Soni v. CH&I Technologies, Inc., Case No. B235130 (2d Dist., Div. 8 Oct. 3, 2012) (unpublished) was a very contested donnybrook between an attorney and his former client, in which the president was also sued on the theory he was personally liable under the retainer agreement. Attorney won against former client corporation, garnering $204,465.07 in extraneous attorney’s fees (besides a compensatory damages award of around $77,000 if prejudgment interest is counted). However, president prevailed and won $45,030.75 in fees for defensing attorney in the case against president. All awards were made pursuant to a retainer agreement fee clause.
Because emotions were running high, both sides appealed. Both fee awards were sustained.
The main argument advanced by client against attorney’s recovery was that the prosecuting attorneys were barred based on the Trope v. Katz, 11 Cal.4th 274 (1995) self-representation ban. However, the factual circumstances were critical to showing this was not the case. Attorney was an individual practitioner, and only paid the prosecuting attorneys as contract attorneys–they were essentially independent contractors having no stake in his attorney’s practice so as to avoid the Trope concerns.
Shifting to attorney’s appeal of the fee award to the corporate client president, the flaw here was that the lower court found that president prevailed and was not independently liable or an alter ego–effectively ending the case against president even though the corporate entity ultimately was held liable. Individual defendant prevailed, and was thereby entitled to fees.