California Court of Appeal

Following a judgment which found defendants Knapp and Home Loan Service Corporation liable for conspiring to engage in fraudulent transfers to avoid enforcement of plaintiff's judgments against defendant Miller, the trial court's award of attorney's fees to plaintiff is affirmed, where: 1) Code of Civil Procedure section 685.040 authorizes a judgment creditor to recover fees incurred in enforcing a judgment if the underlying judgment included an award of fees as costs; 2) section 685.040 supports an award of fees as costs against a party who conspires to help a judgment debtor evade efforts to enforce a judgment that includes a contractual fee award; and thus, 3) the broker defendants are liable for plaintiff's fees even though they were neither parties to the original action giving rise to the judgment or the contract on which that judgment was based.

Appellate Information

• Decided 01/08/2014
• Published 01/08/2014

Judges

• SIGGINS

Court

• California Court of Appeal

Counsel