Bodokh

*764 INTRODUCTION

Labor Code section 218.5, an attorney fee-shifting statute in actions for nonpayment of wages, prohibits a prevailing party employer from recovering attorney fees unless the trial court finds the employee brought the wage claim in bad faith. This appeal presents an issue regarding the effect of Labor Code section 218.5 on a prevailing party employer's right to recover contract-based attorney fees from an employee. Specifically, we address whether an employer may recover attorney fees incurred in successfully defending a wage claim, found not to have been brought in bad faith, when the wage claim was inextricably intertwined with a contract claim for which the employer would otherwise be contractually entitled to recover attorney fees. We partially publish our opinion to address this issue of first impression.

We hold that unless the trial court finds the wage claim was brought in bad faith, Labor Code section 218.5, subdivision (a) ( section 218.5(a) ) prohibits, as a matter of law, an award of attorney fees to a nonemployee prevailing party for successfully defending a wage claim that is inextricably *165 intertwined with a claim subject to a contractual…