Tag: Costs

Second District Upholds Award for Costs Incurred by Agency in Taking Over Preparation of Administrative Record from Petitioner

In LandWatch San Luis Obispo County. v. Cambria Community Service District (2018)25 Cal.App.5th 638, the Second Appellate District ruled that the trial court acted within its discretion in awarding record-related costs to the respondent agency, even though the petitioner had elected to prepare the record, where the petitioner failed to prepare the record in a timely fashion.

In January 2014, the Cambria Community Services District approved an emergency water supply project. The district did not perform any environmental review under CEQA. LandWatch sued and elected to prepare the administrative record. LandWatch also sent the district a letter under the Public Records Act asking for the documents comprising the record. The district sent LandWatch the documents. A month later, the district informed LandWatch that additional documents had been identified, and that the district would provide them upon payment. Three months passed before LandWatch asked for the documents, at which point the district provided them, in April 2015. In August 2015, LandWatch produced a draft index to the record. The district responded by noting that the index was both over- and under-inclusive. That same date, the district produced its own index and certified the record it had prepared. LandWatch filed a motion to include additional documents post-dating the January 2014 approval date. The trial court ordered the district to certify an appendix consisting of the additional documents. Weeks passed and LandWatch did not prepare the appendix. The district wrote that it would prepare the appendix itself, after which LandWatch prepared its own competing appendix, which it lodged in February 2016, a month before the trial. The court accepted the district’s appendix, and rejected the one prepared by LandWatch. Following trial, the court denied the petition. The district filed a memorandum of costs seeking $39,000, including $4,000 for preparing the certified record, and $27,000 for preparing the appendix. LandWatch moved to tax costs. The trial court awarded the district $21,000 ($4,000 for preparing the certified record; $14,000 for preparing the appendix – half of the district’s requested amount; and $3,000 for other items). LandWatch appealed.

LandWatch argued that, because it had elected to prepare the record, the district ought not to recover any record-related costs. The court noted, however, that in electing to prepare the record, LandWatch was required to do so within 60 days. LandWatch missed this deadline. LandWatch argued the district was to blame for the delays. The court disagreed. The trial court, as trier of fact, had concluded otherwise—a determination to which the Court of Appeal must defer.

LandWatch argued the district ought not to recover costs associated with the appendix of post-approval documents because the district had resisted LandWatch’s efforts to augment the record with them. The court was unmoved. The trial court had ordered the preparation of the appendix at LandWatch’s insistence. “For LandWatch to now assert that the appendix is not part of the record to escape the costs it created is fanciful, if not perverse.” (Slip. Op. at pp. 7-8.)

The court also upheld the trial court’s awarding costs for the district’s court-call, copying and transcription costs. The court noted that the trial court had already reduced the costs as requested by LandWatch, or had ample basis for finding the costs to be reasonable.

Fifth District Court of Appeal Disagrees, in Part, with “Hayward Area Planning” Decision and Awards Costs for Record Preparation to Real Party in Interest

The Fifth District Court of Appeal, in a partially-published opinion, ruled on a cost award in Citizens for Ceres v. City of Ceres (2016) 3 Cal.App.5th 237. The court disagreed in part with the decision in Hayward Area Planning Association v. City of Hayward (2005) 128 Cal.App.4th 176 (“Hayward Area Planning”), and granted real party in interest’s request for the cost of preparation of the administrative record.

Citizens for Ceres (“Citizens”) filed a petition for writ of mandate under CEQA challenging the City of Ceres’ approval of a Wal-Mart shopping center. At Citizens’ request, the city prepared the administrative record, through its outside counsel. Pursuant to agreement with the city, real party in interest Wal-Mart subsequently reimbursed the city $48,889.71 for the costs of preparing the record.

After the city and real party in interest won on the merits at the trial court, Wal-Mart filed a memorandum of costs requesting payment for the cost of preparation of the administrative record. In response, Citizens filed a motion to tax costs, arguing that the city could have recovered the cost of preparation of the record, but Wal-Mart could not. The trial court granted Citizens’ motion, based on the holding in Hayward Area Planning, and denied Wal-Mart’s request for costs.

The Fifth District Court of Appeal disagreed with the trial court and found that Public Resources Code section 21167.6, subdivisions (b)(1) and (b)(2), do not bar a real party in interest from recovering the cost of record preparation where the petitioner requested that the lead agency prepare the record, and the real party reimbursed the agency. Section 21167.6 provides three express options for preparation of the administrative record in a CEQA action: (i) the agency can prepare the record; (ii) the plaintiff can prepare the record subject to the agency’s certification; or (iii) the agency and the plaintiff can agree on a different procedure. The First District Court of Appeal in Hayward Area Planning held that prevailing parties are entitled to seek an award of the cost of preparing an administrative record only when the record was prepared in one of the three approved ways. The Hayward Area Planning court held that a real party in interest could not recover costs when the petitioner directed the agency to prepare the record and the agency delegated that task to the real party interest.

The Fifth District Court of Appeal explained that Section 21167.6(b)(1) requires the parties to “pay any reasonable costs or fees imposed for the preparation of the record of proceedings in conformance with any law or rule of court.” Wal-Mart applied to recover costs under Code of Civil Procedure sections 1032 and 1033.5, and the court found that there is nothing in section 21167.6 limiting such recovery so long as the record was prepared in one of the three specified ways. Here, the record was prepared in one of those ways—it was prepared by the agency—and contrary to the holding in Hayward Area Planning, the right to recover is not limited any further.

The Court of Appeal reversed the trial court’s order granting Citizens’ motion to tax costs and remanded for the lower court to determine whether the requested administrative record costs were reasonable.