Barnard

This is a legal malpractice action in which the plaintiffs claimed their former lawyers settled the underlying inverse condemnation case for too little money, and the lawyers (by cross-complaint) sought the fee they earned in the underlying case. The trial court disposed of the plaintiffs’ claim by nonsuit on the ground that, assuming negligence, the plaintiffs’ damages were too speculative, then gave judgment to the lawyers on their cross-complaint. The plaintiffs appeal, claiming the lawyers were not entitled to their fee and that the trial court should not have granted nonsuit. We affirm and grant the lawyers’ motion for sanctions for a frivolous appeal.

Facts

A.

A public sewer maintained by the City of Los Angeles runs under property owned by John T. Barnard (and his wife, Virginia I. Barnard, who is included in our references to Barnard except where the context makes it clear we are referring only to him). In August 1993, the City discovered the sewer had deteriorated and caused Barnard’s property to subside. In November 1995, Barnard retained the law firm of Perona, Langer, Beck & Lallande to pursue an inverse condemnation action against the City, agreed in…