Parks v. LaFace Records

ORDER

The litigation underlying this attorney fee dispute was resolved by settlement. At the root of this fee dispute is a contingency fee agreement entered into between Reed and Rosa Parks. Following the execution of this agreement Reed entered into fee sharing agreements with several other attorneys, three of whom are Reed’s co-appellants in this appeal.

After the initial lawsuit settled, the court found the fee sharing agreements to be ambiguous and decided it could not allocate the fees “subject to” the agreements, as the settlement agreement required. The court subsequently adopted the fee distribution schedule proposed by the guardian ad litem, Dennis Archer.

After reviewing the record, we conclude that the fee sharing agreements are not ambiguous and pursuant to the settlement agreement should be enforced.

The record in this case was sent to us under seal and accordingly we release under seal our full opinion which sets forth the reasons for our decision. Although released under seal, this opinion may be made public by the parties subject to any agreement existing among the parties, and may be released to any other court in which litigation related to this appeal is pending now, or may in the future be pending.

We AFFIRM in part, REVERSE in part, and REMAND for further proceedings.