5 In 1992 the Legislature added the last sentence of
section 685.040 (providing for attorneys’ fees in enforcing a
judgment) to abrogate the holding in Chelios v. Kaye (1990)
219 Cal.App.3d 75 that under the merger doctrine, “the statute
did not authorize awarding a judgment creditor attorney fees for
enforcement despite an underlying judgment allowing such fees
pursuant to a contract provision.” (Conservatorship of McQueen
(2014) 59 Cal.4th 602, 609; accord, Gray1, supra, 233 Cal.App.4th
at p. 890.) Notably, “[t]he amendment did not abrogate Chelios’s
holding that contractual rights merge into the judgment. Rather,
the amendment provided for the inclusion of postjudgment
attorney fees as costs when the contract provided for attorney
fees and attorney fees were initially included in the judgment.”
(Gray1, at p. 890.)
6 A judgment creditor may alternatively claim the costs of
enforcement by filing and serving a memorandum of costs, in
which case the judgment debtor must timely file a motion to tax
costs. (§ 685.070, subds. (a)-(d).) Nash and O’Connor filed both a
memorandum of costs and their cost motion. Although Aprea did
not file a motion to tax costs in response to the memorandum of
costs, the trial court found “[i]t would be unfair and unnecessary