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Church Members Not Obligated to Pay Attorney Fees

October 20, 2010 | Posted in : Fee Agreement, Fee Dispute, Fee Entitlement / Recoverability, Fee Issues on Appeal, Fee Request

A recent NLJ story, “Congregants Not Obligated to Pay Fees to Lewis Brisbois” reports that two congregants of a Pasadena, Calif., Baptist church won’t have to pay Lewis Brisbois Bisgaard & Smith for work the law firm did in suing their pastor.  Reversing the bench trial decision, the California 2nd District Court of Appeal found that the law firm could not seek $140,000 in attorney fees from Cheryl Greer-Jarman and Charles Pulliam.  The appellate panel found that the actions of the firm’s attorneys and the defendants demonstrated that “none of them believed that [Greer-Jarman and Pullman] were still clients of the firm once the action was filed.”

The decision stemmed from a dispute that Larry Springer, also a member of the church, had with the pastor, Rev. Wayne Cooper, whom Springer accused of misusing church funds.  Springer, Greer-Jarman, and Pullman signed a letter of engagement from Lewis Brisbois partner Dennis Kasper to provide “general counsel” to them and to provide consultation about potential litigation.  The letter asked the church members to let the law firm know what the “next steps” would be.

The lower court found that Greer-Jarman and Pulliam signed a retainer agreement and therefore were responsible for the legal fees.  The appellate court disagreed.  “We agree with the trial court the retainer agreement was ambiguous,” the court wrote.  “We disagree that ‘consultation regarding potential litigation’ is a description of legal services that includes filing and prosecuting a lawsuit.”