Saunders

Plaintiffs Joseph A. Saunders and Joseph A. Saunders, P.C. (Saunders) appeal the judgment entered following the grant of summary judgment in favor of Weissburg & Aronson (Weissburg), County of Los Angeles (County), and two hospitals. We affirm the judgment.

Facts

Pursuant to a written agreement, Saunders and Weissburg jointly represented a large group of hospitals in contingency fee litigation against the Medicare program. That litigation is referred to by the parties as “the Group Appeal.” The Group Appeal was ultimately settled by the unanimous vote of its nine member hospitals for $8 million. Saunders was paid both the contingency fee and a consulting fee contemplated in the agreement with Weissburg.

Saunders alleged that Weissburg made certain misrepresentations to Saunders and the Group Appeal members which affected their assessment of the settlement offer that the hospitals ultimately accepted. Specifically, Saunders contended that Weissburg manipulated the course of the litigation to obtain a greater recovery for the individual defendant hospitals and the hospitals owned by the County, to the detriment of the remaining hospital members of the Group Appeal.…