Berry v. Pope Valley Union Elementary School District CA1/3, A171352

Charles J. Berry, after being terminated as a substitute teacher, filed a lawsuit against Pope Valley Union Elementary School District and Napa County Office of Education with various claims, including malicious prosecution, defamation, and whistleblower retaliation.
Defendants filed an anti-SLAPP motion (Code Civ. Proc., § 425.16) to strike Berry’s complaint, which the trial court mostly granted, dismissing several claims.
The trial court initially awarded attorney fees and costs to the defendants as prevailing parties on the anti-SLAPP motion.
On Berry's first appeal, some dismissed claims were reinstated, so the appellate court remanded for reconsideration of the attorney fees award.
On remand, the trial court again found defendants were prevailing parties and awarded them reduced attorney fees; Berry appealed, challenging both the prevailing party status and the sufficiency/constitutionality of the fee awards.

Issue	Plaintiff's Argument	Defendant's Argument	Held
Prevailing Party Status	Defendants were not prevailing because some claims survived the anti-SLAPP motion	Defendants prevailed on most claims, significantly narrowing the litigation	Defendants were partially prevailing parties entitled to fees
Sufficiency of Evidence for Fees	Fee declarations inadequate; billing records required; declarations were hearsay	Declarations are sufficient and accepted by courts for anti-SLAPP fee motions	Declarations are sufficient; billing records not required
Recovery of Unpaid Fees	Cannot recover fees unless counsel actually paid; attorney declarations insufficient	Fees can be awarded for accrued, not necessarily paid, attorney work	Actual payment by client unnecessary for statutory attorney fee award
Constitutionality of Fee-Shifting	Anti-SLAPP fee award violates petition rights, is excessive, and violates due process	Fee-shifting discourages unmeritorious claims, upholds fair litigation, not a penalty	Fee provision constitutional; not a fine or violation of due process or petition rights

Mann v. Quality Old Time Service, Inc., 139 Cal.App.4th 328 (Cal. Ct. App. 2006) (prevailing on anti-SLAPP motion generally entitles party to fees, even if partially successful)
ComputerXpress, Inc. v. Jackson, 93 Cal.App.4th 993 (Cal. Ct. App. 2001) (partial success on anti-SLAPP motion reduces but does not eliminate fee entitlement)
Ketchum v. Moses, 24 Cal.4th 1122 (Cal. 2001) (fee awards based on careful compilation of time spent and reasonable rates; declarations suffice)
Rosenaur v. Scherer, 88 Cal.App.4th 260 (Cal. Ct. App. 2001) (fees can be recovered for work accrued, not just paid for)
Christian Research Institute v. Alnor, 165 Cal.App.4th 1315 (Cal. Ct. App. 2008) (fees awarded only for anti-SLAPP motion, not total litigation)