People v. United States Fire Insurance

Opinion

LEVY, J. These consolidated appeals arise from bail bond forfeiture proceedings. In the three underlying matters, appellant, represented by the Fresno County Counsel, prevailed and the respective bail bonds were forfeited. Thereafter, appellant moved for an award of attorney fees as costs in each proceeding pursuant to Penal Code1 section 1305.3. These motions were denied.

[1426]Under section 1305.3, the county counsel shall recover, out of the forfeited bail money, the “costs incurred in successfully opposing a motion to vacate the forfeiture and in collecting on the summary judgment.” Appellant contends that these recoverable costs should include attorney fees. According to appellant, attorney time is the only meaningful operating cost involved in opposing a bail bond motion and therefore section 1305.3 should be interpreted to provide for recovery of this cost.

The trial court correctly denied appellant’s motions for attorney fees. Recoverable litigation costs include attorney fees only when the party entitled to costs has a legal basis, independent of the cost statutes, upon which to claim recovery of attorney fees. Here, no such independent legal basis exists. Rather, appellant urges us to interpret “costs” as including attorney fees in this context. However, we must assume that the Legislature used the term “costs” in section 1305.3 with full knowledge of the existing statutes and their judicial interpretations. Accordingly, the orders will be affirmed.

DISCUSSION

Whether appellant can recover attorney fees under section 1305.3 is a matter of statutory interpretation. Accordingly, we review the trial court’s orders de novo. (Connerly v. State Personnel Bd. (2006) 37 Cal.4th 1169, 1175 [39 Cal.Rptr.3d 788, 129 P.3d 1].)

When enacted in 1993, former section 1305.3 allowed “the applicable prosecuting agency” to recover costs incurred in successfully opposing a motion to vacate bail forfeiture. In 1994, section 1305.3 was amended to provide that “[t]he district attorney, county counsel, or applicable prosecuting agency, as the case may be, shall recover, out of the forfeited bail money, the costs incurred in successfully opposing a motion to vacate the forfeiture and in collecting on the summary judgment prior to the division of the forfeited bail money between the cities and counties in accordance with Section 1463.”