What authority does an appellate court have in determining whether a plaintiff can recover attorney fees under section 1717?

An appellate decision is not authority for everything said in the court's opinion but only "for the points actually involved and actually decided." (Childers v. Childers (1946) 74 Cal.App.2d 56, 61, 168 P.2d 218, italics omitted; accord, Trope v. Katz, supra, 11 Cal.4th 274, 284, 45 Cal.Rptr.2d 241, 902 P.2d 259.) In Olen, the point "actually involved and actually decided" was the right to recover attorney fees under section 1717 following voluntary pretrial dismissal of the action. The case did not present an issue concerning the right to recover attorney fees under a contractual attorney fee provision as applied to claims or actions sounding in tort rather than contract and thus outside the scope of section 1717. Therefore, Olen, supra, 21 Cal.3d 218, 145 Cal.Rptr. 691, 577 P.2d 1031, is not authority in the latter situation.