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Mealey's Attorney Fees

  • April 11, 2025

    Prevailing Parties In Data Supply Agreement Row Get Almost $2.2M In Attorney Fees

    NEW YORK — Two marketing firms, which obtained a favorable summary judgment ruling over breach of contract and related claims by a data broker, were prevailing parties, a New York federal judge ruled, mostly granting their motion for attorney fees while declining to defer the ruling pending resolution of the plaintiff’s appeal.

  • April 11, 2025

    11th Circuit: No Fees For Tossed IP Claims In Land Purchase Dispute

    ATLANTA — An 11th Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel left in place a jury’s finding that defendant real estate entities breached a land purchase agreement (LPA) but owed a plaintiff real estate company only $1 in damages; the panel also affirmed a Georgia federal judge’s decision to deny attorney fees to the plaintiff company for claims brought under the Copyright Act and the Lanham Act.

  • April 11, 2025

    Idaho Supreme Court Denies Utility’s Attorney Fees Quest Against Repeated Violator

    BOISE, Idaho — Although a nonprofit utility company partly prevailed in a dispute with a customer over a defective toilet and service shutoffs, the Idaho Supreme Court agreed with a trial court’s conclusion that because the utility did not completely prevail, it was not entitled to an award of attorney fees.

  • April 09, 2025

    Court Lacked Jurisdiction To Review Appraisal Award, Virginia Panel Affirms

    RICHMOND, Va. — A Virginia appeals court on April 8 affirmed a lower court’s ruling that it lacked jurisdiction to review a $1.7 million appraisal award in a hail and windstorm coverage dispute under the statute pleaded, further denying a property insurer and church insured’s requests for appellate attorney fees and costs.

  • April 09, 2025

    Federal Judge Approves Lyft Shareholder Derivative Settlement Requiring Reforms

    OAKLAND, Calif. — A federal judge in California granted final approval to a settlement in a shareholder derivative class action brought against Lyft Inc., under which the company agrees to implement several safety reforms.

  • April 09, 2025

    Federal Judge Grants Final Approval Of $433.5M Securities Fraud Settlement

    NEW YORK — A federal judge in New York has granted final approval of a $433.5 million settlement to end a securities fraud class action brought by investors against a Cayman Islands corporation headquartered in Hangzhou, China, and current and former executives for allegedly violating federal securities laws by making misrepresentations regarding the initial public offering of another company in which the defendant company owned a 33% equity interest and not disclosing material facts surrounding an investigation by Chinese regulators into allegedly illegal merchant exclusivity practices.

  • April 08, 2025

    Federal Circuit Affirms Millions In Awards In Long- Running Trade Secret Dispute

    WASHINGTON, D.C. — A panel in the Federal Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals largely affirmed a Texas federal judge’s entry of monetary damages and attorney fees in a long-running intellectual property dispute involving patents and trade secret claims related to smartphone light censor products; the panel remanded for further analysis on the matter of prejudgment interest, holding that the judge erred in that regard.

  • April 07, 2025

    1 Settlement OK’d In MOVEit Data Breach MDL; Attorney Fees Sought In Another

    BOSTON — The day after a Massachusetts federal judge granted final approval to a $2.8 million settlement with a health care billing firm that is one of the defendants in a multidistrict litigation over a 2023 ransomware attack that affected users of the MOVEit file-transfer app, the lead defendant in another component suit in the MDL, which had a $9.95 million settlement preliminarily approved in September, on April 4 filed a motion for attorney fees.

  • April 07, 2025

    U.S. Supreme Court Won’t Review Timeliness, Fee Ruling In Miller Act Row

    WASHINGTON, D.C. — In its April 7 orders list, the U.S. Supreme Court declined to review an Eighth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals ruling that affirmed judgment for multiemployer funds on attorney fees and timeliness in a Miller Act case.

  • April 07, 2025

    More Than $12M In Attorney Fees, Expenses Awarded After Apple Gift Card Settlement

    SAN JOSE, Calif. — A federal judge in California, over objections by Apple Inc. and Apple Value Services LLC (together, Apple), granted approval of $11.65 million in attorney fees and more than $500,000 in expenses sought by the plaintiffs and class counsel as part of a $35 million settlement in a case over an alleged iTunes gift card scam.

  • April 07, 2025

    Calif. Cities Want Discharge Case Reconsideration, Cite High Court CWA Decision

    SAN JOSE, Calif. — Two California cities are asking a federal judge to reconsider a barrage of rulings issued in favor of an environmental organization that sued them for alleged violations of the Clean Water Act (CWA) through the discharge of bacteria pollution from stormwater sewage systems based on a recent decision in a U.S. Supreme Court case regarding National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System (NPDES) permittee requirements.

  • April 04, 2025

    8th Circuit Vacates Attorney Fee Award To Property Owners In Condemnation Suit

    ST. LOUIS — North Dakota property owners whose land was condemned for a right of way for a natural gas pipeline cannot recover $383,375 in attorney fees under the U.S. Natural Gas Act for their six-year legal fight against the condemnation, the Eighth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals has ruled.

  • April 04, 2025

    Judge Approves $15 Million Settlement Of Cash App Data Breach Class Action

    SAN FRANCISCO — Almost 10 months after a California federal judge preliminarily approved a $15 million settlement of a consolidated class action against the owners of Cash App over a pair of data breaches that exposed users’ personally identifiable information (PII) and account data, the judge granted the named plaintiffs’ motion for final approval, settling 16 claims, including negligence, fraud, invasion of privacy and unfair competition.

