Chase Bank USA, N.A. v. Staffenberg, A-4488-09T3, Appellate Division; opinion by Sabatino, J.A.D.; decided and approved for publication April 11, 2011. Before Judges Lisa, Sabatino and Alvarez. On appeal from the Law Division, Special Civil Part, Camden County, DC-19555-09. [Sat below; Judge Laskin.] DDS No. 15-2-1674 [41 pp.]
Defendant is the holder of a credit card issued by plaintiff Chase Bank USA, N.A., or one of its affiliates. Defendant, a debtor with a delinquent credit-card account, challenges the Special Civil Part’s inclusion of $133.14 in counsel fees as part of a default judgment entered against her. The counsel fees were awarded as taxed costs to the creditor pursuant to N.J.S.A. 22A:2-42. The debtor argues that such counsel fees were not recoverable in this case because the legal services for the creditor were performed by its in-house attorneys. In support of her argument, the debtor invokes two other statutes, N.J.S.A. 17:3B-40 and N.J.S.A. 17:16C-42(d), which preclude the recovery of counsel fees in certain contexts where the creditor was represented by in-house counsel. The debtor argues that these two provisions in Title 17 restrict the counsel fees ordinarily recoverable in the Special Civil Part as taxed costs under N.J.S.A. 22A:2-42.
