JULIE HALLIBURTON v. STADIUM PROPERTIES, LLC, Los Angeles County Superior Court Case Number BC584826.



Attorney Dale Washington is listed by the California Court of Appeals as the attorney for the appellant and plaintiff Julie Halliburton in this case.




The Los Angeles Superior Ccurt case file also shows that Dale Washington was the attorney who filed the original lawsuit.




According to Lawzilla's understanding of the Court of Appeals ruling, this is what happened:

Dale Washington, Esq., represents Julie Halliburton. She had a storage unit but was late making payments every month. She was assessed a lien fee 11 times before her items were sold at a lien sale.

She then retained Mr. Washington who filed a lawsuit. They had a jury trial and lost.

Then attorney Dale Washington filed an appeal.




There were a number of issues in the appeal. One was whether the storage company was timely charging late fees.

The law apparently allows a late fee to be charged if payment is at least 10 days late. They charged the late fee on the 11th.

Attorney Washington argued "at least 10 days" meant someone has 12 days to pay.

The unanimous justices on the court of appeals disagreed. They said the "plain language" said 10 days.

They also noted even if one day was excluded, that would be 11 days and that is when the late fee was charged.

Dollar charged late fees on the 11th day after the rent was due. According to Halliburton, this violated the Act because late fees could only be charged on the 12th day after rent was due. Halliburton relies on section 21713.5, subdivision (a)(1), which specifies, “[n]o late payment fee shall be assessed unless the rental fee remains unpaid for at least 10 days after the date specified in the rental agreement for payment of the rental fee.” Halliburton reads this provision to mean a late fee may not be imposed until the 12th day of unpaid rent rather than the 11th day because the date the rent is due does not count as a part of the 10 days. (Civ. Code, § 10 [“The time in which any act provided by law is to be done is computed by excluding the first day and including the last, unless the last day is a holiday, and then it is also excluded.”].) We disagree with Halliburton’s reading of the Act.

The plain language of the statute permits a late fee to be assessed if rent remains unpaid “at least 10 days after” the date rent is due under the rental agreement. Even if we exclude the first day, as required under Civil Code section 10, the 11th day is “at least 10 days after” the date rent is due. We see no reason to read an additional day into the statute

There were other arguments made by Washington, such as whether the fee was even allowed. The court of appeals said the argument "misinterprets" the act and there was a "mischaracterization".









An argment was made about improperly being charged for insurance. The court of appeals said "as a matter of law" there was no merit to the claim, and cited to a prior ruling by the California Supreme Court addressing the issue.




Then there was an argument that lien sale was premature. The justices had to tell the attorney that "again", he "misread" the law on the issue.




In the end, the justices rejected Dale Washington's arguments and he lost the appeal for this client.





Lawzilla Commentary: Wow. The judges said the attorney repeatedly misinterpreted the law. They said he made a mischaracterization. In our opinion he apparently could not read "plain language" in a statute about late fees being imposed after 10 days meaning that - 10 days. Not that they could not be imposed for 12 days.

We understanding losing a close issue about interpreting the law, or one of first impression.

But in our opinion this is really bad.

We have never seen an attorney try to argue a late fee due after 10 days somehow means a late fee cannot be imposed unless a payment is at least 12 days late. We wonder how Dale Washington is able to practice law where there are plenty of deadlines.

Dale Washington was admitted to the California Bar in 1994. Bar Number 169008.

4470 West Sunset Boulevard # 90094
Los Angeles, California 90027

Law School: Loyola Law School