Wins

California’s Mobilehome Residency Law (MRL) guarantees attorney fees and costs to prevailing parties in any action arising under that statute, including an action to enforce the MRL right to take free-and-clear title to property at a court-ordered sale.  GMSR’s client, mobilehome park owner Canyon View, brought quiet title actions against lenders and loan services that had recorded documents clouding Canyon View’s title to mobilehomes Canyon View acquired at MRL court-ordered sales.  These appeals concern two such actions.

In one case, Canyon View appealed a fee award on the ground that the award was based not on the hours billed or any other evidence presented in that case, but instead on the fee award that the same trial court awarded in a separate case against a separate defendant.  The Court of Appeal agreed, reversing the fee order “because it was based entirely on evidence in a separate action, not on any analysis of the work Canyon View claims its counsel performed in the instant action, and because the court employed an approach to calculating the amount that has no reasonable basis.”  In the same order, the Court of Appeal rejected a cross-appeal challenging Canyon View’s statutory right to fees.

In the other case, the Court of Appeal affirmed the trial court’s order awarding Canyon View nearly half a million dollars in attorney fees for prevailing at trial against another loan servicer.  The Court of Appeal rejected the loan servicer’s challenges to both Canyon View’s entitlement to fees and the amount of the award.

To read the Court of Appeal Opinions:

Click here: Canyon View Limited v. Bank of America, N.A., et al. (Oct 26, 2023, B312259) 2023 WL 7036287 [Second District, Division One].

And, click here: Canyon View Limited v. Nationstar Mortgage LLC (Oct. 26, 2023, B312642) 2023 WL 7037437 [Second District, Division One].