What is the test for the doctrine of personal injury attorney fees?

The doctrine is not an exception to the rule that parties bear their own attorney fees, "but an application of the usual measure of tort damages. The theory of recovery is that the attorney fees are recoverable as damages resulting from a tort in the same way that medical fees would be part of the damages in a personal injury action. In such cases there is no recovery of attorney fees qua attorney fees. . . . [] . . . [N]early all of the cases which have applied the doctrine involve a clear violation of a traditional tort duty between the tortfeasor who is required to pay the attorney fees and the person seeking compensation for those fees." (Sooy v. Peter (1990) 220 Cal.App.3d 1305, 1310.)