Opinion ID: 569388
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: The Historical Method of Computing a Common Fund Fee Award

Text: 13 In the first Supreme Court case recognizing that attorneys had a claim to fees payable out of a common fund which has been created through their efforts, a fee was awarded based upon a percentage of the fund recovered for the class. Pettus, 113 U.S. at 127-28, 5 S.Ct. at 393. Because class counsel in Pettus had an agreement with the named plaintiffs limiting the percentage of their fee, the Court used that fee agreement as a guideline to determine a reasonable percentage based fee. Id. at 128, 5 S.Ct. at 393. From the time of the Pettus decision in 1885 until 1973, fee awards granted pursuant to the common fund exception were computed as a percentage of the fund. The amount of the fee was left to the district court's discretion, with the only standard being reasonableness under the circumstances of a particular case. See, e.g., Newberg, supra, § 202 at 31; Court Awarded Attorney Fees, Report of the Third Circuit Task Force, October 8, 1985 (Arthur R. Miller, Reporter), 108 F.R.D. 237, 242 (1985) (the Task Force Report). 14