Gramajo

INTRODUCTION

Plaintiff and Appellant Elinton Gramajo sued Defendants and Respondents Joe’s Pizza on Sunset, Inc.; Joe’s Pizza on Sunset, LLC; and Giuseppe Vitale (together, Joe’s Pizza) for Labor Code violations in connection with Gramajo’s work as a pizza delivery driver. Gramajo recovered $7,659.93 after a jury trial. Gramajo requested attorney fees in the amount of $296,920 and costs in the amount of $26,932.84 under Labor Code section 1194, subdivision (a), which entitles prevailing employees to their reasonable litigation costs, including attorney fees. The trial court denied Gramajo’s requests for fees and costs in their entirety, finding Gramajo’s counsel severely over-litigated the case, and the requested fees and costs were grossly disproportional to Gramajo’s limited trial success. The trial court relied on Code of Civil Procedure section 1033, subdivision (a), which gives trial courts discretion to deny prevailing plaintiffs their litigation costs when plaintiffs file their case as an unlimited civil proceeding but only recover an amount available in a limited civil case. On appeal, Gramajo argues the trial court should have awarded him reasonable litigation costs…