California, United States of America
The following excerpt is from Troppman v. Flaherty, C050417 (Cal. App. 5/30/2007), C050417 (Cal. App. 2007):
In Xuereb v. Marcus & Millichap, Inc. (1992) 3 Cal.App.4th 1338, the parties to a real estate purchase agreement "agreed that the prevailing party would recover its attorney fees and costs in any `lawsuit or other legal proceeding' to which `this Agreement gives rise.'" (Id. at p. 1342.) In construing this provision, the court applied these words in their usual sense and concluded that "[i]n ordinary popular speech, as well as in legal opinions, it is common to use the phrase `arises from' or `arises out of' in a far more general, transactional sense than is suggested by phrases such as `derives from' or `proximately caused by.' [Citations.]" (Id. at p. 1344.) The court determined that tort causes of action, based on negligent inspections of the property, were not independent of the basic contractual arrangement, but instead arose from the transactional relationship between the parties, entitling the prevailing party to attorney fees. (Id. at pp. 1344-1345.)
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