Court Opinion

ID: 9662300
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-23 23:05:15.469005+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:14:38.460592
License: Public Domain

COOKS, J.,
affirms in part and dissents in part.
_JjThe fees Centrix claims resulted from its incorrect assertion that plaintiffs’ lawyer was not entitled to attorney fees. It should not be awarded attorney fees for pursuing what it was not entitled to demand. The contract does not speak to Centrix’s fee claim for work performed to advance a meritless position. Centrix’s *977contract only allows it to hire an attorney to collect what the buyer “owe[d] or to enforce the contract.” Centrix could not collect what was owed it or enforce the contract against “privileged” proceeds; it had no right, contractually or otherwise, to advance any claim against the privileged portion of the funds deposited in the con-cursus proceeding. Therefore, I dissent from the portion of the opinion awarding any amount of attorney fees to Centrix.