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In Building a Better Redondo v. City of Redondo Beach (February 22, 2012) __ Cal.App.4th __ (Case No. 124769), a group of slow-growth advocates brought a petition for writ of mandate and declaratory relief against the City of Redondo Beach, seeking an order compelling the city to submit a local coastal program amendment to public vote in compliance with a charter amendment the city had recently enacted, which required any “major change in allowable land use” to be approved by city voters. The city argued that the local coastal program amendment predated the charter amendment and thus was not governed by the charter amendment. The trial court found the local coastal program amendment constituted a major change in allowable land use and ordered the city to place the amendment before the voters. Although the city appealed the judgment, it also voluntarily complied with the court’s order and the voters approved the amendment. The city’s final certification of the local coastal program followed. Subsequently, the trial court awarded petitioners $313,000 in attorney fees.

The appellate court dismissed the city’s appeal from the judgment as moot and affirmed the award of attorney fees. The court held that the results of the election approving the amendment were indisputably in effect for all purposes and would remain so regardless of the outcome of the appeal. Therefore, granting relief from the judgment would have no practical effect and the city conceded as much. No exception to the mootness doctrine applied. The case did not involve a matter of continuing public interest since it involved fact-specific issues that were unlikely to recur. The city claimed its appeal was not moot because the award of attorney fees was dependent upon the propriety of the trial court’s ruling on the merits of the action. According to the city, a reversal of the trial court ruling on the merits necessarily would require a reversal of any award of attorney fees since petitioner would no longer qualify as a prevailing or successful party for purposes of the attorney fee claim. The court disagreed with the contention that the appeal of the award of attorney fees prevented it from finding the appeal on the merits moot in this case, distinguishing the cases upon which the city relied.

The court also upheld the trial court award of attorney fees. The trial court did not abuse its discretion when it found that the claimed hourly fees, although substantial, were not unreasonably high in view of the quality of the work and counsel’s special expertise. The court found that the award was properly based on the reasonable market value of the services, even though the petitioners had been charged a reduced fee.

Key Point:

In finding that the appeal of the attorney fee claim did not revive the appeal on the merits, the court distinguished CEQA cases where the appeal involved the rights of third parties who exercised their own, separate right of appeal from judgments finding an EIR inadequate. In these CEQA cases cited by the city, the lead agency’s decision to comply with the writ and perform further environmental review did not render appeal of the judgment moot. The court in this case indicated that the dispositive fact saving the appeal from dismissal for mootness was not that the appeal involved an attorney fee award (despite language in at least one CEQA case finding an appeal on the merits was not moot because the award of attorney fees depended on the correctness of the ruling on the merits), but that the appeal was brought by the real party in interest who is aggrieved and has standing to appeal regardless of the agency’s decision to comply with the order.

Written By: Tina Thomas and Amy Higuera

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For questions relating to this blog post or any other California land use, environmental and/or planning issues contact Thomas Law Group at (916) 287-9292.

The information presented in this article should not be construed to be formal legal advice by Thomas Law Group, nor the formation of a lawyer/client relationship. Readers are encouraged to seek independent counsel for advice regarding their individual legal issues.

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