  • April 03, 2025

    Washington Appeals Court Reverses Attorney Fee Sanction In Estate Case

    TACOMA, Wash. — A Washington state appeals court affirmed that a state court has jurisdiction over the estate of a California decedent but reversed the trial court’s attorney fee sanction against the decedent’s brother for bringing a frivolous petition against probate and denied awarding attorney fees for either party for the appeal.

  • April 03, 2025

    Final Approval Of Settlement Of Barclays’ Accidental Securities Sales Suit Granted

    NEW YORK — A federal judge in New York granted final approval to a $19.5 million settlement of a putative class action complaint filed over how Barclays PLC and Barclays Bank PLC (collectively, Barclays) and certain of their executives responded to the accidental sale of unregistered securities.

  • April 01, 2025

    Federal Judge Rules For Insurer In Coverage Dispute Arising From Ghost Gun Claims

    NEW YORK — A federal judge in New York granted a commercial general liability insurer’s motion for partial summary judgment and denied a firearms retailer insured’s cross-motion in a coverage dispute arising from ghost gun lawsuits after finding that the underlying actions “clearly allege” that the insured “engaged in deliberate conduct,” further denying the insured’s motion for attorney fees.

  • April 01, 2025

    Excess Insurer Permitted To Pay Same Attorney Fee Rate As Primary Insurer

    PHILADELPHIA — An excess insurer cannot force an insured water utility company to choose substitute counsel to represent it in underlying lawsuits stemming from lead-contaminated water but the excess insurer can pay the same attorney fee rate as the primary insurer because the excess policy follow forms to the insured’s primary policy.

  • March 28, 2025

    Contempt, Sanctions Upheld For Discovery Noncompliance In Bankruptcy Proceeding

    NEW YORK — A Second Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel affirmed a bankruptcy court’s holding of contempt against two parties that did not comply with a discovery subpoena, as well as a corresponding imposition of sanctions with an award of attorney fees, ruling that the appellants and their counsel did not avail themselves of many opportunities to comply with court orders or to adequately explain their noncompliance.

  • March 27, 2025

    In Amended Opinion, Judge Stands By Ruling Insurer Does Not Owe Attorney Fees

    CHICAGO —A federal judge in Illinois filed an amended memorandum in a senior care primary liability insurer’s lawsuit challenging coverage for an underlying $934,232 judgment in a wrongful death and negligence action alleging that an insured violated the Nursing Home Care Act by failing to meet the standard of care at its skilled nursing facility, noting that the amended ruling does not affect the court's prior determination that the insurer has no duty to indemnify its insured for the underlying attorney fee award.

  • March 27, 2025

    New York Justice: Asbestos Study Subpoena Challenge Wasn’t Contempt

    NEW YORK — An asbestos expert’s and hospital’s delay in producing the identities of asbestos-talc study participants while they challenged a ruling requiring compliance with the subpoena constitutes zealous advocacy rather than clear disobedience, a New York justice said in declining to find contempt on the grounds that doing so would “chill such advocacy” and that attorney fees weren’t appropriate.

  • March 27, 2025

    $525,000 Settlement Of Philadelphia Inquirer Data Breach Suit Gets Final OK

    PHILADELPHIA — Five months after preliminarily approving a $525,000 settlement of privacy and negligence class claims over a 2023 data breach experienced by the Philadelphia Inquirer LLC, a Pennsylvania federal judge granted a motion for final approval of the settlement.

  • March 26, 2025

    Ex-NFL Player To 5th Circuit: Dismiss Fee Award Appeal In Disability Benefits Row

    NEW ORLEANS — Arguing in part that “[i]t would be patently unfair to reverse [his] benefits award while citing his failures to properly appeal and then excuse the Plan’s own failures to properly appeal the Fee Award,” a former National Football League player filed a motion asking the Fifth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals to dismiss the plan’s appeal of an award of more than $1.25 million in attorney fees and costs.

  • March 25, 2025

    Judge Approves Settlement Of Consolidated Privacy Suit Over Photo Database

    CHICAGO — An Illinois federal judge granted final approval to a settlement of claims against the creator and curator of a massive digital photo database under the Illinois Biometric Information Privacy Act (BIPA), finding that the settlement fund being based on the startup company’s equity is appropriate given the defendant’s “precarious” financial situation.

  • March 25, 2025

    Judge Authorizes Payment Of Over $126K For Fees, Expenses In Insurer Bankruptcy

    WILMINGTON, Del. — A Delaware federal bankruptcy court judge granted an application for compensation and reimbursement to a trustee’s legal counsel in an insolvent insurer’s Chapter 7 bankruptcy proceeding, authorizing the trustee to pay his counsel $126,307.16, which includes $125,438 in compensation.

  • March 24, 2025

    Austrian Glass Company Wins Attorney Fees After Judge Confirms ICC Award

    MINNEAPOLIS — A Minnesota federal judge who previously granted an Austrian glass company’s motion to confirm an International Chamber of Commerce (ICC) award in its favor worth more than $1 million against a Minnesota company for failure to provide materials for a church project entered an additional judgment in favor of the Austrian company after granting in part and denying in part its motion for attorney fees.