Zaffarkhan v. Domesek CA4/3
Plaintiff Kyber Zaffarkhan appeals from the trial court’s postjudgment order granting defendants Justin Domesek and Greg Cherry a reduced portion of their requested attorney fees as the prevailing parties within the meaning of a fee provision in a shareholder agreement that Domesek signed, but Cherry did not. Before trial, Zaffarkhan dismissed his breach of contract claims against Cherry under the shareholder agreement, pursuing only tort claims against him (breach of fiduciary duty and unfair business practices), on which Cherry prevailed at trial. As Zaffarkhan correctly argues, while a party to a contract may be entitled to recover attorney fees as the prevailing party on tort claims arising out of the agreement—if the terms the parties agreed upon in signing the contract are broad enough (Santisas v. Goodin (1998) 17 Cal.4th 599, 617 (Santisas))—a nonsignatory is not entitled to fees on such tort claims, though he or she is the prevailing party.
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