de la Cuesta v. Benham, 193 Cal. App. 4th 1287 (2011)

Citation: de la Cuesta v. Benham, 193 Cal. App. 4th 1287 (2011)
Parent Document: de la Cuesta v. Benham, 193 Cal. App. 4th 1287 (2011)
Jurisdiction: California (state)
Effective Date: 2011-03-29
Original Source: https://www.courtlistener.com/opinion/5810133/de-la-cuesta-v-benham/ ↗

Full Text

750 chars

On top of that, there is the actual language of section 1717 itself, which expressly contemplates some sort of comparison of respective results: Otherwise the Legislature would not have defined “prevailing party” as the party obtaining “a greater relief’ (italics added)—a comparative term. As noted in Sears v. Baccaglio (1998) 60 Cal.App.4th 1136, 1151 [70 Cal.Rptr.2d 769]: “Because the statute allows such discretion, it must be presumed the trial court has also been empowered to identify the party obtaining ‘a greater relief’ by examining the results of the action in relative terms: the general term ‘greater’ includes ‘[l]arger in size than others of the same kind’ as well as ‘principal’ and ‘[s]uperior in quality.’ ” (Some italics added.)

Other Sections in This Document (49)

Full Text