McCormick v. Starion Financial, No. 16-6031 (8th Cir. 2017)
Annotate this CaseOn remand to the Bankruptcy Appellate Panel, debtors challenged the bankruptcy court's order granting in part and denying in part Starion's motion to compel payment of fees under the confirmed plan of reorganizations, and granting in part and denying in part debtors' motion to disallow attorneys' fees and costs claimed by Starion. The panel affirmed the bankruptcy court's judgment and held that its prior opinion was not clearly erroneous nor did it work a manifest injustice in this case. Therefore, it is law of the case and will not be reopened. The panel also held that the relatively short delay in submitting the requests for attorneys' fees did not prejudice debtors and was not a material breach of the plan that should prohibit Starion's right to collect its fees and costs under the plan. Finally, the bankruptcy court did not abuse its discretion by reducing the fees instead of denying all fees.
Court Description: Chief Judge Saladino, Author, with Federman and Shodeen, Bankruptcy Judges] Bankruptcy Appellate Panel - Chapter 11 - Attorneys fees. For review of this court's prior opinion, see Starion Fin. v. McCormick, 523 B.R.151 (B.A.P., 8th Cir. 2014. On remand to consider the timeliness and reasonableness of the fees and costs, the bankruptcy court concluded the untimely submission of a request for fees was not a material breach of the plan and awarded a reduced amount of fees and costs. The debtors appeal. This court's prior opinion is not clearly erroneous and does not work a manifest injustice; thus, it is the law of the case and will not be reopened. The bankruptcy court did not err in applying materiality factors in determining timeliness and did not err in holding a short delay in submitting request for attorneys fees was not a material breach of the plan. The bankruptcy court did not abuse its discretion in determining the reasonableness of the fees and reducing the fees rather than denying all the fees. [ May 17, 2017
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