Written By Larry Beebe
Bond Beebe
P: 301.272.6025 E: This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it

In a recent case, a district court awarded the plans the entire amount of the delinquency plus interest for a total of approximately $6,500.  The court also awarded attorney fees but reduced the requested amount from $50,886 to $10,000.  The court labeled the requested attorney fees “disproportionate” to the damages claimed.

The appeals court remanded the case for a new calculation of attorney fees and “rejected the notion that the fees must be calculated proportionally to damages.”  The appeals court also noted that “the most useful starting point for determining the amount of a reasonable fee is the number of hours reasonably expended on the litigation multiplied b a reasonable hourly rate.”  The court noted that “the case could have been resolves at a greatly reduced cost if the defendant had cooperated with discovery requests, obeyed the court’s orders and not filed a series of frivolous motions.”

The case, as reported by the International Foundation of Employee Benefit Plans in its November, 2009 Legal Legislative Reporter, is Anderson et al v. AB Painting and Sandblasting Incorporated (No. 08-2101, 7th Cir. Aug 20, 2009).

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