A recent Reuters story, “Delaware Supreme Court Won’t Revisit Record $305 Million Attorneys’ Fee,” reports that the Delaware Supreme Court declined to consider a challenge to the $305 million fee award, believed to be the biggest ever fee award by the Delaware’s Court Chancery.  It is also one of the largest attorney fees awarded in securities class actions nationwide.  The fee award was awarded in December for plaintiffs’ attorneys who brought a shareholder lawsuit on behalf of Southern Cooper Corp.

The court’s chief judge, Leo Strine, calculated the fee as 15 percent of the $2 billion judgment to be paid to Southern Cooper.  Strine said at the time that the fee was meant as an incentive for lawyers to achieve good outcomes for their clients.  The judgment and fee award were affirmed by the Delaware Supreme Court in August.  Strine ruled that defendant Grupo Mexico could satisfy the judgment by returning to Southern Cooper an equivalent value of the Southern Cooper shares it held, but that the fee award had to be paid out of the judgment in cash.

The defendants asked the Delaware Supreme Court to change its ruling on the fee because the high court did not consider the limited impact of the judgment on minority shareholders.  The defendants argued the minority shareholders will get just $386 million of actual benefits.  On that basis, they argued the fee award was not 15 percent, but 79 percent.  An appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court is possible, but unlikely.  The judgment is increasing by $212,000 a day due to interest costs, according to court records.

The judgment is due immediately, said plaintiffs’ attorney Ronald Brown of Pickett Jones.  He said after 20 days of the judgment is not paid, it can be satisfied by cancelling shares of Southern Cooper stock held by Grupo Mexico.  Brown said a bond for the attorneys’ fee had been posted by Grupo Mexico.  If the company did not pay the plaintiffs’ attorneys next week the bond would be used to cover the payment.