The case itself is not all that exciting -- except perhaps as an example of a court showing exemplary patience with some litigants dragging out the process -- but it has proven impossible to resist quoting this opening paragraph, in which the Court of Appeal invokes Gertrude Stein:
Attorney fees are permitted when authorized by contract, statute or law. A city ordinance allows the city to collect attorney fees incurred in foreclosing a lien on real property. Just as ‘. . . a rose is a rose . . . .’ so is an ordinance a statute when it permits recovery of attorney fees.
What would Alice B. Toklas say?
The decision in City of Santa Paula v. Narula (December 17, 2003), Case No. Crim B160389, can be found at these links in PDF and Word formats.
¹ Homage to Gertrude Stein’s Four Saints in Three Acts.
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