Mealey's Attorney Fees : Mealey's : Legal News & Analysis

Mealey's Attorney Fees

May 06, 2024
Retiree Seeks U.S. High Court Review Of ERISA Ruling In Life Insurance Row

WASHINGTON, D.C. — A retiree has asked the U.S. Supreme Court to review a 10th Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals ruling he says held that “[e]mployees and retirees have no rights under [the Employee Retirement Income Security Act] to know why their group life insurance rates have been raised.”
May 06, 2024
5th Circuit Affirms Rulings In Insurer’s Favor In Suit Over Hailstorm Damage

NEW ORLEANS — The Fifth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals on May 3 affirmed a lower federal court’s ruling in favor of an insurer in a breach of contract and bad faith coverage dispute arising from hailstorm damage, finding that the lower court “correctly identified and applied governing law” in denying the insureds’ breach of contract, extracontractual and additional attorney fee claims and dismissing as moot their claim under the Texas Prompt Payment Claim Act.
May 01, 2024
Judge Awards $300,000 In Attorney Fees 3 Years After Retail Voucher Settlement

SAN DIEGO — A California federal judge on April 30 granted in part plaintiffs’ motion for attorney fees arising from a 2021 voucher class settlement agreed to by a children’s clothing retailer that was accused of advertising false “original” prices when discounting its merchandise in violation of California’s unfair competition law (UCL) and other state laws.
April 30, 2024
Federal Judge: Insurer Not Entitled To Attorney Fees In Row Over Faulty Pool

MISSOULA, Mont. — A federal judge in Montana largely denied an insurer’s request for attorney fees and costs after a March finding that the insurer owed no coverage to a couple whose property was damaged by water draining from an improperly designed “disappearing floor” pool, finding the insurer does not illustrate the extreme circumstances required in declaratory judgment cases under Montana law.
April 26, 2024
MDL Judge Grants Final Approval To Economic Claims Settlement For CPAP Devices

PITTSBURGH — The federal judge overseeing the multidistrict litigation involving the recall of approximately 10.8 million continuous positive air pressure (CPAP) sleep apnea devices on April 25 granted final approval of a $506 million settlement to end all economic claims in addition to an award of $95 million for attorney fees and costs in connection with the settlement.
April 26, 2024
N.Y. Federal Magistrate Judge Recommends Fee Denial In Clash Between Music Schools

NEW YORK — A request by a music school and its founder for reimbursement of the attorney fees they incurred in successfully defending allegations of copyright infringement, unfair competition and trade secret misappropriation should not be granted, a federal magistrate judge in New York has recommended.
April 26, 2024
ICSID Orders Spain To Pay 700,000 Euros In Attorney Fees, Won’t Annul Award

WASHINGTON, D.C. — An International Centre for Settlement of Investment Disputes (ICSID) ad hoc committee denied the Kingdom of Spain’s application to annul an award against it for more than 30 million euros for harming the investments of two hydro and wind energy investors and ordered Spain to pay the investors nearly 700,000 euros in attorney fees.
April 25, 2024
Judge Approves Combined Fees, Costs Of More Than $956.18M In AFFF Settlements

CHARLESTON, S.C. — A federal judge in South Carolina has approved a combined $956,187,560.75 in attorney fees and costs related to two settlements pertaining to the firefighting agent known as aqueous film forming foam (AFFF). One case involving claims against 3M Co. was settled for $12.5 billion, and the other involved claims against E.I. du Pont de Nemours & Co., which settled for $1.18 billion.
April 25, 2024
Settlement Of Shareholder Derivative Claims Against EV Maker Gets Final Approval

DENVER — A federal judge in Colorado granted final approval to a settlement in a shareholder derivative complaint filed by an investor who claimed that an electric vehicle manufacturer made misleading claims about its ability to scale up production following a merger, finding the settlement that includes a $1.85 million payout to be used for other legal defenses to be fair and adequate.
April 25, 2024
U.S. High Court Will Decide Prevailing Party Questions In Attorney Fees Dispute

WASHINGTON, D.C. — The U.S. Supreme Court granted a petition for a writ of certiorari filed by the commissioner of the Viriginia Department of Motor Vehicles after a divided Fourth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals ruled that the Virginians who filed a putative class complaint challenging a now repealed statute regarding the suspension of driver’s licenses were the prevailing parties in their case ultimately ruled to be moot and may seek attorney fees.
April 24, 2024
Following Texas High Court’s Answer, Panel Affirms Judgment In Favor Of Insurer

NEW ORLEANS — The Fifth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals held that it is required to affirm a lower federal court’s judgment in favor of an insurer in an insured’s lawsuit alleging that the insurer violated the Texas Prompt Payment of Claims Act (TPPCA) following the Texas Supreme Court’s answer “yes” to a certified question in finding that the TPPCA prohibited the insured from recovering attorney fees because the insurer voluntarily paid the full appraisal award for the insured’s tornado damage plus any statutory interest.
April 23, 2024
Judge Awards Dutch Shipper $10,000 In Attorney Fees, Citing ‘Vexatious Tactics’

