penal amount of the bond. The performance bond expressly limits the surety’s liability to the penal amount: “in no event shall the aggregate liability of the Surety exceed the amount of this bond.” 2 CP at 602. Construing similar language, the California Supreme Court held that the penal amount caps the surety’s liability for attorney fees as well as other damages. “ ‘[U]nder the rule that a surety on a bond is not liable beyond the penalty named therein, the surety is not liable for attorney’s fees in excess of the penalty named.’ ” Hartford Accident & Indem. Co. v. Indus. Accident Comm’n, 216 Cal. 40, 50, 13 P.2d 699 (1932) (quoting 50 C.J.S. § 149, at 92); see also T&R Painting Constr., Inc. v. St. Paul Fire & Marine Ins. Co., 23 Cal. App. 4th 738, 29 Cal. Rptr. 2d 199, 203 (1994) (<HOLDING>); Lawrence Tractor Co. v. Carlisle Ins. Co.,
holding that obligee can recover from surety attorneys fees that are provided for in obligees subcontract so long as the total recovery against the surety does not exceed the penal amount of the bond holding that obligee may recover attorney fees as provided in subcontract so long as total recovery does not exceed penal amount of the bond holding that the obligee may recover attorney fees as an element of damages only up to the limit of the penal amount of the bond holding that the defendant was only permitted to recover attorney fees as an item of special damages with respect to the underlying action in which the defendant was sued and was not permitted to recover attorney fees incurred in the malpractice portion of the case as damages holding that recovery of attorney fees is limited to penal amount of the bond absent contractual provision to the contrary