Order denying Plaintiff’s Motion for Attorney’s Fees. Prepetition, Plaintiff received a Florida foreclosure judgment against Defendant which included an award of attorney’s fees under the governing security agreement. Defendant filed a voluntary Chapter 7 case, and Plaintiff successfully obtained a nondischargeability judgment against Defendant. Plaintiff later filed a Motion for Attorney’s Fees, seeking a further award of attorney’s fees for the litigation of the nondischargeability proceeding. The Court noted that this motion was untimely, filed 29 days after entry of judgement, in excess of the 14 day window prescribed by Fed. R. Civ. P. 54(d)(2)(B)(i), but proceeded to consider the motion anyway.
As to whether Plaintiff was entitled to contractual attorney’s fees, the Court held that Florida law governed the enforceability of contractual post-judgment awards for additional attorney’s fees, and found that under Florida law the security agreement merged into the foreclosure judgement absent a specific provision for post-judgment attorney’s fees within the agreement. The Court next turned to statutory post-judgment attorney’s fees under a Florida statute that provided for fees incurred in connection with execution on the judgment. The Court held that litigating a complaint to determine dischargeability is a matter of bankruptcy law, existing independently of execution of the original foreclosure judgment, and thus is not a basis for statutory attorney’s fees under Florida law.