Consumer Statutes, Deeds Of Trust: Trial Court’s Award Of Almost $13,000 To Borrower Obtaining Preliminary Injunction Under California Homeowner Bill Of Rights (HBOR) Affirmed On Appeal

Fee Award Based On Interim Success Sustained.

            We have posted earlier on the sequence of events in Sese v. Wells Fargo Bank, N.A., Case No. C083724 (3d Dist. Oct. 31, 2018) (unpublished). Earlier, the borrower had obtained an appellate decision determining that HBOR authorized an award of legal fees to borrowers who obtained a preliminary injunction preventing a trustee’s sale of their residences, based on Monterossa. (Monterossa v. Superior Court, 237 Cal.App.4^th 747 (2015) [reviewed in our June 14, 2015 post].) The trial court then denied an award of fees, which was deemed to not be an appealable order. (Sese v. Wells Fargo Bank, N.A., 2 Cal.App.5^th 710 (2016) [reviewed in our July 30, 2016 and August 18, 2016 posts].) However, borrower renewed its fee request, with the trial court granting $13,000 in fees based on the interim HBOR win. Wells Fargo appealed.

            This fee award was affirmed. The Third District decided that a fee recovery could be considered for interim relief under HBOR despite a final merits decision and despite a plaintiff who is ultimately not successful—the interim relief justified some fee recovery. With respect to a supremacy argument under 12 U.S.C. §91, that provision did not apply to an interlocutory order awarding fees against a bank because it did not come within the ambit of the statute—no bank property was seized (even on a pretrial attachment basis), just an order for fees entered. Trial court fee award affirmed in this one.