First Nationwide Bank v. Mountain Cascade, Inc.

I. Introduction

After entering a judgment in favor of respondents in this construction defect dispute, the trial court granted respondents’ request for prejudgment interest, expert fees, and attorney fees. Appellant Mountain Cascade, Inc. (Mountain Cascade) contends these postjudgment awards were error, arguing: (1) the trial court should have applied recent case law retroactively to bar respondents’ award of prejudgment interest; (2) the trial court should have deducted respondent First Nationwide Bank’s (FNB) attorney fees from the total attorney fee award because it was not entitled to recover fees under the contractual attorney fees provision; and (3) the trial court should have refused to award expert witness fees to respondents because they are expressly disallowed by statute.

We disagree with Mountain Cascade’s first contention, but we are persuaded by its second and third points. Accordingly, we affirm the prejudgment interest award and reverse the award of attorney fees and expert witness fees. The attorney fees matter is remanded to the trial court with instructions to apportion the fees between FNB and Southampton Company, and award attorney fees solely to…