Brittalia Ventures v. STUKE NURSERY CO.

These consolidated appeals involve a breach of contract. Defendant Stake Nursery Co., Inc. (Stake), appeals from the judgment and denial of its postjudgment challenges, and from the postjudgment award of attorney fees, all in favor of plaintiff Brittalia Ventures (Brittalia). Brittalia cross-appeals from the amount of attorney fees awarded.

The key issue concerned what comprised the contract between Stake and Brittalia. We shall affirm the judgment but reverse the award of attorney fees because the contract between the parties did not contain an attorney fee provision.

On the attorney fee issue, we conclude that a prevailing party cannot obtain attorney fees under Civil Code section 1717 if the contract it championed did not contain an attorney fee provision, notwithstanding that the losing party defended the matter by championing a different contract that did contain an attorney fee provision.

Background

In early 1997, Craig Podesta (Podesta), a walnut farmer doing business as RDJ Farms, Inc. (RDJ Farms), contacted Stuke about purchasing Howard walnut trees for a 200-acre orchard. Podesta wanted to plant the orchard in a “hedgerow” configuration consisting of 20,000…