Court Opinion

ID: 9451355
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-04 17:14:52.950032+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:32:40.863048
License: Public Domain

EDWARDS, Circuit Judge
(dissenting).
The relevant language of this contract for legal representation provided:
“As I told you on leaving Akron, I will prepare, file and present your claim with the Sundry Claims Board without charge to you. (My usual fee for a claim of this size is $2,-500.00 for preparation and presentment against 25% of the recovery.) Out of any recovery in your claim, you are to pay me a percentage figure acceptable to you. * * * ”
After plaintiff had secured allowance of $137,341.81 of defendant’s claim, defendant tendered a fee of $2,000, or 1.4%. The District Judge found this action to have been taken in bad faith and gave judgment for plaintiff in the sum of $27,468.36, or 20% of the recovery. The record provides evidentiary support for the finding of bad faith, and I do not think we can properly hold that it is “clearly erroneous.” Rule 52(a) Fed.R.Civ.P.
I would affirm.