Wertheim, LLC v. Omidvar

Filed 9/29/16 CERTIFIED FOR PUBLICATION

IN THE COURT OF APPEAL OF THE STATE OF CALIFORNIA

SECOND APPELLATE DISTRICT

DIVISION ONE

WERTHEIM, LLC, B262485

Plaintiff and Respondent, (Los Angeles County Super. Ct. Nos. BC441026, BC444248) v.

PARVIZ OMIDVAR, et al.

Defendants and Appellants.

APPEAL from an order of the Superior Court of Los Angeles County, Deirdre Hill, Judge. Affirmed. Diem Law and Robin L. Diem for Defendants and Appellants. The Newell Law Firm, Felton T. Newell, Jr.; Broedlow Lewis, Jeffrey Lewis and Kelly B. Dunagan for Plaintiff and Respondent. ___________________________________

When the superior court entered judgment confirming a $672,122 arbitration award against a lender in favor of a borrower’s assignee, the lender appealed the judgment while the assignee attempted to enforce it by levying the lender’s debtors. As a result of the enforcement efforts, the debtors interpleaded several million dollars and were discharged by the court and awarded $238,615.45 in attorney fees paid out of the deposited funds. We ultimately reversed the underlying judgment, after which the superior court released all deposited funds to the lender. The lender then moved to recoup the already- paid attorney fees from the borrower’s assignee. In support of and opposition to the lender’s motion, each party contended the other’s litigation tactics drove up the debtors’ attorney fees. The trial court entered an order denying the lender’s motion, which the lender now appeals. We conclude the record supports the order. BACKGROUND This is the latest of many appeals involving these parties. Parviz Omidvar and his relatives and companies, including Currency Corporation (collectively Currency), loaned money at high interest rates to elderly artists who owned rights to receive royalty payments from music rights management companies such as Broadcast Music Inc. and the American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers (the royalty payors). The artists assigned their royalty rights to Currency in exchange for the loans. Currency made dozens of such loans to Maibell Page, the widow of Eugene Page, a successful songwriter, who in exchange assigned her royalty rights to Currency. In 2006, David Pullman, the owner of Wertheim, LLC and founder and CEO of Structured Asset Sales, LLC (collectively Wertheim), persuaded Page and many other artists to assign to him their royalty rights and any causes of action they might have against Currency. Wertheim and Currency then began a multi-front legal feud over the assigned royalty streams, each contending the other preys on the gullible elderly. (E.g., Currency Corp. v. Wertheim (May 20, 2011, B222851 [nonpub. opn.]).)