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Court of Appeal:
Lawyer Can’t Collect Attorney Fees From Defendant in CFCA Action That Settles Plaintiff With No Fee-Award
By a MetNews Staff Writer
The Court of Appeal for this district held yesterday that the attorney for a plaintiff in an action under the California’s False Claims Act, which provides for an award of attorney fees to a successful plaintiff, cannot maintain a cause of action against the settling defendant for such fees where the parties resolved their dispute, without that lawyer’s participation, with no provision for fee-shifting.
Berney Law Corporation had represented Robert G. Bartlett in a suit against the Porter Valley Country Club; Bartlett and the club settled; Berney law sued the club for fees, relying on the California Supreme Court’s 2001 decision in Flannery v. Prentice that a fee-award belongs to the attorney, not the client.
“Flannery does not assist Berney Law,” Presiding Justice Dennis M. Perluss of Div. Seven said in an unpublished opinion, explaining: “Flannery addressed to whom fees awarded by the court belonged and determined, ‘as between the plaintiff and her counsel,’ they belonged to counsel absent a contrary agreement. Here, no fees were awarded at all.”
He went on to say:
“Berney Law cites no case, and we are not aware of any, that allows counsel to proceed against the settling defendant for statutory fees following dismissal of the action with prejudice when no fees were awarded in the underlying case, no provision was made in the settlement agreement for counsel to obtain a fee award, the parties expressly agreed to bear their own fees, and counsel concedes it made alternative arrangements with its client to obtain fees from the settlement”
The case is Berney Law Corp. v. ClubCorp Porter Valley Country Club, B313888.
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