Brown Bark III, L.P. v. Haver

In Brown Bark III, L.P. v. Haver (2013) 219 Cal.App.4th 809, a creditor had entered into contracts with a corporation for a revolving line of credit, and these contracts contained an attorney fees provision. Later, the creditor's assignee sued the defendant for breach of contract, alleging the defendant was a successor to the debtor corporation. The defendant prevailed in the litigation and, although it was not a signatory to the contracts creating the line of credit and containing the attorney fees provision, it was entitled to recover its attorney fees on the breach of contract claim because the assignee would have recovered its attorney fees if it had prevailed on its contract claim based on the successor liability theory. (Id. at pp. 821-827.)