NEW YORK — A New York federal judge on April 22 granted a Dutch shipbroker’s motion for an award of attorney fees incurred litigating a Maine company’s “frivolous and bad-faith” post-award motions, which the court concluded were intended to delay enforcement of an award worth more than $633,000 for violation of a maritime contract.
April 18, 2024
Hyundai, Kia Engine Defect Settlement Approved; Attorney Fees Given Partial OK

SANTA ANA, Calif. — A federal judge in California granted final approval of a class settlement agreement providing an extended warranty, recall and product improvements and reimbursements for repairs and other expenses to owners and lessees of certain Hyundai and Kia models that allegedly were built with defective engines that can spontaneously ignite and partially granted a motion for attorney fees, costs and service awards.
April 17, 2024
Attorney Fee In ERISA Record-Keeping Suit Is Cut To 1/4 Of $4.1M Settlement

NEW HAVEN, Conn. — Adopting the approach to attorney fees used in a 2014 decision in a different Employee Retirement Income Security Act case, a Connecticut federal judge on April 16 awarded class counsel a quarter of a $4.1 million class settlement with Xerox Corp. and its retirement plan committee rather than the requested third.
April 17, 2024
Jack In The Box Workers Partially Awarded Attorney Fees, Costs In Wage Suit

PORTLAND, Ore. — Motions for attorney fees and costs by both sides in a wage-and-hour suit brought by a class of Jack in the Box Inc. workers who saw some success with their claims were partially granted and partially denied by a federal judge in Oregon who ruled that the workers were entitled to a portion of the attorney fees and costs they sought and that the employer was entitled to no attorney fees but was entitled to a portion of the amount it sought for witness fees and other costs.
April 15, 2024
Oklahoma High Court: Trial Court Failed To Explain Fee Award In Roofing Dispute

OKLAHOMA CITY — In a decade-long dispute over an allegedly defective roofing repair, the Oklahoma Supreme Court found that the trial court erred in granting attorney fees to the defendant roofing company because it failed to adequately explain how it calculated the fee amount.
April 12, 2024
On Remand, Judge Deems $3.2M Costs, Fees Award In Wawa Data Breach Suit Reasonable

PHILADELPHIA — After scrutinizing the factors and negotiations that resulted in a $3.2 million award of attorney fees, costs and service awards that accompanied the $9 million settlement of a consumer class action over a 2019 data breach experienced by Wawa Inc., a Pennsylvania federal judge found the award to be reasonable in light of relevant case law and similar data breach suits and despite arguments against the award risk by an objector.
April 11, 2024
U.S. Trustee Seeks Return Of Fees Due To Undisclosed Attorney-Judge Relationship

HOUSTON — A Texas law firm should return more than $400,000 in fees it was awarded for work on mediation in the asbestos bankruptcy case of Hess Corp. affiliate HONX Inc. because it never disclosed a romantic relationship between one of its attorneys and the bankruptcy judge who acted as mediator, the U.S. trustee says in a federal bankruptcy court motion to vacate the fee award and order the firm to pay it back to HONX’s estate as a sanction for its bad faith conduct.
April 08, 2024
10th Circuit OKs Transfer Of Attorney Fee Request To Lower Court In ERISA Row

DENVER — A 10th Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel in an Employee Retirement Income Security Act dispute over life insurance benefits has granted a beneficiary’s amended motion to transfer consideration of attorney fees on appeal to the trial court.
April 05, 2024
Entities DOL Sued Over ESOP Deal Want To Appeal 9th Circuit Fee Ruling

WASHINGTON, D.C. — An engineering firm and the individuals who owned it before an employee stock ownership plan (ESOP) deal were given a June 6 deadline to seek U.S. Supreme Court review of an Equal Access to Justice Act (EAJA) ruling declining to make the U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) pay attorney fees and nontaxable costs for its unsuccessful case against them.
April 04, 2024
Dispute Over Attorney Fees In Benicar MDL Stays In Federal Court, Judge Says

CAMDEN, N.J. — A New Jersey federal judge refused to send a dispute involving the proper amount of attorney fees that should have been awarded to a law firm for its work in the Benicar multidistrict litigation back to state court, denying a motion to remand filed by a group of plaintiffs.
April 03, 2024
Magistrate Says AI Produced ‘No Probative Information’ In Fee Dispute

NEW YORK — While a law firm’s reliance on ChatGPT for the proper attorney fee rate in an Individuals with Disabilities Education Act suit is novel, the artificial intelligence returned “no probative information” despite producing 14 pages of results, a federal magistrate judge in New York said in awarding, but reducing, requested fees on April 2.
April 03, 2024
Class Settlement Wins Final Approval In ERISA Annuity Calculation Case

MILWAUKEE — A Wisconsin federal judge has granted final approval to a class action settlement with an estimated present value of $900,000 in a suit over claims that married retirees and beneficiaries were “shortchanged” by pension benefits calculated using allegedly outdated mortality and interest rate assumptions.
April 02, 2024
11th Circuit: Judge Must Explain Denial Of Fees In OpenAI Defamation Case

ATLANTA — Absent some explanation of why a district court judge didn’t award fees and costs after OpenAI LLC admitted that it could not defend removal of a defamation case against it, there is no way to review the ruling, an 11th Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel said April 1 in vacating the ruling and remanding for an explanation.