In a recent ruling, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit upheld a judgment in favor of a Canadian manufacturer, Brands International Corp., concerning a contractual dispute over COVID-era hand sanitizer purchases. However, the court reversed a substantial attorney fee award of $185,000 granted to its counsel from Norton Rose Fulbright. The court concluded that the United Nations Convention on Contracts for the International Sale of Goods (CISG) does not authorize the awarding of attorney fees, siding partially with the Minnesota-based retail distributor, Reach Companies.
Previously, the U.S. District Court of Minnesota had granted summary judgment for Brands International in the amount of $89,072.64, as well as the $185,000 in attorney fees for Felicia J. Boyd, a partner and head of IP brands, and Jaime Wing, a senior associate at Norton Rose Fulbright in Minneapolis. This decision has now seen a reversal regarding the attorney fees by the Eighth Circuit.
For further details, the original article is available here.