A prominent San Diego attorney who sought more than $258,000 in legal fees has been slapped down by the state court of appeal after it said he broke the law by knowingly representing a suspended corporation in its suit against the city.
“We determine that attorney fees cannot be awarded to a party whose attorney violates the law to appear in the action and offers no justification whatsoever for his or her conduct,” Justice Richard Huffman wrote of the decision to deny legal fees to attorney Cory Briggs. “To require taxpayers to compensate a party or a law firm for unethical, unprofessional, or even illegal conduct, under the guise that the litigant is protecting the public interest, would turn the private attorney general statute on its head.”
The opinion, which overturns a February lower court ruling, can now be cited as legal precedent and could have major implications for legal challenges launched by suspended entities. It is also a blow to one of the city’s most notorious litigators.
Briggs represented San Diegans for Open Government in its legal challenge over a new tax to finance an expansion of the downtown convention center. The Superior Court ruled in favor of the city, but Briggs and his client won on appeal. San Diego attorney Paul Dostart said the Court’s move was remarkable.
“Courts are given broad latitude to choose the words they use in their opinions,” Dostart said. “Even so, because ethical conduct is core to the role of a lawyer, it is extremely rare for any attorney – especially one who has been elevated to the bench and whose published opinions will become a permanent part of California jurisprudence – to suggest that an identified attorney has engaged in unethical or unlawful conduct. That three judges sitting as a court of appeal did so unanimously is extraordinary.”
Briggs and his attorney say the court got it wrong by failing to make an important distinction between corporations that get suspended for not paying taxes and those that are suspended for not filing tax returns.
Read more about the decision here.