The Halls and Green Cove Ask $675,000 Reimbursement for Lawyer Fees
For Their Successful Defense Against Pegasus Technologies in Runway Suit
Virginia Hall and the City of Green Cove Springs are asking a state court judge to reimburse the $675,000—and counting—spent defending themselves against the Pegasus Technologies lawsuit.
Green Cove and the Hall family recently won the suit, which had challenged plans for an apartment complex on Hall land. Pegasus had objected to the apartments because they lined up with its runway at Reynolds Industrial Park, which also joined Pegasus as a co-plaintiff. Judge Don Lester ruled that the apartments compromised neither public safety nor the integrity of the city’s Future Development Plan.
The largest share of the reimbursement would go to pay Hall’s lawyers, the Roger Towers firm of Jacksonville, which billed $463,814 in at various hourly rates, plus 19,768 in expenses. Four high-buck litigators—led by Fred Franklin at $540 an hour—worked the case along with six associate attorneys and paralegals at various lesser rates.
The Wayne Flowers firm of Jacksonville, representing Green Cove, billed $171,374 at its hourly rate, plus $18,789 in expenses.
Flowers’ motion for reimbursement included a sworn statement from independent attorney Cindy Laquidara, also of Jacksonville, saying she had examined Flower’s billing statements to the city and determined that they were reasonable.
“These rates were significantly discounted from the typical range of fees charged by experienced counsel. Both Mr. Flowers and Ms. (Brenna) Durden have decades of practice in land-use matters, advising clients and defending or pursuing matters when need be through litigation,” Laquidara wrote. She noted that the firm’s rate standard government rate was $385, yet Flowers had billed the city at lower hourly rates of $325 for Flowers and $240 for Durden.
State Circuit Court Judge James Kallaher, who has been assigned the case after the expiry of Lester’s term, will decide the issue, but the amount totals are certain to grow. Pegasus and Reynolds have asked for a rehearing. And totals will grow even greater if the rehearing fails to change the verdict, and Pegasus takes its case to state Appeals Court.