McMullen v. Kutz

• Decision Date: 28 December 2009
• Docket Number: No. 103 MAP 2007,103 MAP 2007
• Citation: 985 A.2d 769
• Parties: Marjorie R. McMULLEN, Appellant v. Ronald E. KUTZ, Appellee.
• Court: Pennsylvania Supreme Court

985 A.2d 769

Marjorie R. McMULLEN, Appellant v. Ronald E. KUTZ, Appellee.

No. 103 MAP 2007

Supreme Court of Pennsylvania.

Argued May 14, 2008.

Decided December 28, 2009.

Lisa Marie Coyne, Coyne & Coyne, P.C., Camp Hill, for Marjorie R. McMullen.

Karl Ernst Rominger, Rominger & Associates, Carlisle, for Ronald E. Kutz.

BEFORE: CASTILLE, C.J., SAYLOR, EAKIN, BAER, McCAFFERY, JJ.

OPINION

Justice BAER.

We granted review in this case to determine whether a court may consider the reasonableness of attorney fees claimed in a breach of contract action where the contract does not specify that the fees incurred must be reasonable. In the case before us, the parties entered into a marriage and property settlement agreement that provided for the payment of attorney fees and costs incurred by one party in enforcing the contract against the breaching party. The trial court concluded that Appellee Ronald E. Kutz ("Husband") breached the agreement by failing to pay Appellant Marjorie R. McMullen ("Wife") sufficient child support and that the contract provided that the breaching party must pay the attorney fees expended by the non-breaching party. The trial court, however, granted Wife less than half of the attorney fees she claimed to have incurred in litigating her breach of contract action because the court found that the amount claimed was unreasonable in light of the nature of the claim and Wife's failure to seek an out-of-court settlement of the dispute prior to initiating litigation. On appeal to the Superior Court, Wife claimed that the trial court erred in considering the reasonableness of the fees when the contract provided for the full payment of the attorney fees "incurred." A divided Superior Court panel held that the trial court had the inherent duty to consider the reasonableness of a counsel fee award. We granted allowance of appeal, and, after full and careful consideration of Wife's arguments, affirm the decisions of the trial court and Superior Court, finding that courts may consider reasonableness when making a counsel fee award, regardless of the precise verbiage of the document authorizing such award.

Wife and Husband were married in December 1985 and had five children prior to their divorce. On July 7, 2000, Wife and Husband entered into a Separation and Property Settlement Agreement ("Agreement"), under which Husband conceded that thirty-five percent of "his disposable military pension shall be the sole and exclusive property" of Wife. Agreement at ¶ 9(d). Additionally, Husband agreed to pay Wife $1200 per month as support for the five children until an "Emancipation Event." Agreement at ¶ 12(a). The contractual provision describing an emancipation event relevant to this case states:

Reaching the age eighteen (18); except and provided that an emancipation event shall be deferred beyond the eighteenth birthday of the child if and so long as the child pursues full time college education with reasonable diligence and on a normally continuous basis, and during such time the child lacks sufficient resources to be self-sustaining and is dependent upon his parents for support; but, in this respect, in no event shall emancipation be deferred beyond the child's twenty-first birthday.

Agreement at ¶ 12(c)(1). Significantly, the Agreement also provided that in the event of a breach, the non-breaching party would be entitled to collect the attorney fees incurred in enforcing the Agreement:

If either party breaches any provision of this Agreement, the other party shall have the right, at his or her election, to sue for damages for such breach or seek such other remedies or relief as may be available to him or her, and the party breaching this contract shall be responsible for payment of legal fees and costs incurred by the other in enforcing their rights under this Agreement.

Agreement at ¶ 17. The Agreement did not require the non-breaching party to attempt to settle the claim prior to initiating suit, nor did it explicitly provide that the fees incurred must be reasonable.

