HOUSTON - The First Court of Appeals recently affirmed an attorney’s fee award, rejecting the argument that justices should reverse an award of $104,516.50 to the Dow Golub Remels & Gilbreath law firm.
The appeal was brought by Laurie Ann McRay, Infinity Capital and McRay Money Management.
According to the First Court’s Dec. 29 opinion, McRay hired Dow Golub to represent it in two lawsuits in 2012. On Aug. 12, 2015, Dow Golub sued McRay, asserting claims for breach of contract and quantum meruit.
The case proceeded to a bench trial on Sept. 25, 2019 – more than four years after the suit was filed and three years after the close of discovery, the opinion states.
On Oct. 16, 2020, the trial court entered a final judgment in favor of Dow Golub, awarding it $104,316.66 in damages on its breach of contract claim and $104,516.50 in legal fees, the opinion states.
On appeal, McRay argued that several of the trial court’s pretrial rulings were erroneous and prevented it from developing its defenses and presenting the complete set of facts and legal issues to the trial court and therefore a remand is necessary for a new trial on liability and damages.
McRay also argued that, if no new trial is granted, the First Court should reverse the trial court’s award of attorney’s fees in the amount of $104,516.50 for the prosecution of Dow Golub’s breach of contract claim and render judgment that Dow Golub take only $10,000 in attorney’s fees or, alternatively, remand the issue of attorney’s fees for reconsideration of the evidence presented at trial.
Justices concluded that the evidence is sufficient to support the trial court’s findings related to the reasonableness and necessity of Dow Golub’s fees and its award of $104,516.50 in prosecution-based fees to the firm.
Appeals case No. 01-21-00032-CV