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Commercial appeal: Old Ironsides says record shows at least some compensable attorney fees from SEC matter
Summary
Old Ironsides told the Appeals Court that evidence of document productions, weekly calls and multiple SEC depositions supports a non‑speculative award of at least some attorney fees; defendants countered that plaintiff's expert was properly excluded and that damages without expert proof remain speculative.
Margaret Upshaw, for Old Ironsides Energy, urged the panel to reverse the superior court's summary‑judgment ruling and let a jury decide whether the company incurred reasonable attorneys' fees after subpoenas and extensive document production compelled outside counsel work. Upshaw pointed to deposition testimony and interrogatory responses showing tens of thousands of documents were produced and at least 10 SEC depositions were prepared.
Counsel for the defendants, John Soretta, said the plaintiffs' damages expert was properly excluded and that without competent expert opinion the damage claim was too speculative for trial. Soretta argued the paper record (monthly cover pages, depositions and interrogatories) leaves large gaps about who reviewed documents, how many documents were reviewed, and which timekeepers performed the work — gaps a lay jury cannot reliably fill.
Upshaw told the court there are Cleary rate schedules and testimony in the record that would allow a jury to find that at least some fees were reasonable; Soretta replied that cases such as Klein and out‑of‑state authorities support exclusion where the fee issue is beyond a lay jury's ordinary understanding without an expert.
The panel took the case under advisement.
