Yesterday, the Fifth Circuit affirmed an award of $446,777.12 in attorneys’ fees despite the fact that it included charges for an initial mistrial. The plaintiffs, eight employees of a railroad, sued for race discrimination. Their first trial ended in a jury deadlock, but they won the next time around. The second jury awarded each of them $125,000 in punitive damages for a total of $1,000,000. The court then added the fee award. The Fifth Circuit held that the court properly included the mistrial fees because the plaintiffs in fact prevailed on their hostile work environment claim and didn’t cause the mistrial. Abner v. The Kansas City S. Ry. Co., No. 07-30674 (5th Cir. Aug. 14, 2008).
Today, the Federal Circuit applied the "case or controversy" test of MedImmune, Inc. v. Genentech, Inc., 127 S. Ct. 764 (2007), in upholding dismissal of a lawsuit seeking a judgment declaring non-infringement of patents. The court noted that the patent-holder hadn’t threatened the plaintiff with suit or caused it any injury by its hovering menace as an active enforcer of its patent rights. Prasco, LLC v. Medicis Pharmaceutial Corp., No. 07-1524 (Fed. Cir. Aug. 15, 2008).
