St. Louis Post-Dispatch Article Relates Attorneys’ Fees Sought by Defendants in Metro Suit
Excerpted from The St. Louis Post-Dispatch – Copyright 2007
By Ken Leiser and Aisha Sultan
ST. LOUIS – [O]n Friday, lawyers for the winning defendants in that lawsuit filed documents in St. Louis County Circuit Court seeking more than $28 million from Metro to cover attorney fees, expert witness costs and other costs. That’s on top of $2.56 million that a jury awarded to the defendants.
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Metro was seeking $81 million from the companies.
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Richard Hardcastle, attorney for the collaborative, said Friday his clients’ legal fees amounted to more than $28 million.
“My clients welcome the opportunity to recover the substantial fees and costs which they were forced to spend over the years to defend against Metro’s baseless claims,” Hardcastle said in a prepared statement.
Metro has not disclosed how much the trial has cost the agency in legal fees. Hardcastle pointed out that trial testimony disclosed that Metro had spent more than $17 million on the case as of mid-October.
Metro’s board of commissioners on Friday received a post-trial report from its outside lawyers, including those from the Thompson Coburn law firm. A spokeswoman for the law firm on Friday declined to say how much it will bill the agency for its services.
Scott said it was too early to say whether the transit agency will appeal the jury’s verdicts.
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The high cost of losing a lawsuit
A breakdown of what contractors want Metro to pay:
The Cross County Collaborative Joint Venture
$2.6 million: Breach of contract judgment
$769,277: Interest on the judgment
$17.7 million to the Greensfelder, Hemker & Gale and Holloran, White & Schwartz law firms, both of St. Louis, representing the collaborative.
$4.6 million to the DLA Piper US law firm of Atlanta, representing Parsons, Brinckerhoff, Quade & Douglas
$3 million to the Keesal, Young & Logan law firm of Long Beach, Calif., representing Jacobs Civil Inc.
$2 million to Dowd & Bennett law firm of Clayton, representing STV Inc.
$102,676 to the Witzel & Kanzler law firm of Richmond Heights and lawyer Mary E. Nelson of St. Louis, representing the Kwame Building Group Inc.
Total sought: $30.7 million