Zacadia Financial Limited v. Fiduciary Trust Internat. of Cal.
This case is a companion to another we decide today, the $2.5-million tail on a $353-million dog.[1] Appellant Fiduciary Trust International of California (Fiduciary Trust) is the the successor trustee of the Mark Hughes Family Trust, whose trustees prevailed over respondent Zacadia Financial Limited Partnership (Zacadia) in a three-week jury trial concerning the breach of a secured loan agreement. The agreement included a one-way attorney fee clause, entitling Zacadia to its “actual attorneys’ fees†if it prevailed in any collection proceeding involving the secured loan. Invoking Civil Code section 1717, the trustees moved the trial court for their “actual attorneys’ fees,†which they pegged at somewhat north of $3.1 million.
The trial court awarded the trustees “reasonable fees†of $2.5 million instead. The successor trustee, Fiduciary Trust, has appealed from this order, asserting that it is entitled to the full amount, as Zacadia would have been if it had prevailed at trial.
We affirm the order, which adhered to the unambiguous language of the statute. Fiduciary Trust is entitled only to reasonable fees, and it has not argued that the trial court abused its discretion in awarding the amount it did.
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