Crawford

Following the rendition of final judgment in this protracted school desegregation case, five separate interveners, each allegedly representing widely divergent viewpoints, sought an award of fees and costs pursuant to Code of Civil Procedure section 1021.5, the so-called “private attorney general” doctrine, for their participation in the remedial phase of the action. The trial court denied the award and this consolidated appeal by four of the interveners follows. We affirm.

The history of this case, encompassing more than two decades of costly and highly complex litigation, has been memorialized in the media, the opinions of this court, the California Supreme Court, and to some extent the United States Supreme Court. Suffice it to say that every major aspect of the case has received scrupulous attention. The details therefore need not be repeated at length here. The pertinent facts giving rise to the instant appeal may be summarized as follows.

This class action was instituted in August 1963, several weeks after the California Supreme Court held in Jackson v. Pasadena City School Dist. (1963) 59 Cal.2d 876 [ 31 Cal.Rptr. 606 , 382 P.2d 878 ], that school boards in this…