Stratton

*904 This case began as a dispute over approximately $300 in unpaid wages. It has since transmogrified into a dispute concerning attorney fees totaling nearly 200 times that amount and is here now for the second time. In the previous appeal, appellant Thomas Beck challenged the trial court's award of attorney fees for work that respondent Anthony Stratton's attorney performed in that forum. We affirmed the trial court's ruling, holding that Stratton's motion for $31,365 in statutory attorney fees was timely and supported by substantial evidence. At the conclusion of our opinion, we stated, "In the interest of justice, the parties are to bear their own costs of appeal." ( Stratton v. Beck (2017) 9 Cal.App.5th 483 , 487, 498, 215 Cal.Rptr.3d 150 ( Stratton ) ). We reiterated that allocation in the ensuing remittitur: "The parties are to bear their own costs of appeal."

The parties interpreted this directive differently. Beck maintained that "costs" included attorney fees on appeal, precluding Stratton from seeking them under Labor Code section 98.2, subdivision (c).

*57 Stratton disagreed and filed a motion in the trial court seeking $114,840 in appellate attorney fees-a lodestar…