Suzanne Solberg Nagle, left, and Lorraine and Thor Solberg. Photo by Carmen Natale/ALM

A New Jersey appeals court has upheld an award of $329,000 in attorney fees for a plaintiff whose 2011 shareholder oppression case against her siblings had fixed “considerable mismanagement” at the family's airport-operation business.

A three-judge panel of the Superior Court's Appellate Division on Thursday affirmed the award to Suzanne Solberg Nagle and her McCarter & English attorneys in a long-running dispute involving family companies that own and operate Solberg-Hunterdon Airport in Readington Township.

Chancery Division Judge Edward Coleman found in 2014 that Suzanne's siblings, Thor and Lorraine, had long sidelined her from corporate decision-making and engaged in “gross mismanagement” to her detriment. The ruling also found that Thor, who died in 2017, had improperly used a home on company property for years without reimbursing the family partnership.

Coleman initially ordered Thor and Lorraine to return $150,000 in property taxes to the business and also appointed a special fiscal agent to do a forensic accounting of other finance issues. Though Coleman later adopted a report that Thor was owed $190,000 for improvements he made to the residence, the judge declined to modify Suzanne's attorney fee award, finding that she had fundamentally prevailed on her claims and had rectified the family's business affairs through the appointment of the special fiscal agent.

Lorraine and Thor's estate appealed the ruling, arguing that the fee award was premature because it preceded a posttrial accounting that ultimately revealed Thor was entitled to a credit for improvements he made to the airport property. Any fee award, the ruling said, should be confined to McCarter & English's work on Suzanne's oppressed shareholder claim, and not related arguments for breach of contract and fiduciary duties.

The Appellate Division panel on Thursday, however, affirmed the award, adding only what it said were “a few amplifying issue-specific comments.” The panel noted in its per curium ruling that the trial judge was entitled to “considerable deference” and that the Chancery Division was vested with “broad equitable authority” to craft case-specific remedies.

“The judge clearly exhibited a 'feel for the case' and, on the whole, ruled in a fair and equitable manner in addressing the litany of issues the parties called upon him to decide,” the judges wrote in a 23-page opinion.

An attorney from McCarter & English declined to comment, citing the firm's practice of not publicly discussing a matter in which it was involved. At attorney for the defendants did not return a call Friday seeking comment on the case.

According to the opinion, Suzanne was represented by William Wallach of McCarter & English in Newark. Lorraine and Thor's estate was represented by Lawrence Berger of Berger & Bernstein and Gregory Cannon of Sobel Ham & Cannon.

The case was captioned Solberg v. Solberg.