Our POOF! principle was illustrated very poignantly in Veronese v. Lucasfilm Ltd., Case Nos. A129535/A131600 (1st Dist., Div. 2 Dec. 10, 2012) (published).
There, plaintiff won a $113,830 compensatory discrimination verdict against the defense, and later garnered a prevailing party $1,157,411 fee recovery (almost 10x).
On appeal, the defense won the argument that there was instructional error requiring a reversal and remand. Because this meant any fee recovery was premature, the fee award went ….. POOF!
Edgewood Arsenal, Maryland. Gas demonstration. Exploding aerial bomb just dropped by a plane. Jack Delano, photographer. 1942. Library of Congress.
