Appellate Court Affirmed Lower Court’s Denial of Fee Request.
In Estate of Bilafer, Case Nos. A135675 et al. (1st Dist., Div. 3 Aug. 20, 2013) (unpublished), a petitioner beneficiary under some family trusts appealed the denial of fees after other beneficiaries dismissed an order to show cause re contempt involving performance under a settlement agreement with a fees clause.
That determination was affirmed on appeal. The legal issue was whether a contempt proceeding was “on the contract” for Civil Code section 1717 purposes. It was, given that it was initiated to enforce a contractual obligation despite its “quasi-criminal” nature. (Share v. Casiano Bel-Air Homeowners Assn., 215 Cal.App.3d 515, 522-523 (1989).) Given that reality, the dismissal of the OSC expressly fell within the Santisas case, which recognized that voluntary dismissals of contract claims will result in no fee exposure under Civil Code section 1717(b)(2).