Second District, Division 1 Reverses Unlawful Detainer Judgment and Fee Award Based on Finding Five U.D. Notices Insufficient in Nature.
The POOF! principle is one that we coined for what generally happens when a merits judgment is reversed—that reversal usually means that a related attorney’s fees award also gets reversed.
Aside from being an excellent primer for landlords on how to frame unlawful detainer notices to pay or quit/perform covenants, Kompany, LLC v. Israyelyan, Case Nos. B210632 & B213774 (2d Dist., Div. 1 Feb. 10, 2010) (unpublished) illustrates how POOF! operates in this area. There, landlord won past-due rent and damages of over $600,000, possession of the premises, and $506,056.95 in attorney’s fees as against tenant. On appeal, tenant successfully challenged all five unlawful detainer notices, which were found either defective in form or invalid because landlord had not given tenant an opportunity to cure. As a result, the merits judgment was reversed, and—you guessed it—the attorney’s fees award also went POOF! Tenant was also awarded costs on appeal.
