Opinion ID: 2259371
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 4

Heading: Determination of Attorneys' Fees

Text: The Defendants further object to the determination by the Court of Chancery of the reasonable attorneys' fees awarded to Vendel. They claim they needed further discovery to determine whether the fees claimed by Vendel and his attorneys were reasonable. They point to the fact that Vendel's attorneys never supported his claim with original time sheets even after a demand therefor that was denied by the court. Instead, Vendel's attorneys provided affidavits showing the hours spent on this matter by each attorney, with each attorney's hourly rate. In addition, the Defendants had the opportunity to, and did, depose Allingham regarding any further questions they had concerning the work product claimed by Vendel as his reasonable fees and expenses. The Court of Chancery balanced several factors in determining that the fees charged were reasonable. First, it hesitated to permit full-blown discovery on this issue, especially considering the bad faith use of such devices by the Defendants through the course of this litigation to delay justice unduly. Second, it noted that Vendel had committed to paying the fees, and had already begun to do so, regardless of the outcome of the litigation. This evidenced Vendel's subjective belief that the fees were reasonable, as he would not agree to pay fees that he considered unreasonable. Finally, the court noted that the hourly fees charged by Vendel's attorneys were only slightly higher than the hourly fees charged by the Defendants' own attorneys. In essence, the court found that, but for the Defendants' bad faith in defending this litigation, Vendel would not have incurred these fees. The court reached similar conclusions with regard to items such as disbursements and expert witness fees. The Court of Chancery has broad discretion in fixing the amount of attorney fees to be awarded. Absent a clear abuse of discretion, this Court will not reverse the award. [31] On our review of the record, we cannot find that the Court of Chancery abused its discretion in the methodology it used in determining the proper fee award.