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Exarhos v. Exarhos 158 Cal.App.4th 938 filed 1/10/08
Where decedent�s grandson filed suit as decedent�s successor in interest against
bank for releasing funds to decedent�s son, and court dismissed action because a
probate proceeding was already pending, plaintiff was liable to bank for
attorney fees under Civil Code 1717(a), even though he was not a signatory to
account agreement awarding fees in actions to enforce it, because he stood in
decedent�s shoes as successor in interest and would have been entitled to
attorney fees had he prevailed. Plaintiff failed to demonstrate that estate
should be liable for attorney fee award because the cause of action upon which
he sued had passed to him, and any judgment would have gone to him, not to the
estate.
Estate of Garrett 159 Cal.App.4th 831 filed 1/31/08
Where decedent and surviving spouse had long been separated, and action to
dissolve their marriage had been filed but was not pursued and was dismissed
during decedent�s lifetime, surviving spouse was not "a party to an action for
separate maintenance, annulment, or dissolution of the marriage" and did not
lose statutory priority with regard to naming executor of decedent�s intestate
estate.
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