$5 Million Fee Request Snubbed At Both Trial And Appellate Levels.
Credit/Debit Card Tying Cases, Case No. A145891 (1st Dist., Div. 4 Jan. 12, 2017) (unpublished) concerned an objector’s challenge to an award of fees and costs to class counsel in a main action, although objector was involved in a separate, more peripheral action. Objector sought to recover over $5 million in claimed fees based on the theory that he added benefit in a separate action, although class attorneys in the main class action obtained a $31 million settlement fund and were awarded about $9.3 million in fees/costs under a “clear sailing” class action settlement provision.
The trial court denied objector’s fees request as untimely and as lacking merit because objector did not add any substantial benefit to the ultimate class action settlement fund recovery.
Those determinations were affirmed on appeal.
First of all, objector blew the deadlines set by two judges during the course of protracted proceedings to file fee applications in the class action case. The appellate court found it would be unfair to allow objector to ignore the deadlines because (1) it would allow objector to bypass the mandatory review process for fees applicable to all attorneys in the class action case, and (2) it would deprive the class of the opportunity to object to objector’s fees in belated junctures of the case.
On the merits, the appellate court, as did the trial court, agreed that objector’s work did not contribute to the creation or augmentation of the settlement fund, such that the “substantial benefit” basis for fee entitlement was not satisfied.