California Appellate Tracker

Intelligent Investments Corp. v. Gonzales

July 26, 2016

Tenant was the prevailing party, entitled to an attorney fee award under LA’s Rent Escrow Account Program, when the landlord voluntarily dismissed an unlawful detainer action to recover possession of property that was subject to the Program.

Under LA Municipal Code 162.09, a tenant who prevails in an unlawful detainer action brought concerning property that is (or within the last year was) subject to the Rent Escrow Account Program is entitled to an award of attorney fees. This provision of the ordinance is in addition to any right to attorney fees under the lease and Civ. Code 1717, so section 1717’s provision stating no party prevails on a voluntary dismissal does not apply. Here, the landlord voluntarily dismissed the unlawful detainer action. The property was subject to the REAP program. The tenant was not required to allege that fact as an affirmative defense in order to recover attorney fees. With the voluntary dismissal, defendant tenant was clearly the prevailing party and so he was entitled to an award of his attorney fees.

Los Angeles Superior Court, Appellate Division (Kumar, Acting P.J.); June 14, 2016; 2016 WL 3902664

Subscribe to California Appellate Tracker

Thank you for your desire to subscribe to Severson & Werson’s Appellate Tracker Weblog. In order to subscribe, you must provide a valid name and e-mail address. This too will be retained on our server. When you push the “subscribe button”, we will send an electronic mail to the address that you provided asking you to confirm your subscription to our Weblog. By pushing the “subscribe button”, you represent and warrant that you are over the age of 18 years old, are the owner/authorized user of that e-mail address, and are entitled to receive e-mails at that address. Our weblog will retain your name and e-mail address on its server, or the server of its web host. However, we won’t share any of this information with anyone except the Firm’s employees and contractors, except under certain extraordinary circumstances described on our Privacy Policy and (About The Consumer Finance Blog/About the Appellate Tracker Weblog) Page. NOTICE AND AGREEMENT REGARDING E-MAILS AND CALLS/TEXT MESSAGES TO LAND-LINE AND WIRELESS TELEPHONES: By providing your contact information and confirming your subscription in response to the initial e-mail that we send you, you agree to receive e-mail messages from Severson & Werson from time-to-time and understand and agree that such messages are or may be sent by means of automated dialing technology. If you have your email forwarded to other electronic media, including text messages and cellular telephone by way of VoIP, internet, social media, or otherwise, you agree to receive my messages in that way. This may result in charges to you. Your agreement and consent also extend to any other agents, affiliates, or entities to whom our communications are forwarded. You agree that you will notify Severson & Werson in writing if you revoke this agreement and that your revocation will not be effective until you notify Severson & Werson in writing. You understand and agree that you will afford Severson & Werson a reasonable time to unsubscribe you from the website, that the ability to do so depends on Severson & Werson’s press of business and access to the weblog, and that you may still receive one or more emails or communications from weblog until we are able to unsubscribe you.

I Agree

Effective, Experienced, Exceptional.

California Appellate Tracker

Intelligent Investments Corp. v. Gonzales

Categories

San Francisco

Severson & Werson

Orange County

Severson & Werson