In re Tobacco Cases I

In In re Tobacco Cases I (2010) 186 Cal.App.4th 42 [ 111 Cal.Rptr.3d 313 ], this court affirmed an order in which the trial court granted the People of the State of California relief on their action against R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Company (Reynolds) to enforce a consent decree and final judgment (Consent Decree) entered on a master settlement agreement (MSA). We agreed that certain images Reynolds used in an advertising campaign for Camel cigarettes violated the cartoon ban in the MSA, which was incorporated into the Consent Decree.

*1596 In this companion appeal, Reynolds challenges an order awarding attorney fees to the People. Reynolds contends (1) the court erred by finding Civil Code section 1717 (section 1717), which governs attorney fees in contract actions, inapplicable to the unilateral attorney fees clause in favor of the state in the Consent Decree; and (2) the court applied the wrong legal standard in its alternative finding that even if section 1717 applies, the People prevailed for purposes of attorney fees because they won on a “significant issue” in the litigation. Under section 1717, the prevailing party is the party who recovers “greater relief’ in the…