Attorney “Went By The Book” In Our Read Of Things In Obtaining Ultimate Victory.
In Garcia-Bolio v. Hibernian Properties, LLC, Case No. F073973 (5th Dist. Jan. 5, 2018) (unpublished), an attorney took a lien in a contingency agreement and then in the litigation received a lien against the residence of the client (a residence which he successfully obtained as a favorable asset in a Marvin dispute settlement against client’s opponent). Based on the lien granted on the residence of former client, attorney non-judicially foreclosed, but with the client arguing there was a “one action/security first issue” so as preclude his eventual victory by which he obtained title to the residence. Neither the trial nor appellate courts bought this argument as a basis to reverse the judgment below. Actually, we commend this to readers as almost a paradigm of how an attorney judiciously perfected his attorney lien and rights granted pursuant to a deed of trust. Attorney never sought a personal judgment, but simply perfected his lien rights whether based on the attorney’s lien or deed of trust—violating no security first principles in the process.