Brown v. West Covina Toyota

In Brown v. West Covina Toyota (1994) 26 Cal.App.4th 555, the plaintiffs bought a used car from the defendants pursuant to a written contract. After the plaintiffs found defects in the car and learned it had been in an accident prior to their purchase, they sued the defendants under the Song-Beverly Consumer Warranty Act (Song-Beverly) (Civ. Code, 1790 et seq.), commonly known as the automobile "lemon law." After the trial court directed a verdict in the defendants' favor, the defendants successfully moved for an award of attorney fees and costs pursuant to Rees-Levering (Civ. Code, 2983.4), on the theory that the underlying transaction giving rise to the lawsuit involved the sale of a vehicle under a contract which was subject to the provisions of Rees-Levering. (Brown, supra, 26 Cal.App.4th at pp. 557-559.) "The Brown court thus confronted a situation where plaintiffs alleged defendants violated the Song-Beverly Act, in a case in which the vehicle was purchased pursuant to a conditional sales contract subject to the Rees-Levering Act. Because only the Rees-Levering Act permitted a prevailing defendant to recover costs and attorney fees, the court was faced with reconciling the two sets of laws. To resolve the conflict, the court reasoned that to permit a prevailing defendant to invoke the fee-shifting provisions of the Rees-Levering Act in that case 'would effectively nullify the one-sided fee-shifting under Song-Beverly whenever a plaintiff sues to enforce a breach of warranty claim under Song-Beverly, but happens to have purchased the automobile under a conditional sale contract.' (Brown, supra, 26 Cal.App.4th at p. 565.)