Fee Award Vacated Due to Trial Court's Failure to Consider All Relevant Factors In Awarding Fees

On October 19, 2017, the First Department issued a decision in EVUNP Holdings LLC v. Frydman, 2017 NY Slip Op. 07335, vacating an attorneys' fees award for failure to consider all the factors relevant to making such an award, explaining:

The trial court has the authority and responsibility to determine that the claim for fees is reasonable. The burden of showing the reasonableness' of the fee lies upon the claimant.

Plaintiffs' failure to address any of the Matter of Freeman (34 NY2d 1, 9 [1974]) factors used to determine the reasonableness of attorneys' fees, other than time and labor, which was supported by invoices with block-billed entries, some of which contained redactions, warrants remand for a hearing.

(Internal quotations and citations omitted).