Wash. Court of Appeals published opinion — 877801 orderandopinion.pdf

Citation: Wash. Court of Appeals published opinion — 877801 orderandopinion.pdf
Jurisdiction: Washington (state)
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Original Source: https://www.courts.wa.gov/opinions/pdf/877801%20orderandopinion.pdf ↗

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Anderson plus eight hours of work by Santiago.

The Cromars appeal.

DISCUSSION

Trial Court’s Attorney Fees Order

We review a trial court’s decision regarding the amount of an attorney fee award

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The trial court judge based its order on plaintiffs’ proposed order but struck through
undesired language and added new italicized language noted with judge’s initials. Such
alterations are omitted for ease of reading.
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For the current opinion, go to https://www.lexisnexis.com/clients/wareports/.
87780-1-I/10

for abuse of discretion. Mayer v. City of Seattle, 102 Wn. App. 66, 79, 10 P.3d 408

(2000); see, e.g., Chuong Van Pham v. Seattle City Light, 159 Wn.2d 527, 538-40, 151

P.3d 976 (2007) (applying standard). A trial court abuses its discretion when it makes a

decision that is manifestly unreasonable, based on untenable grounds, or if no

reasonable person would take the position adopted by the trial court. Mayer, 102 Wn.

App. at 79 (citing Allard v. First Interstate Bank of Wash., N.A., 112 Wn.2d 145, 148-49,

768 P.2d 998 (1989)).

In calculating the reasonable amount of attorney fees, a trial court should apply

the lodestar method. Mahler v. Szucs, 135 Wn.2d 398, 433, 957 P.2d 632 (1998). The

lodestar method requires that a trial court conduct a three-part analysis. First, the court

must determine that counsel spent a reasonable number of hours in obtaining a

successful recovery for the client. Id. at 434; see also Berryman v. Metcalf, 177 Wn.

App. 644, 662, 312 P.3d 745 (2013) (“The lodestar must be limited to hours reasonably

expended.”). Second, the trial court must determine “the reasonableness of the hourly

rate of counsel at the time the lawyer actually billed the client for the services.” Mahler,