Court Awards HOA $148,000+ in Fees & Costs Following Member’s Voluntary Dismissal of Lawsuit

This case involved a dispute between a condominium owner / board member (“Owner”) and his homeowners association (“Association”) over Owner’s liability for the payment of costs and attorneys’ fees awarded to Association following the dismissal of an underlying action that had been filed by Owner against Association and 25 other corporate and individual defendants.

In October 2022, Owner, representing himself, filed a lawsuit against Association and the other defendants in which he alleged that he had been defrauded out of his ownership interest in portions of Association’s common areas through fraudulent deeds that Owner sought to invalidate. The complaint filed by Owner was 132 pages long and attached more than 900 pages of exhibits. After Owner litigated the matter for 16 months, he obtained monetary settlements from some of the “non-association” defendants and then voluntarily dismissed his claims against the Association without prejudice, and without having requested or receiving a waiver of costs from the Association.

Following Owner’s dismissal of the action, Association sought an award from the Court of $4,142.26 in costs and $144,000 in attorney fees, arguing that it had prevailed in the action. The trial court awarded Association: