No Written Contract—No 1717 Fees; Banks And Assignees—No Go Under 1717(c).
In Professional Collection Consultants v. Brown, Case No. B270128 (2d Dist., Div. 6 Jan. 17, 2017) (unpublished), bank’s assignee (collection consultants) requested the trial judge to award it $148,792 in contractual attorney’s fees under Civil Code section 1717 or $800 in statutory fees under Civil Code section 1717.5 after it successfully obtained a compensatory award against a credit card account borrower to the tune of $16,153 (after winning a summary judgment and an appeal of that SJM win).
The trial judge awarded zippo.
1968 Zippo. David J. Fred, author. Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 2.5 Generic license. Wikipedia.
The appellate court affirmed based on a lack of fee entitlement. Bank’s assignee denied the existence of a written agreement, so the section 1717 fee basis went out. As far as much smaller statutory fees under section 1717.5(c), the 2/6 DCA concluded that bank’s assignee stood in the same position as the bank, which was precluded from obtaining fees under express language saying the statute “does not apply to any action in which a bank … is a party.” (§ 1717.5(c).)
