Opinion ID: 1192013
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: the attorney fee award

Text: Because its ruling eliminated a purported double award of attorney fees to plaintiff, the Court of Appeals declined to consider defendant's second assignment of error. We, however, elect to consider this issue because it may recur upon remand. Plaintiff sought and was awarded attorney fees in the trial court pursuant to ORS 646.638(3), the attorney fees provision of the Oregon UTPA. [4] Defendant contends that once an award of punitive damages is rendered, and that award is sufficiently large to cover plaintiff's contractual obligation to pay their attorney, the mandatory distribution satisfies the attorney fees portion of plaintiff's damages, and further fees cannot be awarded at the cost bill stage. We reject that interpretation of the relationship between ORS 18.540 and 646.638(3). Punitive damages are intended to punish and deter wrong-doers. The attorney fees distribution provision of ORS 18.540 is merely a legislative recognition that attorneys often are contractually entitled to a share of a punitive damage award, should there be such an award. ORS 18.540 clarifies that the attorney gets his share before the money is split between the state and plaintiff. In other words, the state must bear its share of the cost of compensating the attorney who obtained the judgment, if a contractual obligation exists to compensate the attorney. On the other hand, attorney fees awarded in an unlawful trade practices case pursuant to ORS 646.638(3) serve an entirely different function: Their availability assures that wronged consumers can obtain counsel to prosecute claims that otherwise might be impractical to pursue because such claims would require an expenditure of attorney time the value of which greatly exceeded the value of the goods or services in question. The availability of punitive damages in a particular case may be problematical. The availability of basic compensation to counsel, however, cannot be problematical if consumers are going to be able to bring UTPA actions against dishonest and unscrupulous merchants. The different aims of the two statutes show that defendant's double recovery argument is chimerical. Allowing the attorney to be compensated under each statute furthers the statutory purpose of that statute; allowing recovery under only one partially thwarts the object of the other. We note particularly that, even within the UTPA itself, there is no requirement of any offset of fee earned under ORS 646.638( 1 ) (punitive damages) against those earned under 646.638( 3 ) (reasonable attorney fees for compensatory or punitive damages). Because we are remanding this case for a partial retrial, we must vacate the award of attorney fees as it relates to the award of punitive damages. (Plaintiffs are entitled to a discretionary award of their attorney fees for the judgment for compensatory damages under the UTPA.) After the retrial, plaintiffs may once again request costs and attorney fees in connection with any award of punitive damages and the trial court may consider an appropriate award at that time.