Mountain View Condominium Association v. Maria P. Bomersbach

In 1988, Bomersbach, who owns a condominium at Mountain View, stopped paying her monthly assessment to the Association due to a dispute with the Association. Pursuant to the "Declaration of Condominium of Mountain View" (Declaration), all condominium owners are required to pay a monthly assessment to the Association to help pay for such things as landscaping and security, and is entitled to recover all reasonable attorney fees incurred in collecting delinquent assessments from a condominium owner. When Bomersbach’s delinquency reached $1,200.00, the Association sued to collect this past due assessment.

Bomersbach subsequently agreed to pay the $1,200.00, but refused to pay the Association's attorney fees, which then totaled $500.00. The Association declined to accept Bomersbach’s offer of $1,200.00, instead choosing to enforce its right to collect the full $500.00 in attorney fees which it incurred. Bomersbach then raised her offer to $1,400.00, but the Association again declined because it did not fully provide for its $500 in attorney fees. In November1990, Bomersbach paid her delinquent assessment in full, which at that time had risen to $3,831.49. She still refused, however, to pay the Association's attorney fees, which had grown to $3,135.93. Approximately ten years later, the Association's attorney fees stood at $46,548.64.

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The first time the Commonwealth Court of Pennsylvania adjudicated this case(Mountain View Condominium Owners' Association v. Bomersbach (Pa. Cmwlth. No. 425 C.D. 1996, filed July 15,1997), it reversed the trial court order that found that the Association was only entitled to recover attorney fees incurred on or before March 3, 1989. The ’97 ruling held that the Association is entitled to all reasonable attorney fees incurred in this case, up to and including the present time, and remanded the case to the trial court for the specific and limited purpose of determining the reasonableness of the legal fees incurred by the Association. Bomersbach again appealed, arguing that $46,584.64 is an unreasonable fee, and that the Association should have mitigated its damages by accepting her compromise offer, and that the Association is not entitled to collect attorney fees expended in collecting attorney fees. The Commonwealth Court of Pennsylvania disagreed on both points and affirmed the common pleas court award. See 734 A.2nd 468 (Pa.Cmwlth.1999). The date shown above is the date of the appellate court decision and not the trial date. Reported by JAB. Processed JF