Opinion ID: 2519945
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: The Attorney's Fees Question

Text: ¶ 7 The Fund's action was brought to recover an amount for unpaid workers' compensation insurance premiums. In State of Oklahoma, ex rel. State Insurance Fund v. Great Plains Center, Inc., 2003 OK 79, 78 P.3d 83, we said that an action for unpaid insurance premiums was not an action on either an account stated or an open account. We said that: We decline to adopt the concept that contractual obligations on an insurance policy are merged into, and superceded by, a subsequent statement of an amount due sent by one party to another based upon obligations becoming due under provisions of an insurance policy, and thus creating an `account' to render or state. Id. at ¶ 15, 78 P.3d at 89. The action for unpaid insurance premiums is not an account stated. ¶ 8 The appellate court concluded that the negotiations and subsequent agreement of the parties changed the nature of the obligation into an account stated. The phrase account stated refers to a type of contract where an agreement on a balance owed becomes a new and independent obligation that supercedes and merges the prior contractual obligation. Great Plains, 2003 OK 79, ¶ 11, 78 P.3d at 88, quoting, Webster Drilling Co. v. Sterling Oil of Oklahoma, Inc. 1962 OK 242, 376 P.2d 236, 238. ¶ 9 In Edwards v. Walden, 595 P.2d 445, 1979 OK 74, a party sought to enforce a settlement agreement, and requested attorney's fees pursuant to § 936 claiming that the settlement agreement was an account stated. Id. 595 P.2d at 447. We noted that the action had been brought to enforce a contract and not on an account stated, and we concluded that § 936 attorney's fees were not proper. ¶ 10 The Fund argued on summary judgment that Defendants agreed to the amount due. However, this mid-litigation allegation of an agreement does not turn the Fund's action into one on an account stated. First, the Fund did not allege an account stated. Secondly, the Fund sought to enforce a contractual obligation that arose prior to the January 24th agreement. [2] The action in the trial court was on an insurance contract, and attorney's fees pursuant to § 936 were not proper. We thus affirm the trial court's attorney fee ruling. Great Plains, supra .