Meister

Plaintiff prevailed in a civil action against defendants. He recovered $25,000 in noneconomic damages and $2,500 in punitive damages and obtained an injunction. The court also awarded him his “reasonable attorney’s fees.” However, the court’s calculation of “reasonable attorney’s fees” yielded but a small fraction of the total amount plaintiff had been charged by his attorneys. In this appeal, plaintiff challenges the trial court’s methodology in arriving at this amount. We affirm.

Background

On January 9, 1991, defendant Gary Lease, the dean of humanities at the University of California at Santa Cruz (hereafter UCSC), sent a copy of a “Humanities Division Six-Year Academic Plan” (Plan) to chairpersons of the boards, committees and programs within the humanities division. This Plan was stamped “confidential.” Plaintiff, the coordinator of the legal studies program (hereafter LS), received a copy of this document. The “Plan” contained Lease’s recommendation that LS be essentially abandoned. On January 13, 1991, plaintiff circulated a copy of the Plan to the faculty members who taught in LS.

On February 5, 1991, Lease sent a letter to plaintiff in which Lease asserted…