California Appellate Tracker

City of San Diego v. San Diegans for Open Government

October 21, 2016

A corporation and its lawyer behaved unethically in answering a city’s validation action when both knew the corporation was suspended for non-payment of state taxes; hence, they were properly denied a private attorney general fee award despite prevailing in the action.

A corporation suspended for non-payment of taxes answered a validation action filed by the City of San Diego. Both the corporation and its attorneys were aware of its suspension when the answer was filed. The corporation’s powers were not revived for four months thereafter—well after the expiration of the time limit for opposing the validation action. After prevailing in the action the corporation sought a private attorney general fee award. This decision holds that the corporation’s and its attorneys’ actions were unethical and possibly criminal and that such activity cannot be said to be in the public interest, so they were not entitled to any private attorney general fees.

California Court of Appeal, Fourth District, Division 1 (Huffman, Acting P.J.); September 22, 2016; 2016 WL 5231822

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City of San Diego v. San Diegans for Open Government

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