Court Opinion

ID: 9729473
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-26 14:37:35.282796+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:25:58.793546
License: Public Domain

WIENER, J., Concurring and Dissenting.
In denying Attorney Wheeler his lien for attorney fees the majority concludes “[substantial evidence supports the trial court’s conclusion of insufficiency of the notice given to Bree” and “equitable principles emerge which uphold the trial court’s refusal to enforce the attorney’s lien against Bree.” I do not agree with either conclusion.
Internal Revenue Code section 6323(b)(8), provides a federal tax lien does not supersede a lien for attorney’s fees against a judgment “to the extent of [the attorney’s] reasonable compensation for obtaining such judgment. . . . ” Clearly, Attorney Wheeler’s lien is in this superpriority category. (See fn. 2, ante.) No particular form of notice is required to inform the judgment debtor of the lien. Only that information is required which will avoid placing the judgment debtor at risk.
Here, Wheeler told opposing counsel of his attorney’s lien and that he would be claiming priority over the levy to the extent of his fees. His telephone conversation of March 15, 1979, was confirmed by letter the same date, in which he said, “This is also to advise you that I hold an attorney’s lien on the Judgment and any payment thereon should be made to my trust account. On payment I will provide you with full satisfaction of judgment and releases of Mechanic’s Lien. Please call if you have any questions.” Opposing counsel received the letter on March 19, 1979, two days after he had approved the judgment as to form. On March 23, 1979, apparently in a moment of patriotic zeal, Bree felt legally obliged to mail his check to the Internal Revenue Service to satisfy the judgment which was not final (the judgment was filed Mar. 6, 1979) in order to comply with a levy which he had managed to treat with benign neglect for approximately four and one-half months. This record does not indicate why Bree did not respond earlier indicating he was not indebted to Beall, since on the date of the levy he claimed Beall owed him money.
*664Wheeler’s letter requesting opposing counsel to call if he had any questions was in itself sufficient reason for Bree to withhold payment to the IRS. It is not as if this case involved metaphysical issues understood by only those who are able to write on the head of a pin. Lawyering, and the legalese associated with it, hasn’t reached that level of complexity where the statement, “I hold an attorney’s lien” in the context used here required further clarification. In the jargon customarily used by lawyers that phrase should reasonably have put opposing counsel on notice Wheeler had a lien for fees the amount of which could have been determined with a minimum of effort. A client’s triumph should not turn on either his or his lawyer’s gamesmanship. At a minimum Bree’s counsel had the obligation to telephone Wheeler to explain his client’s wish to pay the sum involved directly to the Internal Revenue Service to enable Beall to take appropriate legal steps. If something more formal was. required Bree could have done what everyone else does in these situations (e.g. Business Title Corp. v. Division of Labor Law Enforcement (1976) 17 Cal.3d 878 [132 Cal.Rptr. 454, 553 P.2d 614]) namely file a stakeholder’s action, deposit the money and let the Internal Revenue Service and the claimants (here, Wheeler) fight it out. To say that Bree was between a rock and a hard place is to ignore the innumerable legal options, including the basic characteristic of good manners, which were available to him.
Even the trial court did not rest its decision on the fact that notice of Wheeler’s lien was inadequate. The court found as a matter of law that the letter, “an unfiled and unrecorded document, [cannot] under the existing Internal Revenue Code, take priority.” I am reluctant to join the majority in upholding a factual determination based on the substantial evidence rule when none was made.
I would remand to the trial court for a further hearing to determine the extent of Wheeler’s reasonable compensation in obtaining Beal’s judgment against Bree and impose liability against Bree accordingly.