Delaware Business Litigation Report

Supreme Court Bars Fees For Dismissed Case

Crothall v. Zimmerman, No. 608, 2013 (June 9, 2014)

In what the Court itself characterized as an unusual case, the Supreme Court denied a fee to the lawyers for a plaintiff who won a small victory for their plaintiff stockholder.  Unfortunately for the lawyers, their client sold his holdings and thereby lost any standing to pursue the case, making it moot.  The Court held that when it is the plaintiff who moots his own case, the lawyers do not get a fee even for success.  Of course, the facts are truly odd in that the plaintiff victory was indeed very small and he lost most of the rest of his claims as well.  But the point remains that if your client bails out on you, the fee you want may not be what you get.

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