(DOWNLOAD) "Smith v. Tamtrust" by In the Supreme Court of Appeals of West Virginia September 2007 Term # Book PDF Kindle ePub Free
eBook details
- Title: Smith v. Tamtrust
- Author : In the Supreme Court of Appeals of West Virginia September 2007 Term
- Release Date : January 23, 2009
- Genre: Law,Books,Professional & Technical,
- Pages : * pages
- Size : 54 KB
Description
The reasonableness of attorneys fees is generally an issue for the trier of fact. In Ragsdale v. Progressive Voters League, however, we held that a court may award attorneys fees as a matter of law when the testimony on fees "is not contradicted by any other witness, or attendant circumstances, and the same is clear, direct and positive, and free from contradiction, inaccuracies, and circumstances tending to cast suspicion thereon." Ragsdale, 801 S.W.2d 880, 882 (Tex. 1990) (quoting Cochran v. Wool Growers Cent. Storage Co., 166 S.W.2d 904, 908 (Tex. 1942)). We must decide whether Ragsdale authorizes a court to award fees as a matter of law when a jury awards roughly one-third of the damages sought and no attorneys fees. Because, under such circumstances, a courts award of the full amount of fees sought is unreasonable, we reverse in part the court of appeals judgment and remand to the trial court for a new trial on attorneys fees.