In Demakas v. Guibault, Case No. A137144 (1st Dist., Div. 5 Aug. 23, 2013) (unpublished), a plaintiff voluntarily dismissed a complaint containing both contract and tort claims. The trial court actually awarded $20,000 in fees to the non-dismissing party.
This one was reversed. The dismissal of the contract claims did not give rise to fee exposure under Santisas. Also, unlike other fee clauses, the clauses here were narrow and did not give rise to fee recovery on the tort claims.