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Austin ISD v. Manbeck

Austin Independent School District (AISD) argues that the district court erred in its judgment awarding claimant, Charles M. Manbeck, $36,000 for trial-level attorneys' fees incurred up to the time AISD non-suited its judicial review claim, an additional $17,415 for trial-level attorneys' fees incurred after the non-suit, plus contingent appellate attorneys' fees. Discussing Texas Labor Code �408.221(c), the court notes a split among its sister courts. Subsection (c) expressly authorizes awards of attorneys' fees that workers' compensation claimants incur in prevailing on issues on which carriers have sought judicial review, but it does not authorize the award of fees incurred solely in pursuing the fees themselves. Because AISD's non-suit of its judicial-review claim left Manbeck's counterclaim for attorneys' fees as the sole remaining issue in the case, subsection (c) did not authorize an award for the attorneys' fees Manbeck incurred from that point forward. Manbeck is ordered to take nothing on his claim for fees incurred after the non-suit. However, having concluded that Manbeck presented legally and factually sufficient evidence to support an award of $36,000 for the reasonable and necessary trial-level attorneys' fees he incurred prior to AISD's non-suit, the judgment award of those fees are affirmed. Austin Court of Appeals, No. 03-09-00682-CV, 03-23-2011

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OPINION

This cause originated as a suit for judicial review brought by a self-insured governmental entity–the Austin Independent School District (AISD), appellant–from a final decision and order of the Texas Department of Insurance Division of Workers’ Compensation (the Division) in an extent-of-injury dispute under the Workers’ Compensation Act. The claimant, Charles M. Manbeck, appellee, filed a counterclaim seeking attorneys’ fees under section 408.221, subsection (c), of the Labor Code. Subsequently, AISD non-suited its judicial-review claim, and the parties proceeded to jury trial solely on Manbeck’s attorneys’-fees counterclaim. Based on the jury’s findings, the district court awarded Manbeck $36,000 for trial-level attorneys’ fees incurred up to the time of AISD’s non-suit, an additional $17,415 for trial-level attorneys’ fees incurred after the non-suit, plus contingent appellate attorneys’ fees.

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