The trial court did not abuse its discretion in denying private attorney general fees to Malibu homeowners who successfully challenged a proposed special assessment to protect a beach and nearby homes from erosion. The trial court correctly estimated the homeowners’ potential benefit from the suit as the amount of assessments they sought to avoid over the 20-year period of the proposed beach improvement project, then reduced the benefit by a 50% chance of winning, and concluded that the benefit so calculated substantially exceeded the attorney fees that the homeowners had incurred in bringing the suit. Although the plaintiff district might impose a new assessment, doing so was very uncertain given the difficult approval process. So the possibility needn’t be considered in considering benefit from the suit. The trial court also did not err in considering the benefits to all homeowner parties (who shared in paying litigation costs), even though some of them joined the litigation after the decision to file it had already been made.