Honchariw v. PMF CA REIT, LLC

Summary

The California Court of Appeal addresses appeals arising from a $6.2 million mortgage loan and the borrowers’ recovery of default interest charged under the loan modification agreement. The court holds that self-represented litigants, including an attorney representing himself and his spouse, cannot recover attorney fees under the applicable contractual or statutory provisions. The court reverses the attorney fee award and affirms the referee’s findings concerning treble damages under Business and Professions Code section 10242.5.

Holdings

1. A self-represented attorney may not recover attorney fees under Civil Code section 1717 or under Code of Civil Procedure sections 1021 and 1033.5 because the attorney has not paid, or become liable to pay, compensation for legal representation.
2. When an attorney-spouse represents both spouses in litigation concerning a community-property asset and the spouses' interests are joint and indivisible, both spouses are effectively self-represented for purposes of Trope and neither may recover attorney fees for the attorney-spouse's legal work.
3. Plaintiffs forfeited their substantial-evidence challenge because their opening brief failed to fairly summarize the evidence, omitted the lenders' evidence supporting the referee's finding, and did not establish the evidentiary status of many of their exhibits.

Questions Presented

1. Whether a self-represented attorney may recover attorney fees under Civil Code section 1717 or Code of Civil Procedure sections 1021 and 1033.5.
2. Whether a nonattorney spouse may recover attorney fees for legal work performed by an attorney-spouse when the litigation concerns a community-property asset and the spouses' interests are joint and indivisible.
3. Whether plaintiffs forfeited their challenge to the referee's finding that Business and Professions Code section 10242.5 did not apply because their appellate briefing failed to fairly summarize the evidence supporting the finding.

Disposition

reversed_and_remanded