Powers

Appellant Robert Powers (Powers) contends that the trial court abused its discretion by denying his request for attorney fees after respondents Family Planning Specialists Medical Group, Inc., Carl Watson, and Paul Wright (collectively hereinafter respondents) voluntarily dismissed a complaint by which they had sought injunctive and monetary relief for Powers’s distribution of leaflets respondents alleged to be libelous. Specifically, in their complaint, respondents claimed that Powers had threatened to and did distribute leaflets in which he falsely stated that the individual respondents, both of whom are board-certified obstetrician-gynecologists, specialized in late-term abortions, used a controversial abortion procedure known as “D&X” (the acronym used for the “dilatation and extraction” procedure), and performed abortions after the second trimester of pregnancy. We conclude that there is substantial support for the trial court’s finding that Powers’s defense of this action did not confer any “significant benefit. . . on the general public or a large class of persons” as required by Code of Civil Procedure section 1021.5, and that the court did not, therefore, abuse…