Fee Clause Interpretation: Plaintiff Obtaining Breach Of Contract Damages In Court Lawsuit Was Not Entitled To Fee Recovery, Because Fees Clause Only Applied To Arbitration Results

Contractual Interpretation Of Fees Clause So Confirmed.

           A plaintiff sued and obtained contractual breach damages of $317,512, but really wanted to obtain prevailing party fees under a contractual fees clause.  The trial court did not bite, and the same too for the appellate court in SPAP Company, LLC v. Clinical Products, LLC, Case No. B282405 (2d Dist., Div. 3 Aug. 29, 2019) (unpublished).

            The problem was that the fees clause was contained in a section entitled ARBITRATION, which did not expand its scope outside of that context (unless possibly court-related proceeding related to the arbitration itself).  That required affirmance of the fee denial order, because the relief was obtained in court rather than arbitration proceedings.

Comments

[Kelowna]

Very interesting...