Judge: Craig Griffin, Case: Young v. Byars, Date: 2022-11-21 Tentative Ruling

Assignee Collect Co’s (“CC”) Motion for Attorney Fees and Costs (“Motion”) is CONTINUED to 01/23/23, at 2:00 p.m. for additional briefing and evidence.

The Court has previously awarded attorney fees in connection with successful defense of motions brought by the Youngs under CCP § 128.5.  But the present motion seeks to recover non-attorney time, attorney fees incurred in small claims cases, and attorney fees incurred in an unsuccessful vexatious litigant motion all under an indemnification provision in the collection agreement.  The Court is unaware of any authority it has to award these amounts on motion, rather than on summary judgment or trial on a pleaded breach of contract/indemnification cause of action. 

Moreover, assuming the Court has the authority to award the types of costs sought, the Court finds additional evidence regarding the specific billing CC requests needs to be produced.  CC has redacted the actions of its counsel from the billing.  While the general overview of monthly billing is helpful (Taran Decl. ¶ 10; Lula Decl. ¶¶ 15, 18), the court wants to see the actual unredacted billing to determine if the time spent is proper.  (Taran Decl., Ex. E; Lula Decl., Ex. B.)  In CC’s prior Motion for Attorney Fees, unredacted billing provided in support of the motion permitted the court to determine if the amount of fees requested were appropriate.  (ROA #210.)  It is unclear why CC decided to redact the billing this time.

The billing of CC staff member Wall is also not supported.  (Wall Decl. ¶ 16.)  Each of the 13 entries Wall requested was either for eight-hours or 10-hours.  Despite the agreement between the parties stating CC is permitted to bill a minimum of eight hours for hearings, the court finds that excessive especially as no hourly billing rate was provided in the agreement that would permit Plaintiffs to make an informed decision as to that clause.  The court orders Wall to provide a breakdown of actual hours and specific billing actions, and not the minimum hours, that were spent on each of those entries.  If Wall does not provide the actual hours spent, the court will disregard the entire $36,300 requested for Wall’s billing.

Also, CC has failed to account for moneys collected on the judgment, a percentage of which is to be credited to the Youngs under the collection agreement.

The hearing is continued.  CC is to provide a supplemental briefing and evidence no later than 12/12/23; the Youngs may file any responsive briefing no later than 1/9/23. 

CC to give notice.