Lien For Attorney Fees: Attorney Properly Following Attorney Lien And Security Foreclosure Procedures Was Entitled To Obtain Property Which Was Security For Fees

Attorney “Went By The Book” In Our Read Of Things In Obtaining Ultimate Victory.

            In Garcia-Bolio v. Hibernian Properties, LLC, Case No. F073973 (5th Dist. Jan. 5, 2018) (unpublished), an attorney took a lien in a contingency agreement and then in the litigation received a lien against the residence of the client (a residence which he successfully obtained as a favorable asset in a Marvin dispute settlement against client’s opponent).  Based on the lien granted on the residence of former client, attorney non-judicially foreclosed, but with the client arguing there was a “one action/security first issue” so as preclude his eventual victory by which he obtained title to the residence.   Neither the trial nor appellate courts bought this argument as a basis to reverse the judgment below.  Actually, we commend this to readers as almost a paradigm of how an attorney judiciously perfected his attorney lien and rights granted pursuant to a deed of trust.  Attorney never sought a personal judgment, but simply perfected his lien rights whether based on the attorney’s lien or deed of trust—violating no security first principles in the process.