Azure Limited v. I-Flow Corp.

Plaintiff Azure Limited (Azure) appeals the trial court’s denial of its pre- and postjudgment motions for attorney fees pursuant to Code of Civil Procedure section 1021.5. 1 We affirm. In essence, this was a private dispute between two corporate parties over hundreds of thousands of dollars in economic losses. Because the resolution of the case happened to turn in part on the interpretation of the Unclaimed Property Law (UPL) (§ 1500 et seq.), Azure’s tenacious pursuit of its interests resulted in a Supreme Court opinion bearing on the rights of all property owners whose property has been wrongfully transferred to the state by another private party. (See Azure Limited v. I-Flow Corp. (2009) 46 Cal.4th 1323 [ 96 Cal.Rptr.3d 501 , 210 P.3d 1110 ] (Azure I).) But merely advancing the state of the law does not transform a private dispute over substantial economic losses into a section 1021.5 case in which fees may be awarded to attorneys for serving the public interest as private attorneys general. Defendant I-Flow Corporation (I-Flow) “has done nothing to curtail a public right other than raise an issue [involving a public right] in the context of private litigation that…