Opinion ID: 2775237
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: due to its error, the district court must

Text: RECALCULATE THE ATTORNEY FEE AWARD ¶ 51 The Thorgaards ultimately stipulated that the amount of the lien claim stated in 2 Ton‘s original notice of lien—$7,147.41— was correct. On December 27, 2011, the district court entered a judgment against the defendants in the lien foreclosure action, which included the Thorgaards and Washington Federal. Because 2 Ton was the successful party in the lien action, it was entitled to have its costs awarded, including reasonable attorney fees.79 On April 16, 2012, the district court awarded 2 Ton $44,857.70 in attorney fees. ¶ 52 The Thorgaards argue that the district court abused its discretion when it awarded 2 Ton $44,857.70 in attorney fees. Specifically, they argue (1) that the district court improperly failed to allocate the attorney fees, first, between the contract and lien claims and, second, among the defendants who incurred the attorney fees; (2) that the court should have allocated attorney fees on a per capita basis to all fourteen lots; and (3) that an award of attorney fees that is more than six times the principal lien amount is per se unreasonable. ¶ 53 ―Calculation of reasonable attorney fees is in the sound discretion of the trial court, and will not be overturned in the absence of a showing of a clear abuse of discretion.‖80 Though ―an award of attorney fees must be supported by evidence in the record,‖ ―trial courts enjoy broad discretion in evaluating evidence to determine what constitutes a reasonable fee.‖81 In this case, the district court abused its discretion by awarding attorney fees on the basis of an invalid notice of lien. Therefore, we must remand for the district court to recalculate the award after considering the fees incurred by the Thorgaards, who had to defend themselves against 2 Ton‘s improperly amended notices of lien, and whose property was not properly released under Utah Code section 38-1-28. In other words, because the improperly 79 UTAH CODE § 38-1-18(1). 80 Dixie State Bank v. Bracken, 764 P.2d 985, 988 (Utah 1988) (citation omitted). 81 Id. at 988–89. 23 2 TON v. THORGAARD Opinion of the Court amended notices of lien were an error that permeated almost the entire course of the litigation, we remand for the district court to recalculate the reasonable attorney fees owed 2 Ton. ¶ 54 Mechanics‘ liens are wholly creatures of statute, having no place at common law. In this setting, the only access to an attorney fees award is that granted by that statute. Attorney fees first appear in section 38-1-17 of the Mechanics‘ Lien Act. In this section, the court is instructed to apportion costs between the owner and the contractor . . . according to the right of the case, but in all cases each subcontractor exhibiting a lien shall have his costs awarded to him, including . . . such reasonable attorneys‘ fees as may be incurred in preparing and recording said notice of claim of lien.82 Under Utah Code section 38-1-18, attorney fees must be awarded to the successful party in the action to enforce a lien: ―in any action brought to enforce any lien under this chapter the successful party shall be entitled to recover a reasonable attorneys‘ fee, to be fixed by the court, which shall be taxed as costs in the action.‖ As the successful party in the lien foreclosure action, 2 Ton was entitled to have the court award its costs, including reasonable attorney fees. ¶ 55 However, because 2 Ton improperly amended its notice of lien to reflect an improper calculation, and because the court erroneously accepted the amendments and refused to accept the alternate security and release the property, we hold that the attorney fee award must be reversed. Accordingly, we remand for the district court to recalculate 2 Ton‘s reasonable attorney fees, and to consider and discount the attorney fees incurred by the Thorgaards as a result of the error. Because we reverse the award of attorney fees, we need not address the Thorgaards‘ specific grounds for challenging the award.