Brown v., Mortensen, No. B281704 (D2d1 Jan. 3, 2019)
The Court here holds that there’s a right to jury trial over a claim to recover nominal statutory damages under the Confidentiality of Medical Information Act. Civ. Code §§ 56, et seq. The statutory damages are, in effect, a penalty, and statutory penalties have historically been treated as actions at law, not equity.
There is not, however, a right to jury trial on the Act’s attorney-fee shifting. The right to jury trial can sometimes attach to a fee award, but only when attorneys’ fees are recoverable as an element of damages. For instance, that happens in some kinds of insurance cases. But ordinary prevailing party fee awards, like the one in the Act, are an incidental form of relief that is properly adjudicated by a post-trial fee motion to be decided by the court.
Reversed.
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