§ 1268.610.Award to Defendant of Litigation Expenses

This section is the general litigation-expense-shifting rule that a dismissal under § 1268.510's abandonment procedure -- or a judgment that the plaintiff can't take the property -- sets in motion. Subject to the scaling rules in subdivisions (b) and (c), the court must award the defendant litigation expenses whenever the proceeding is wholly or partly dismissed for any reason, or whenever final judgment holds that the plaintiff cannot acquire the property it sought.

When the dismissal or adverse judgment is only partial -- covering part of the property, or resulting in the dismissal of one plaintiff among several under § 1260.020 -- the defendant doesn't get every litigation expense incurred in the whole case. Instead, the award is limited to whatever expenses, or portion of expenses, wouldn't have been incurred if the property ultimately still being sought had been the only property the plaintiff went after from the start.

Subdivision (c) narrows things further for a defendant found to have no ownership or interest in the property the agency sought. If the agency abandons or seeks dismissal as to that particular defendant, and the court finds the defendant truly lacked any interest in the property, the defendant only recovers litigation expenses incurred up through the filing of that abandonment notice or dismissal request -- not expenses incurred afterward.

Procedurally, litigation expenses get claimed through a cost bill, prepared, served, filed, and taxed the way costs work in an ordinary civil action. If the dismissal came on the plaintiff's own motion, the cost bill has to be filed within 30 days after notice of entry of the dismissal judgment.