F.H. Krear & Co. v. Nineteen Named Trustees
| Decision Date | 18 November 1985 |
| Docket Number | D,No. 194,194 |
| Court | U.S. Court of Appeals — Second Circuit |
| Parties | , 6 Employee Benefits Ca 2575 F.H. KREAR & CO., a corporation, Plaintiff-Appellee, v. NINETEEN NAMED TRUSTEES, as Trustees of Local 69 Pension Fund, Local 69 Vacation Fund, and Local 69 Health Benefit Fund, et al., Defendants/Third Party Plaintiffs/Fourth Party Plaintiffs-Appellants, HOTEL AND RESTAURANT EMPLOYEES AND BARTENDERS INTERNATIONAL UNION PENSION FUND, et al., Defendants/Counterclaim Plaintiffs-Appellants, v. Anthony GRAUSO, individually and d/b/a Software & Systems Development Co., a partnership, Third Party Defendants-Appellees, Robert Mozer, Third Party Defendant, Fourth Party Defendant-Appellee. ocket 85-7206. |
Lewis M. Steel, New York City (Richard F. Belman, Steel & Bellman, P.C., Ira Drogin, Leaf Sternkar & Drogin, New York City, of counsel), for appellant Nineteen Named Trustees.
Douglas Kramer, New York City (Marilyn Go, Baden Kramer Huffman & Brodsky, P.C., Harvey M. Katz, New York City, of counsel), for plaintiff-appellee F.H. Krear & Co.
Michael G. Berger, New York City (Miriam J. Haines, of counsel), for third party defendant-appellee Grauso.
Before OAKES, NEWMAN and KEARSE, Circuit Judges.
Defendants below ("Trustees") appeal from a judgment of the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York, Shirley Wohl Kram, Judge, entered in favor of plaintiff and third-party defendants in this breach of contract case. Because no final judgment has been entered in the district court, we dismiss the appeal.
F.H. Krear & Co. ("Krear") brought suit to recover for the damages it claims to have suffered through defendants' breach of three contracts with it. The Trustees subsequently served a third party complaint against Anthony Grauso, their computer consultant, for failure to perform his contractual duties and for participation in the allegedly fraudulent scheme to obtain contracts for Krear. Grauso counterclaimed against the Trustees for terminating his five-year consulting contract.
The district court bifurcated this case into a trial on the merits and a trial on the amount of contractually stipulated attorneys' fees to be awarded to the prevailing party. The trial on the merits resulted in a verdict in favor of Krear and Grauso. The court held the Trustees liable to Krear for $363,183 and to Grauso for $53,104. A decision on the attorneys' fees issue has not, however, been rendered, and the lack of such a decision makes it necessary to dismiss this appeal for lack of a final judgment. We have held that where attorneys' fees are a contractually stipulated element of damages, a judgment is not final until...
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...parallel the rules for attorney fee awards." (citation and internal quotation marks omitted)); F.H. Krear & Co. v. Nineteen Named Trustees, 776 F.2d 1563, 1564 (2d Cir.1985) (per curiam) ("We have held that where attorneys' fees are a contractually stipulated element of damages, a judgment ......
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...cases, the finality requirement plainly applies to outstanding damages determinations. See, e.g., F.H. Krear & Co. v. Nineteen Named Trustees, 776 F.2d 1563, 1564 (2d Cir.1985) (per curiam) (“We have held that where attorneys' fees are a contractually stipulated element of damages, a judgme......
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