At 1:30 the Court of Appeals will hear Bar Til v. Superior Asphalt, Inc, Pull A Part of Jackson, LLC, MMC Materials, Inc., and H & E Equipment. The subject is attorneys fees.
Bar-Til sued Superior Asphalt for payment due for work performed on a construction project owned by Pull-a-Part of Jackson. Bar-Til was awarded a judgment of $171,033.20. Superior, however, never paid any monies to Bar-Til as a result of that judgment.
While funds belonging to Bar-Til were still in the possession of Superior, two of Bar-Til’s judgement-creditors H & E and MMC served writs of garnishment on Superior. Superior then sought the trial court’s permission to interplead the funds into the registry of the Court. Permission was granted and Superior deposited the sum of $205,839.65 into the registry of the Court. The court ended up dividing the funds by awarding Bar-Til’s attorney Chuck McRae the sum of $72,348.20, H&E the sum of $74,230.56, MMC the sum of $23,626.08, and another creditor Tom DeWeese the sum of $35,634.81 McRae’s contingent fee contract with Bar-Til provided that he get 40% of any recovery so McRae/Bar-Til appeal arguing that McRae was entitled to 40% of the original judgment. The others argue that McRae was not entitled to any of the money because he was not a proper party (he didn’t join the interpleader; Bar Til did) and that he was only entitled to 40% once Bar Til came into possession of the funds and that never happened.
There’s a ton of briefs so I’m just attaching the initial brief filed by each party.
Watch the argument here.
