Appeal Of Prior Merits Addition Of New Judgment Debtor Order Did Not Divest Trial Court Of Jurisdiction To Rule On Fee Motion.
In SMA Liquidating Corp. v. Leech Tishman Fuscaldo & Lampl, LLP, Case No. B287960 (2d Dist., Div. 7 May 13, 2019) (unpublished), the trial judge allowed a second request for consideration of promissory note contractual fees and awarded $9,000 to the prevailing party/judgment creditor after a new party was added as a judgment debtor (although an earlier fee request was denied, but with the lower court inviting a renewed fee request). On appeal, the party hit with the fee award argued that the trial judge lacked jurisdiction to decide the second motion and it was an improper reconsideration request.
The fee award was affirmed by the 2/7 DCA. The lower court invited a renewed request such that it was not an improper reconsideration motion, falling within an exception under Le Francois v. Goel, 35 Cal.4th 1094, 1096-1097 (2005). Given that the first judgment debtor was not aggrieved by the initial denial of the fee request, no appeal could be had by it such that the judgment debtor’s appeal of the addition of a new judgment debtor did not impact either the first fee denial or the second fee grant. Trial judges routinely retain jurisdiction to enter fees after entry of a judgment or order (Varian Medical Systems, Inc. v. Delfino, 35 Cal.4th 180, 189 (2005); Carpenter v. Jack in the Box Corp., 151 Cal.App.4th 454, 462 (2007)), and that is the case here.