Plaintiff Complained Fees Were For Pre-Trial Efforts, But They Were For Lawsuit Defense Efforts And Were Properly Awarded.
In Fung v. Oregon Trail Corp., Case No. B279366 (2d Dist., Div. 7 Nov. 19, 2018) (unpublished), defendant lender won an attorney’s award of $17,500 after the trial court dismissed a wrongful foreclosure action once plaintiff failed to timely amend following the lower court’s sustaining of a demurrer with leave. (Plaintiff tried to voluntarily dismiss, but the law in California is that this right is lost after the time to end to amend has expired, even if no judgment has yet been entered.) Although not disputing defendant was entitled to fees, plaintiff argued that lender already had recovered fees from the foreclosure proceeds. However, the factual premise was incorrect, because plaintiff did not file the action until much later and the claimed fees were for defense of the action in which lender prevailed. Fee were correctly awarded.