Cases: Section 1717

Estoppel And Fee Clause Interpretation: Losing Broker Using MLS Was Not Liable To Winning Seller For Fees Just Because Broker Pled Fee Recovery And When Fees Clause Did Not Encompass Losing Broker

Cases: Estoppel, Cases: Fee Clause Interpretation, Cases: Section 1717

First District, Division Five Follows Blickman Turkus and Sessions Decisions.      This next case is a virtual paradigm for students of fees clauses in exclusive listing agreements involving MLS brokers who sue sellers and then lose. It deals with judicial estoppel and fee clause interpretation issues frequently seen in these types of disputes.      Menasco […]

Civil Code Section 1717: Plaintiff Losing Forbearance Agreement Breach Lawsuit Hit With $48,877.50 Fees/Costs Award

Cases: Deeds of Trust, Cases: Section 1717

Fourth District, Division 3 Affirms Lower Court Fees/Costs Award.      Here is a sign of the times. Delinquent borrower enters into a Forbearance Agreement with lender. There is a mistaken tax refund paid to lender as part of the forbearance that gets disgorged, with borrower indicating that lender took a risk with respect to paying

Civil Code Section 1717: Litigant Assisted By Counsel In Defending Against Injunction Dissolution Motion Entitled to Fee Recovery

Cases: Section 1717

  Trope Does Not Bar Assistive Efforts.      In Hance v. Smith, Case No. D051917 (4th Dist., Div. 1 Mar. 3, 2009) (unpublished), respondent on appeal was found to be entitled to attorney’s fees under a Memorandum of Understanding when he successfully utilized an attorney in helping fend off appellant’s motion to obtain dissolution of

Civil Code Section 1717: Dismissal Of Foreign Corporate Plaintiff’s Action For Failure To Post Undertaking Is Finality For Purposes Of Awarding Fees

Cases: Section 1717

First District, Division 3 Decides Dismissal is Final For Section 1717 Purposes.      Recently, we have seen a slew of decisions, mainly unpublished, on what situations constitute finality for purposes of justifying a fee award under Civil Code section 1717. They go from one extreme like Santisas v. Goodin, 17 Cal.4th 599 (1998) (where the

Reneging House Seller Hit With Adverse $226,577.74 For Losing Specific Performance and Unlawful Detainer Actions

Cases: Sanctions, Cases: Section 1717

Court of Appeal Affirms Substantial Fee Award, But Reverses CCP Section 128.7 Sanctions.      As our Mission Statement warns, attorney’s fees can make or break a litigant given the high costs of taking a case to verdict or decision. The next litigant learned this message all too well, when a substantial fee award was affirmed

Civil Code Section 1717: Family Member Prevailing On Emotional Distress Claim Arising From Mistaken Interment Does Not Obtain Contractual Fees

Cases: Section 1717

Fourth District, Division 3 Splits On Liability Issue, But Decides No Fees.      In a first impression decision, involving a matter of last impression, a Fourth District, Division 3 panel split on whether a cemetery’s temporary interment of a stranger in a family plot adjacent to one’s parents may give rise to an emotional distress

Civil Code Section 1717: Dismissal of Complaint Without Prejudice Based On Service Technicality Is Not A Final Resolution Triggering Fee Recovery

Cases: Section 1717

Fourth District, Division 1 Distinguishes Its Own Otay Decision.      It is interesting that certain issues pop up and are discussed by different appellate courts around the same time frame.      In our February 20, 2008 post, we explored Hall-Mark Services, Inc. v. Harris & Associates, an unpublished Third District decision that distinguished Otay River

Civil Code Section 1717: Appellate Court Sustains Trial Court’s Refusal To Award Fees When Plaintiff Voluntarily Dismissed Contract-Based Claims

Cases: Costs, Cases: Section 1717

  Local Santa Ana Appellate Court Follows Santisas.      Santisas v. Goodin, 17 Cal.4th 599 (1998) is one of our Leading Cases, where the California Supreme Court held that contractual fees are not available under Civil Code section 1717(b)(2) where a case has been voluntarily dismissed or dismissed pursuant to a settlement of the case

Construction Litigation: Fourth District, Division 1 Reverses Fee Awards Under Code of Civil Procedure Section 1038 and Reverses/Affirms Others Under Civil Code Section 1717

Cases: Fee Clause Interpretation, Cases: Indemnity, Cases: Section 1717

Court of Appeal Discusses Numerous Issues Under the Two Statutes.      In a complicated construction dispute between window subcontractor and other construction professionals sued for equitable indemnity and contribution, the Fourth District, Division 1 reversed and affirmed some fee awards against window subcontractor after overturning a judgment on the pleadings, affirming a summary judgment as

Civil Code Section 1717: No Apportionment Necessary Where Bank’s Demand On Completion Guaranty Made Everything Interrelated

Cases: Allocation, Cases: Section 1717

Third District So Holds in Recent Unpublished Decision.      Under our category “Allocation,” we have reviewed cases arising under Civil Code section 1717 in which courts do and do not require apportionment of work between contract/noncontract claims for purposes of awarding fees. The basic test is that apportionment is not required where claims are “so

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