The count the association lost

Judgment went to the owner on the private-nuisance count. The court held such a claim “could not be asserted by an association of all unit owners against a condominium unit owner” — a clean holding that an association cannot sue one of its own members for private nuisance.

The fee statute

27A V.S.A. § 4-117(a) is a fee-shifting exception to the American Rule. The court described it, following Official Comment 1, as permitting “court costs and attorney's fees to be awarded in the discretion of the court to any party that prevails in an action”, citing Post & Beam Equities Group, LLC v. Sunne Village Development Property Owners Ass'n, 2015 VT 60, ¶ 47, 199 Vt. 313 — still the controlling Vermont authority on association fee awards.

Note the shape of it. It is discretionary, it runs to any prevailing party, and it is not limited to associations.

Where the money went

The court applied the lodestar method and cut the request by roughly 25 percent as excessive, declining a line-by-line explanation on the authority of In re Sullivan. The awards:

• $10,010 for one attorney, whose $395 hourly rate the court found poorly supported;
• $18,117 for a second attorney at $330 rising to $380 per hour, with eleven years' experience, accepted as reasonable for Rutland County;
• $449.65 in costs;
• total $28,576.65, payable within 60 days.

What counts as “costs”

The court followed Epsom v. Crandall, 2019 VT 74, ¶ 35, 211 Vt. 94: filing fees, service fees, witness fees at $30 per day, mileage, plus discretionary deposition and mediation fees — and nothing else. It read all 59 pages of invoices and allowed four line items.

That is the number to hold onto. A three-day trial produced $449.65 in recoverable costs.

What the fee ruling turned on

Rates must be supported. The $395 rate was not rejected as unreasonable in the abstract; it was poorly evidenced. The $380 rate was accepted with eleven years' experience behind it and a county-market comparison.

Billing narrative is the evidence. A court that reads every page and grants 75 percent is not punishing the association for losing. It is declining to pay for entries that do not justify themselves.

Get the declaration into the record. The association's first motion failed in part because the operative amended and restated Declaration was never filed. Every hour spent recovering from that was billed, and some of it was cut.

What to watch next

Section 4-117 applies retroactively to Vermont communities created before January 1, 1999 through 27A V.S.A. § 1-204(a)(1), so the fee shift is available to older condominiums as well as newer ones. It runs both ways: an owner who defeats an association's claim is a prevailing party too.