Micha v. Sun Life Assurance of Canada, No. 16-55053 (9th Cir. 2017)
Annotate this CaseThe Ninth Circuit reversed the district court's denial of appellate attorney's fees under the Employee Retirement Income Security Act, 29 U.S.C. 1132(g)(1). The panel held that, pursuant to Sokol v. Bernstein, 812 F.2d 559, 561 (9th Cir. 1987), a court must consider the entire course of the litigation when analyzing a party's request for appellate attorney's fees within the Hummell v. S.E. Rykoff & Co., 634 F.2d 446 (9th Cir. 1980), rubric. Accordingly, the panel remanded to the district court for calculation of a reasonable award of fees and costs.
Court Description: ERISA / Attorney’s Fees. The panel reversed the district court’s denial of appellate attorney’s fees under 29 U.S.C. § 1132(g)(1) and remanded for calculation of a reasonable award of fees and costs in an ERISA case. The panel held that in analyzing a party’s request for appellate attorney’s fees under the Hummell test, a court must consider the entire course of the litigation, rather than focusing exclusively on the prior appeal. Weighing the five Hummell factors in light of all of a defendant’s conduct, from its wrongful denial of the plaintiff’s claim for ERISA benefits to its filing of a petition for a writ of certiorari, the panel held that the moving party was entitled to attorney’s fees for the prior appeal, in which the panel had affirmed an award of litigation attorney’s fees. The panel declined to consider the issue, not raised before the district court, whether fees-on- SUN LIFE ASSURANCE V. GRP. DISABILITY BENEFITS PLAN 3 fees should be automatically awarded, without application of the Hummell test. Concurring, Judge Berzon wrote that, were the panel reaching the issue, she would hold that attorney’s fees should be awarded automatically on appeal to a party that successfully defends the fees it was awarded at the district court, in ERISA cases as in others.
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