$13,380.24 Fee Award Against Party Whose Property Was Attached Had to be Reversed.
In Hirsch v. Reed, Case Nos. C060631/C061956 (3d Dist. June 30, 2010) (unpublished), a trial court awarded attorney’s fees of $13,380.24 against a plaintiff losing an action for various torts found primarily barred by the litigation privilege. Plaintiff’s suit also included a claim that defendant wrongfully attached a $900,000 court-interpled deposit after obtaining a pretrial writ of attachment. The lower court based the fee award upon Code of Civil Procedure section 490.020, which allows for an award of costs and expenses (including attorney’s fees) incurred by a party defeating a wrongful attachment.
The Third District reversed, because section 490.020 only imposed fee liability on the party causing the attachment. Plaintiff, instead, tried to sue based on the theory he was the victim of a wrongful attachment, so that section 490.020 did not apply.