Plaintiff obtained an approximate $72,000 default judgment against defendants represented by an attorney who submitted an affidavit of fault to get the judgment vacated (the attorney was suspended from the practice of law). The trial court found the default had to be vacated on a mandatory basis under CCP § 473, but ordered that attorney pay $12,000 in attorney’s fees spent by the other side in obtaining the default and defending against the successful motion to vacate that still generated the fee award.
Ex-attorney challenged the fee order in Park v. Help U Build, Case No. B239446 (2d Dist., Div. 2 Apr. 15, 2013) (unpublished), to no avail.
Attorney argued he had no notice of the successful motion to vacate the default judgment, but the appellate court rejected this because he had to know that mandatory relief was the likely result of the hearing and did nothing to exercise diligence in protecting his interests when adverse fees were a natural consequence of his “fault” affidavit.
As far as the amount of the fees, plaintiff was entitled to various items, such as (1) the fees and costs associated with defending against the motion to vacate the default judgment (Vanderkous v. Conley, 188 Cal.App.4th 111, 116, 118 (2010)), and (2) fees and costs in obtaining the defaults, especially given that plaintiff’s attorneys sent unheeded notices to defense counsel reminding him of the need to respond (Rogalski v. Nabers Cadillac, 11 Cal.App.4th 816, 823 (1992)).
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