Lemaire

Background

Sometime prior to commencing the action at bench, the herein, the All City Employees Association, City of Los Angeles, a California nonprofit corporation (hereinafter referred to as ACEA), retained the herein named defendants/ cross-complainants/ appellants (hereinafter referred to as Attorneys) to represent a class of city employees against the City of Los Angeles in a salary and wage dispute. The Attorneys successfully prosecuted the prior “prevailing wage” action in the case entitled Sanders, et al. v. The City of Los Angeles, Los Angeles County Superior Court case No. 806041, recovering a substantial sum. (See Sanders v. City of Los Angeles (1967) 252 Cal.App.2d 488 [ 60 Cal.Rptr. 539 ].) The Attorneys in this prior case were awarded attorneys’ fees of 25 percent of the recovery by the trial court. The Court of Appeal reduced the attorneys’ fees to IV2 percent of the recovery. The California State Supreme Court reversed the Court of Appeal and reinstituted the trial court’s award of attorneys’ fees of 25 percent (an amount in excess of $700,000).

The Pleadings

In the case at bench, ACEA, Don H. Meyer and Dan F. Watson (officers of ACEA) and other…