The Delaware Supreme Court rejected a motion to re-assess the fee, which reportedly stands at around $305 million.
The pay-out to Wilmington-based Prickett Jones & Elliott and co-counsel Kessler Topaz Meltzer & Check, approved by Chancellor Leo Strine last year, was set at $285m and is racking up an eye-watering daily interest of $212,000, reports the ABA Journal. Claimants Southern Peru Co (now known as Southern Copper Corp) had been awarded $1.26 billion last October by the Chancery Court's chief judge following a shareholder derivative suit.
Bond posted
Prickett’s Ronald Brown said that defendant Grupo México – a Mexican mining conglomerate which owns 75 per cent of Southern Copper -- has posted a bond to cover the cost of the judgment and that the fees could also be met by cancelling shares of Southern Copper stock held by Grupo México, if the judgment isn't satisfied within 20 days. New York-based law Simpson Thacher & Bartlett acted for the defendants.
In its opinion last Friday, the state supreme court said the trial judge has discretion to set attorney's fees and, absent an abuse of that discretion, as demonstrated by arbitrary, capricious or ‘clearly wrong’ decision-making, the fee award will not be disturbed.
Email your news and story ideas to: [email protected]
