People v. United States Fire Insurance

These consolidated appeals arise from bail bond forfeiture proceedings. In the three underlying matters, appellant, represented by the Fresno County Counsel, prevailed and the respective bail bonds were forfeited. Thereafter, appellant moved for an award of attorney fees as costs in each proceeding pursuant to Penal Code 1 section 1305.3. These motions were denied.

*1426 Under section 1305.3, the county counsel shall recover, out of the forfeited bail money, the “costs incurred in successfully opposing a motion to vacate the forfeiture and in collecting on the summary judgment.” Appellant contends that these recoverable costs should include attorney fees. According to appellant, attorney time is the only meaningful operating cost involved in opposing a bail bond motion and therefore section 1305.3 should be interpreted to provide for recovery of this cost.

The trial court correctly denied appellant’s motions for attorney fees. Recoverable litigation costs include attorney fees only when the party entitled to costs has a legal basis, independent of the cost statutes, upon which to claim recovery of attorney fees. Here, no such independent legal basis exists. Rather,…