In Manier v. Anaheim Business Center Co. (1984) 161 Cal.App.3d 503, Manier had signed a real estate purchase agreement to acquire real property from Anaheim Business Center Co. (ABCC). ABCC canceled the agreement. Manier and his wife sued ABCC and Martens, ABCC's president--who was not a party to the contract--for failing to assist Manier in obtaining financing for the project. ABCC and Martens prevailed in the lawsuit, and then both sought attorney fees from Manier and his wife under section 1717 and a contract clause entitling the prevailing party to attorney fees in the event a party sued on the agreement. (Id. at p. 505.) On appeal, the court ruled that the prevailing party in a contract action, in which the opposing party seeks contractual attorney fees, is entitled to recover his own fees whether or not the contract is upheld. (Id. at pp. 505, 507.) It also held that both Manier and his nonsignatory wife were liable for the attorney fees, because both had sued ABCC and Martens on the contract. (Id. at p. 508.) In the end, both a signatory (Manier) and a nonsignatory (Manier's wife) were held liable to a signatory (ABCC) and a nonsignatory (Martens) because the plaintiffs sought to hold them liable under a contract containing an attorney fees clause. Although the court did not explicitly address whether nonsignatory Martens could recover his fees, that was the result, consistent with the outcome here that signatory Adrian Road pay the attorney fees of nonsignatory Fidelity because the signatory sought unsuccessfully to hold the nonsignatory liable under the contract.