Wong v. City of Anaheim
In a prior appeal, court affirmed the liability of appellant in connection with a landslide in a residential neighborhood. However, court also remanded a number of judgments in favor of certain homeowners for the trial court to make adjustments with respect to the amounts of their awards. After the trial court entered new judgments, appellant filed appeals from three of those judgments. The three sets of homeowners are jointly represented on appeal.
Court affirmed the ruling denying appellant an offset with respect to monies paid by the Salyer Plaintiffs’ insurance carriers in settlement of claims against them for bad faith and breach of contract. The factual stipulations between the parties did not bar an assertion by the Salyer Plaintiffs that these monies were not paid as settlement monies from the developer as to which appellant was entitled to an offset.
Court reversed the ruling denying the recalculation of prejudgment interest following the redetermination of the amounts of the offsets on remand. Contrary to the assertion of the Salyer Plaintiffs, nothing in court's prior opinion precluded the recalculation of prejudgment interest on remand. Court also reverse the award of attorney fees with respect to the first appeal. The trial court erred in failing to first determine what fees were actually incurred with respect to the appeal, before evaluating whether the requested fees were reasonable. Code of Civil Procedure section 1036 does not permit an award of attorney fees on an inverse condemnation action unless the fees were actually incurred by the plaintiff. Finally, this court directed the trial court to redetermine postjudgment interest as appropriate in light of the other adjustments made pursuant to this opinion.
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