Fee Clause Interpretation, Landlord/Tenant: $93,913.85 Fee Award In Favor Of Residential Defendant Affirmed On Appeal

Conversion Claim Arose From The Lease, With Other Arguments Forfeited On Appeal.

            Where appellants fail to make arguments at the trial court level or in an appellant’s opening brief, they may be subject to having their challenges forfeited on appeal.  That largely happened in Ghannoum v. Sevier, Case No. B304026 (2d Dist., Div. 2 Apr. 7, 2021) (unpublished).

            Defendant tenant defensed a non-signatory residential property owner’s lawsuit based on damaging property in the premises after defendant was evicted.  The trial court awarded defendant $93,913.85 out of a requested $116,527.10 based on a lease attorney’s fees clause. 

            That result was affirmed on appeal.  Many of the arguments on appeal were dismissed because they were not raised at the trial court level or raised in appellants’ opening brief.  With respect to the gist of the claim, a conversion based on a contract can give rise to fee recovery, Mustachio v. Great Western Bank, 48 Cal.App.4^th 1145, 1151 (1996), which it did as far as triggering fee entitlement in this particular case.