Let Them Choose v. San Diego Unified School District

In the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, the San Diego Unified School District (district) (defendant) proposed a vaccination roadmap that would have required district students to receive a COVID-19 vaccination to attend classes or extracurricular activities in-person beginning in January 2022. The organization Let Them Choose (LTC) and parent S.V. (plaintiffs) sued the district, arguing that state law fully occupied the field of vaccination requirements for the state’s students, preempting the district’s adoption of a local vaccination requirement. The trial court and court of appeal agreed, both holding that the district’s proposed roadmap was preempted by state law. Following the court of appeals’ decision, LTC and S.V. filed motions in the trial court seeking an order requiring the district to pay their attorney’s fees. They claimed such an order was proper under California Code of Civil Procedure § 1021.5, a statute that allows successful parties to recover attorney’s fees in suits to enforce an important right impacting the public interest. The district opposed the motion, arguing that (1) the suit did not advance the public interest but instead impeded it by interfering with the district’s efforts to protect students and (2) the vaccination roadmap was merely a proposal and would not have been implemented on other grounds, meaning that the lawsuit had no actual impact that could have benefited the public. The trial court accepted those arguments and denied the motions for attorney’s fees. LTC and S.V. appealed.