Merely Pleading Fee Recovery Does Not Create An Estoppel If No Entitlement Lies.
Two Boots Pizza. Downtown LA. Carol M. Highsmith, photographer. 2012. Library of Congress.
Defendant won a dispute over an agreement to sell certain Papa Johns’ pizza restaurant locations, and then attempted to recoup attorney’s fees as a prevailing party based on a clause in escrow instructions. Both the trial and appellate courts agreed that the clause did not confer a fee entitlement basis, because the provision only related to indemnification of a separate escrow holder earlier dismissed from the case. It was an indemnity clause, not a fees clause, concluded the appellate court panel in Royal Capital Holdings, Inc. v. Chase Pizza, Inc., Case No. B278993 (2d Dist., Div. 2 May 24, 2017) (unpublished). It also found that the losing plaintiff’s pleading of fee entitlement did not create an estoppel if there is no true substantive basis for fee recovery (and there wasn’t).