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799 P.2d 620

61 O.B.A.J. 2716

Docket No. 69945.

Ellis v. Lebowitz

Olen Lee ELLIS and Lovella F. Ellis, Appellants, v. Joel LEBOWITZ, Appellee.

Supreme Court of Oklahoma

Decided October 16, 1990.

Supreme Court of Oklahoma · decided 1990-10-16

Key passage — most relied on by later courts

“[i]n any civil action to recover on ... [a] contract relating to ... labor or services, ... the prevailing party shall be allowed a reasonable attorney fee to be set by the court, to be taxed and collected as costs.”

quoted by 2 later decisions, including JLEE Co. v. Reneau Seed Co., Gamble Simmons Company v. Corporation

“[t]he decision to award attorney fees in this case is not discretionary.”

quoted by 2 later decisions, including 2011 OK CIV APP 103 - Okmulgee County Rural Water District No. 2 v. Beggs Public Works Authority, JLEE Co. v. Reneau Seed Co.

Relies on Osburn v. Bendix Home Systems, Inc. · Hamilton v. Telex Corp. · B & P Construction Co. v. Wells

Good law ✅— No negative treatment on recordhow we know

Decided 1990-10-16

How this case has been cited

Cited by 13 later decisions — most recently December 2024

1 federal appellate · 7 state decisions

701990200020102020decided

Later decisions citing this case, by decade. The current decade is in progress, and our corpus holds fewer opinions from the most recent years, so the latest bars are undercounted — not a real decline.

View the full empirical analysis of this case →

¶1Art Fleak, Tulsa, for appellants.

¶2James M. Munn, Sand Springs, for appellee.

¶3

*621 MEMORANDUM OPINION

¶4HODGES, Justice.

¶5This is an action on a written contract for the sale of a mobile home. The contract provided that "[i]f purchaser defaults three (3) months payments ownership will revert back to seller." The defendant made one monthly payment when the mobile home was destroyed by a flood. Subsequently, the seller sued purchaser for the balance due under the contract.

¶6The trial court directed a verdict for the defendant (petitioner). In an unpublished opinion, the Court of Appeals affirmed the trial court but denied attorney fees for the appeal. The only issue presented on certiorari is the denial of attorney fees on appeal.

¶7Section 936 of title 12 of the Oklahoma Statutes provides: "In any civil action to recover on ... [a] contract relating to the purchase or sale of goods ... unless otherwise provided by law or the contract which is the subject [of] the action, the prevailing party shall be allowed a reasonable attorney fee to be set by the court, to be taxed and collected as costs." In cases involving only economic loss, a mobile home has been treated as "goods". See Osburn v. Bendix Home Sys., Inc.,613 P.2d 445, 448 (Okla. 1980) ("A mobile home falls clearly within the definition of `goods' found in [Okla. Stat. tit. 12A,] § 2-105."); Cochran v. Buddy Spencer Mobile Homes, Inc.,618 P.2d 947, 950 (Okla. Ct. App. 1980) ("A mobile home is a `good' as defined in section 2-105(1)" of the Commercial Code.) Because section 936 allows recovery of attorney fees to the prevailing party in an action on a contract for the sale of goods and a mobile home is defined as a good for the purposes of this case, the defendant is entitled to attorney fees.

¶8We have held "that the party who prevails at trial and is entitled under Section 936 to an award of attorney fees is also entitled to recover attorney fees incurred in successfully defending on appeal." Hamilton v. Telex Corp.,625 P.2d 106, 108-09 (Okla. 1981). See also, B & P Construction Co. v. Wells,759 P.2d 208, 209 (Okla. 1988). The decision to award attorney fees in this case is not discretionary. Therefore, the Court of Appeals erred in its denial of attorney fees.

¶9The portion of the Memorandum Opinion of the Court of Appeals, Division No. 1, concerning the award of attorney fees on appeal is vacated. The question of the amount of reasonable appellate attorney fees is remanded to the trial court for determination.

¶10CERTIORARI PREVIOUSLY GRANTED; THE PORTION OF THE COURT OF APPEALS' OPINION ADDRESSING APPELLATE ATTORNEY FEES IS VACATED; REMANDED TO THE TRIAL COURT FOR A DETERMINATION OF AMOUNT OF APPELLATE ATTORNEY FEES.

¶11HARGRAVE, C.J., and HODGES, LAVENDER, SIMMS, DOOLIN, ALMA WILSON, KAUGER and SUMMERS, JJ., concur.

¶12OPALA, V.C.J., dissents.

¶13OPALA, Vice Chief Justice, dissenting.

¶14I would hold that this controversy was decided on a title issue and is hence outside the ambit of 12 O.S. 1981 § 936.

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