John Russo Indus. Sheetm v. City of L. A. Dep't of Airports

*381 John Russo Industrial Sheetmetal, Inc. (doing business as JRI, Inc.; hereafter JRI) contracted with the City of Los Angeles Department of Airports (also known as Los Angeles World Airports; hereafter LAWA), to provide LAWA specialized airport *219 firefighting trucks. Each sued the other for breach of the contract. In a consolidated action, LAWA further alleged JRI violated the California False Claims Act (CFCA), Government Code section 12650 et seq., 1 with respect to the sale. LAWA was awarded $1 in contract damages, *382 and its CFCA claim was rejected by the jury-as were JRI's claims against LAWA. The court awarded LAWA costs as prevailing party on the contract claims, but awarded JRI attorney fees on the CFCA claim, finding the claim frivolous and harassing. LAWA challenges the fee award.

We conclude JRI "prevail[ed] in the action" under the relevant CFCA fee provision (§ 12652, subd. (g)(9)(B); hereafter section 12652(g)(9)(B) ) regardless of its failure to prevail in the action as a whole. We reject other challenges LAWA presents to the fee award and affirm.

I. BACKGROUND

"JRI and LAWA entered into a contract for JRI to build and provide four ARFF [ (Aircraft…