Commission Grants Reduced Attorney's Fees to Complainant In 337-TA-644
The Commission has adopted the recommendation of ALJ Essex that Complainants Magotteaux International and Magotteaux Inc. receive their attorneys fees from respondents AIA Engineering and Vega Industries in 337-TA-644, Certain Composite Wear Components and Products Containing Same. The Commission determined that the repondents' behavior, including refusing to make witnesses available for deposition and notifying the ALJ that it would no longer participate in the investigation, constituted abuse of process and warranted sanctions in the form of attorneys fees. However, the Commission found that not all of the itemized entries submitted by the Complainants to the ALJ actually represented costs related to the respondents' behavior, and lowered the total amount of attorney's fees granted by 25%. One Commissioner dissented from the decision, arguing that reasonable fees in this case should have been awarded on a value-based services or a flat fee model, rather than the per-hour model adopted by the majority.
