In McGuigan v. City of San Diego (2010) 183 Cal.App.4th 610, the Court applied Nestande v. Watson (2003), among other decisions, in considering whether a municipality, as one of two settling parties defending a settlement in an appeal pursued by third party objectors, could be assessed appellate attorney fees under section 1021.5 in favor of the other settling party (McGuigan). (McGuigan, supra, 183 Cal.App.4th at p. 618.) The Court concluded that McGuigan could not recover appellate attorney fees against the municipality since, in the appeal, the municipality "was simply not an 'opposing party' to McGuigan when these fees were incurred; rather, these parties were allied in interest in defending the settlement ... ." (Ibid.) The McGuigan court noted that McGuigan obtained $1.6 million in private attorney general fees against the municipality in the underlying case. (McGuigan, supra, 183 Cal.App.4th at p. 621.)