Opinion ID: 2278218
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: Attorney's Fees Awarded to the Districts

Text: Finally, the Trustee argues that the trial court erred in awarding fees to the Districts. The Trustee argues that the fee reports submitted by the Districts included unrelated expenses, and, therefore, those fees should have been reduced by approximately $35,000. The Districts respond that the trial court made an initial adjustment downward of attorney's fees authorized by statute, but thereafter the Trustee failed to show that the award of fees was an abuse of discretion. Therefore, the fees should stand. A trial court is not required to award attorney's fees and, because of the trial judge's intimate acquaintance with the trial proceedings and the quality of service rendered by the prevailing party's counsel, we usually recognize the superior perspective of the trial judge in determining whether to award attorney's fees. Marcum v. Wengert, 344 Ark. 153, 40 S.W.3d 230 (2001); Jones v. Abraham, 341 Ark. 66, 15 S.W.3d 310 (2000); Chrisco v. Sun Industries Inc., 304 Ark. 227, 800 S.W.2d 717 (1990). The decision to award attorney's fees and the amount to award are discretionary determinations that will be reversed only if the appellant can demonstrate that the trial court abused its discretion. Nelson v. River Valley Bank & Trust, 334 Ark. 172, 971 S.W.2d 777 (1998); Burns v. Burns, 312 Ark. 61, 847 S.W.2d 23 (1993). A grant of attorney's fees is an issue within the sound discretion of the trial court and will not be disturbed on appeal absent an abuse of discretion. Id. The decision of whether to award attorneys' fees in a contract case is governed by Ark.Code Ann. § 16-22-308, which provides in pertinent part: In any civil action to recover on ... breach of contract, unless otherwise provided by law or the contract which is the subject matter of the action, the prevailing party may be allowed a reasonable attorney fee to be assessed by the court and collected as costs. In awarding fees under Ark.Code Ann. § 16-22-308, the trial court has broad discretion on whether to award fees, and his decision will not be reversed absent an abuse of discretion. The operative word in this statute is may. The word may is usually employed as implying permissive or discretional, rather than mandatory, action or conduct and is construed in a permissive sense unless necessary to give effect to an intent to which it is used. Jones, supra; Chrisco, supra . Here, the trial court entered a subsequent order on September 1, 2000, granting fees to the four Districts in the amount of $128,726.25 to be divided out among the Districts according to the attorney's allocation of percentages of contribution to the lawsuit. According to the order, the trial court reviewed the submission of fees by Attorney Lawrence with some care, adjusting the fees downward and correcting a typographical error in order to reach the correct amount of fees. The Districts were clearly the prevailing parties as they succeeded in proving a breach-of-contract claim resulting in reimbursement to the bond funds of the damages from the breach, i.e. the attorney's fees expended in unwarranted litigation. While the Trustee argues that the fee schedules submitted by the Districts' attorneys listed unnecessary expenses, the Trustee fails to specifically state why certain expenses are not warranted, other than to indicate that these expenses are Non-litigation expenses. However, a review of the listed expenses indicates that these expenses are for the time period included within the award of damages and involve various matters involved in this litigation. As such, we cannot say that the trial court abused its discretion in awarding these fees.