TEA STATION INVESTMENT, INC.; et al. v ZHOU BAODI
- Summarized by Michael Myers , Ballard Spahr LLP
- 10 months 3 weeks ago
- Case Type:
- Business
- Case Status:
- Affirmed
- Citation:
- No. 22-60051 (9th Circuit, Feb 16,2024) Not Published
- Tag(s):
-
- Ruling:
- A panel of the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals upheld (2-1) the bankruptcy court's order awarding attorneys' fees to appellee judgment creditor. The majority held that the bankruptcy court properly applied the test in Hensley v. Eckerhart, 461 U.S. 424 (1983) for determining fees under California Labor Code Section 1194(a).
- Procedural context:
- The appellee judgment creditor obtained an order awarding attorneys' fees from the bankruptcy court. The Ninth Circuit Bankruptcy Appellate Panel affirmed, as did the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals in a 2-1 decision.
- Facts:
- Appellee judgment creditor had obtained a judgment of $4,674.08 on her individual wage claim only and had not prevailed on her class action claims (no class was certified). The bankruptcy court awarded the creditor $168,766.25 in fees, 25% of the total fees sought but more than 36 times the amount of the recovery. The Ninth Circuit upheld the award under Hensley, holding that the conclusions were not illogical, implausible, or without support in the record. The dissent argued that the bankruptcy court had not properly applied Hensley because it did not consider the most critical factor under the test, the "degree of success obtained."
- Judge(s):
- Tashima, Wallach, and Christen
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