Judge: Elaine W. Mandel, Case: 21SMCV00574, Date: 2023-10-05 Tentative Ruling

Case Number: 21SMCV00574    Hearing Date: November 15, 2023    Dept: P

Tentative Ruling

Estevez v. General Motors, LLC, Case No. 21SMCV00574

Hearing Date November 15, 2023

Plaintiff Estevez’s Motion for Attorney Fees (taken under submission 10/5/2023)

Defendant General Motors Motion to Tax Costs

As part of the settlement of this lemon law matter, defendant agreed to pay attorney’s fees and costs. On October 5, 2023 the court’s tentative order granted the fees motion but disallowed certain items, which defense counsel argued were incorrectly calculated. The court recalculates and amends its tentative ruling.

Estevez’s exhibit 22 (itemization of hours and fees) indicates attorney Gonzalez spent 10 hours total on April 22, 27 and 29, 2021 drafting discovery requests at $300/hour. To reflect a reasonable amount of time saved through counsel’s use of templates, the time will be reduced from ten to four hours, a reduction of $1,800 (6 x 300). See Cohen declaration, exhibit 22, pgs. 2-3.

Exhibit 22 indicates Gonzales spent 5.1 hours drafting meet and confer letters. Exhibit 22, pgs. 6-8, 18-19. 4.7 hours were billed at $325/hour, totaling $1,527.5, with .4 hours billed at $400/hour, totaling $160. Id., resulting in an average billing rate of $330.88. 5.1 hours is excessive for these tasks, since the letters were substantially similar to letters used in prior cases. The time will be reduced by three hours billed at the average rate, for a reduction of $992.65 (3 x 330.88).

Exhibit 22 indicates Gonzalez spent 5.9 hours (August 30, 2022) preparing deposition subpoenas and notices of deposition, .7 hours (September 2, 2022) reviewing and editing the notices and 2 hours on (October 6, 2022) reviewing objections to the subpoenas, billed at $400/hour. To reflect time saved by relying on existing work product, and noting that 8.4 hours to prepare deposition notices is not warranted, this is reduced by six hours or $2,400 (6 x 400).

Exhibit 22 indicates Gonzalez spent 5.9 hours (August 30, 2022) drafting deposition subpoenas and .7 hours (September 2, 2022) editing those subpoenas at $400/hour. Drafting subpoenas is not a complicated task. The amount of time spent is excessive, and will be reduced by three hours, a reduction of $1,200 (3 x 400).

Exhibit 22 indicates Gonzalez spent 11 hours (January 30 and February 7, 2023) reviewing supplemental discovery responses. Although the production was substantial, Gonzalez is experienced in Song-Beverly cases and knew what materials she was looking for within the production. 11 hours is more time than reasonably necessary to review the production. The fees will be reduced by six hours, for a reduction of $2,400.

Exhibit 22 indicates Gonzalez spent 5.3 hours at $300/hour (May 28, 2021) drafting discovery responses. The amount will be reduced by 3 hours, or $900 (3 x 300).

Finally, to reflect time saved through the use of prior work product, the court will reduce the time Gonzalez spent (February 7, 8 and March 1, 2023) drafting and revising a motion to compel by four hours. Gonzalez billed at $400/hour, for a further reduction of $1,600 (4 x 400).

The other requested fees and costs are reasonable and supported by billing records and the nature of the tasks performed. The court reduces the requested fees from $74,525.50 by $11,292.65, for a fee award of $63,232.85.

Motion to Tax Costs

If requested costs appear proper on their face, a verified memorandum of costs is prima facie evidence of their propriety, and the objecting party has the burden of them Ladas v. California State Auto Ass’n. (1993) 19 Cal.App.4^th 751, 774-776

Estevez requests $8,274.35 in costs. GM moves to tax $5,156.40, representing jury fees, mediation fees, fees incurred serving non-party deposition notices and transcript fees for those depositions, arguing they reflect unnecessary litigation activity that did not contribute to the settlement of the case.

The court disagrees that third-party deposition fees were unreasonable and unrecoverable. Estevez alleges he brought the vehicle to an authorized facility for repairs several times, but the defects were not fixed. It was reasonable to depose third-party employees at those facilities to corroborate these allegations. Although the case did not go to trial, it was not unreasonable for Estevez to post jury fees. Finally, mediation costs are not unreasonable. Estevez withdrew his request for $525 in court reporter fees for a motion to compel further that never went forward.

Estevez is awarded $7,749.35 in costs, representing $8,274.35 minus the withdrawn $525 in court reporter fees.