California Court of Appeal

In a suit that included claims against a title insurance company for breach of contract and breach of fiduciary duty stemming from a mortgage broker's fraud, the trial court's ruling on the award of contractual attorney's fees to the title insurance company is vacated, where the trial court abused its discretion in considering the financial condition of the plaintiffs when setting the title insurance company's award of contractual attorney's fees, but the trial court did not abuse its discretion by allocating a portion of the total award to each plaintiff, assigning fees on the basis of plaintiffs' relative recoveries against the mortgage broker, rather than enter a single award of attorney's fees for which plaintiffs would be jointly and severally liable.

Appellate Information

• Decided 03/15/2012
• Published 03/15/2012

Judges

• Margulies

Court

• California Court of Appeal

Counsel

• For Appellant:
  
• Jenkins Mulligan & Gabriel, Eisenberg and Hancock