In September 2005, Wife filed a petition to enforce the Agreement alleging that Husband had breached it by failing to pay support for their eldest son during July and August 2005, following his graduation from high school, and for failing to pay Wife her full share of the military pension due. Although not relevant to our inquiry, the discrepancy resulted when Husband interpreted the Agreement as permitting him to cease payment of child support for his oldest son during the summer between his high school graduation and the beginning of college, despite the son's uncontested intent to enroll in college in the fall. Additionally, during the first few months of Husband's retirement, Husband paid to Wife 35% of Husband's net retirement check. At some point thereafter, the Defense Finance and Accounting Service (DFAS) began to pay Wife directly, and paid her 35% of his gross retirement check. Wife asserted that she was entitled to the child support for the months between the parties' eldest son's high school graduation and his enrollment in college, and the discrepancy in the calculation of her percentage of his retirement checks. The trial court found for Wife on both issues in December of 2005, and later explained its ruling: "While [Husband's] uncounseled interpretation of the [Agreement] was reasonable, we found that it was also erroneous." Tr. Ct. Op. at 2. The court, thus, calculated the amount owed by Husband to Wife as $792.12 in unpaid retirement benefits and unpaid child support.

Based upon the trial court's determination, there was no dispute that Husband breached the agreement, thus triggering the assessment of Wife's counsel fees against Husband. The court, in considering the imposition of counsel fees, refused to grant Wife the $3000 of fees she claimed. The court noted the following in this regard:

We did not, however, feel that it was reasonable for [Wife] to incur almost $3000 in legal fees to litigate this matter. We note that there was no attempt by her counsel to resolve these issues short of involving the courts. Counsel's first contact with [Husband] in connection with these matters was a letter which accompanied the "Petition to Enforce." The letter demanded payment of all sums due plus counsel fees. However, there was no breakdown of what sums were due, or the counsel fees being claimed.

The issues involved in this case were simple and straightforward. Further, the record is devoid of any attempt by [Wife], or her counsel, to resolve the issues or to keep counsel fees reasonable. Under those circumstances, we felt the award of $1200 for counsel fees (about 1.5 times the amount awarded for the underlying dispute) was reasonable.

Trial Court Opinion at 2 (internal footnote omitted, emphasis in original).

Wife appealed to the Superior Court urging that the trial court erred in considering the reasonableness of the attorney fees when the Agreement, signed by the parties, granted the non-breaching party the fees "incurred" without any qualification regarding the reasonableness of the fees. Wife argued that the decision should be controlled by the Superior Court's decision in Creeks v. Creeks, 422 Pa.Super. 432, 619 A.2d 754 (1993). It is unclear to us why Wife views Creeks as controlling. In that case, the principal dispute concerned whether a party had, in fact, breached an agreement. The Superior Court concluded that the party had breached the applicable contract, and premised thereon, reversed the trial court's denial of attorney fees. The court in Creeks, however, did not address the reasonableness of the fees. Moreover, unlike the case at bar, the agreement in Creeks contained a clause specifically addressing the reasonableness of the potential attorney fees: "the prevailing party in such proceedings shall be entitled to an award of counsel fees for all time reasonably expended in connection with the enforcement of this Agreement." Creeks, 619 A.2d at 757 (emphasis added). Indeed, the agreement in Creeks even stipulated that $100 per hour was a reasonable hourly fee.

The Superior Court, in the case at bar, framed the question as whether a court could find a reasonableness requirement to be implicit in a contract. In finding the reasonableness criteria to be implicit, the court relied upon its earlier decision in Duffy v. Gerst, 286 Pa.Super. 523, 429 A.2d 645, 650 (1981), holding, "It may be assumed that implicit in this provision is the condition that the attorney's fee must be a reasonable fee." The Superior Court also considered the decisions of our sister state Maryland, which read a reasonable fee term into contracts providing for the recovery of attorney fees in the event of breach. See Atlantic Contr. & Material Co., Inc. v. Ulico Cas. Co., 380 Md. 285, 844 A.2d 460, 478 (2004) ("When a contract entitles a party to recover attorney's fees, the trial court must examine the fee request to determine whether it is reasonable even in the absence of a provision requiring that the fee request be reasonable.").

The Superior Court additionally concluded that the trial court properly considered Wife's counsel's failure to seek settlement when the court weighed the reasonableness of counsel's fees. Ultimately, the Superior Court held that the trial court did not abuse its discretion in reducing the amount claimed in counsel fees after finding the fees sought to be unreasonable.

Judge Colville wrote in dissent. He agreed with the panel majority that reasonableness was an implicit component to the fee provision of the Agreement, but opined that a court may not evaluate the reasonableness of the fee unless a party contested that factor, whereas the panel majority stated that a trial court "must" consider the reasonableness of the fee. McMullen v. Kutz, 925 A.2d 832, 836 n. 5 (Colville, J., dissenting). The dissent also found fault with the trial court's finding that the fee was unreasonable based upon Wife's c...