Halsey v. Halter

486 S.W.3d 184, 2016 Tex. App. LEXIS 2627, 2016 WL 945293
CourtCourt of Appeals of Texas
DecidedMarch 14, 2016
DocketNo. 05-14-01603-CV
StatusPublished
Cited by8 cases

This text of 486 S.W.3d 184 (Halsey v. Halter) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals of Texas primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Halsey v. Halter, 486 S.W.3d 184, 2016 Tex. App. LEXIS 2627, 2016 WL 945293 (Tex. Ct. App. 2016).

Opinion

[186]*186MEMORANDUM OPINION

Opinion by

Justice Whitehill

This case involves the sufficiency of the evidence to support an attorney’s' fees award in a breach of contract case where there was' written evidence regarding a portion of the subject services ánd oral evidence regarding a portion of the services.

Following a bench trial, the trial court awarded Pam Halter (Halter) $85,000 for damages and $28,333 for attorney’s fees against' Nathan Halsey and Bonamour Pacific, Inc. (together, Halsey). In a single issue, Halsey challenges the legal and factual sufficiency of the evidence to support the fee award. For the reasons discussed below, we‘ reject Halsey’s issue, and affirm the trial court’s judgment, because written timesheets were not required -and there was factually sufficient evidence supporting the trial court’s finding regarding the fee amount awarded.

I. Background

- Halter filed a shareholder derivative suit against Halsey for breach of fiduciary duty and unjust enrichment regarding a,stock purchase agreement. Two law firms— Munsch Hardt Kopf & Harr, P.C., (MH) and Sommerman & Quesada, L.L.P. (SQ) represented her in that suit. Both firms worked on a one-third contingency fee basis.

The parties reached a settlement agreement on June 2, 2014 (the Agreement). The Agreement required Halséy to pay Halter $85,000 by June 9, 2014. Halsey, however, breached the Agreement.

Halter then amended her petition to add claims for breach of contract, promissory estoppel, and attorney’s fees under Tex. Civ. PRAc. & Rem.Code Ann. § 38.0001 regarding the settlement agreement breach. The amended petition nonetheless still included the prior shareholder derivative claims.

The case was set for trial on August 27, 2014. Despite the new breach of settlement agreement claims, her lawyers continued incurring fees related to trying the underlying dérivative suit claims.

On the eve of trial, Halsey agreed to the entry of a judgment thirty days after trial for' $85,000 and $28,333 in attorney’s fees. The parties presented the agreed judgment to the court on the morning of trial, but the court rejected it. As a result, that same day, the parties tried to the court only the breach of settlement agreement and attorney’s fees issues.

Halter testified about the Agreement and its breach. And Andy Sommerman, an SQ' lawyer,' testified about Halter’s § 38:001 attorney’s fees. His testimony discussed the factors described in Arthur Andersen & Co. v. Perry Equip. Corp., 945 S.W.2d 812 (Tex.1997) as applied to the present case. MH time records were admitted into evidence, and Sommerman testified that the amount of time MH spent is equivalent to the time spent by his firm.

On September 29, 2014, the trial judge signed a final judgment awarding Halter $85,000 in damages and $28,333 in attorney’s fees. The judgment recited that the court considered the Arthur Andersen factors and determined that the attorney’s fees were a reasonable and necessary amount for pursuing the breach of settlement agreement to judgment.

In a single issue, but with multiple arguments, Halsey challenges the legal and factual sufficiency of the evidence to support the fee award.

II. Analysis

A. Standard of Review

We review the trial court’s decision to grant or deny attorney’s' fees for an [187]*187abuse of discretion. Ridge Oil Co., Inc. v. Guinn Invs., Inc., 148 S.W.3d 143, 163 (Tex.2004); Spector Gadon & Rosen, P.C. v. Sw. Sec., Inc., 372 S.W.3d 244, 251 (Tex.App.—Dallas 2012, no pet.) (“The iixing of a reasonable attorney’s fee is a matter within the sound discretion of the trial court, and its judgment will not be reversed on appeal absent a clear abuse of discretion.”). Legal and factual sufficiency of the evidence are not independent grounds under this standard of review, but are relevant factors we may consider in assessing whether the trial court abused its discretion. Id.

B. Is the evidence legally and factually sufficient to support the fée award, where the evidence of work done was partly written and partly oral?

Although Halsey asserts that the trial court abused its discretion in awarding fees because the evidence is legally insufficient to support the award, the body of his argument and his prayer also challenge the factual sufficiency of the evidence supporting the award. We therefore consider both challenges.

1. Does § 38.001 require written evidence?

We begin with the legal sufficiency of the evidence and Halsey’s argument that the fees were not supported by adequate documentation. Halsey relies on El Apple I, Ltd. v. Olivas, 370 S.W.3d 757 (Tex.2012) and its progeny to argue that attorney’s fees awards must be supported by some evidence of the actual work performed. Halsey suggests that this evidence is lacking here because Sommerman did not submit his billing records or give detailed testimony about the hours expended on each task or the attorney who performed the work. Although Halsey acknowledges that El Apple involved the calculation of fees under the lodestar method, he urges that El Apple is or should apply equally here although the fees in the present case were awarded under § 38,001. We disagree with Halsey.

El Apple was an employment' discrimination and retaliation case brought under the Texas Commission on Human Rights Act. Id. at 760. In that case, the Court observed that Texas courts have used the lodestar method in awarding fees under the TCHRA because federal courts use the lodestar method in awarding fees under Title YII cases. Id.1

Under the lodestar method, a claimant must produce evidence of who performed the legal services, when the services were performed, and the amount of time spent on various parts of the case. Id. át 763. The Court' distinguished the lodestar method from a traditional attorney’s fees award by stating, “[w]hile Texas courts have not routinely required billing records or other documentary evidence to .substantiate a claim for attorney’s fees, the requirement has merit in contested cases under the lodestar approach.” Id. at 762.

In a subsequent opinion, however, the Court clarified that, even under the lodestar approach, El Apple does not hold that time records or billing statements are the only method of proof. See City of Laredo v. Montano, 414 S.W.3d.731, 735-37 (Tex.2013).

We also recognize that El Apple does not require the admission of hourly time records in all cases,, nor does it provide [188]*188that all attorney’s fees recoveries in Texas are governed by the lodestar method. See Metroplex Mailing Servs. LLC v. Donnelly & Sons Co., 410 S.W.3d 889

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486 S.W.3d 184, 2016 Tex. App. LEXIS 2627, 2016 WL 945293, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/halsey-v-halter-texapp-2016.