: 9788919
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-31 01:22:10.111006+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T07:37:17.527047
License: Public Domain

ARMSTRONG, J.,
dissenting.
The majority concludes that the trial court acted within its discretion in denying an award of attorney fees to defendants who prevailed against plaintiff in an action under the Residential Landlord and Tenant Act (RLTA). Because I believe that the trial court acted outside the range of its discretion, I respectfully dissent.
The majority correctly recognizes that a prevailing party in an action under the RLTA is entitled to recover attorney fees except under unusual circumstances. Here, it concludes that the trial court denied an award of attorney fees to defendants on the ground that they and plaintiff had asserted claims that were inflated and that both parties had incurred fees that were highly disproportionate to the amounts that were reasonably in dispute between them. With respect, I do not believe that defendants’ conduct provides a basis on which to deny them an award of fees.
Plaintiff sued defendants for $3,852.51 in unpaid rent and damage to the rental property. Defendants responded with counterclaims that asserted, among other things, several violations of the RLTA, seeking damages of $10,308.50. After trial, the court awarded plaintiff damages totaling less than 10 percent of its claims, and it awarded defendants damages on two RLTA counterclaims totaling slightly more than 10 percent of their claims.
*677Defendants necessarily incurred attorney fees to respond to plaintiffs claims and to pursue their RLTA counterclaims. I accept the trial court’s determination that defendants and plaintiff both engaged in conduct that inflated the attorney fees incurred in the case, and that, had defendants acted more reasonably, they could have achieved the result that they did without incurring as much in attorney fees. Nevertheless, plaintiff began the litigation and is equally responsible with defendants for inflating its cost. Defendants’ conduct may provide a basis for the court to reduce the attorney fees that they receive as the prevailing parties in the action; I do not believe that it provides a basis for the court to deny them an award of any fees. I therefore dissent from the majority’s conclusion that the trial court acted within its discretion to deny defendants an award of attorney fees.