You can’t make this up: A lawyer who disputed an employee’s $303 unpaid wage claim has been ordered to pay the employee’s lawyer $66,510 in attorney’s fees.
Stratton v. Beck, 30 Cal. App. 5th 901 (2018) began when attorney Thomas E. Beck’s employee of two months, Anthony Stratton, quit and claimed he was owed wages of $1,075. For reasons that remain unclear, Beck’s payroll service paid Stratton only $771.45. Stratton filed a claim for the $303.50 remainder with the California Division of Labor Standards and, after a hearing, Labor Commissioner awarded Stratton the $303.50 he requested, plus an additional $5,757.46 in liquidated damages, interest, and statutory penalties, for a total award of $6,060.96.
Beck, who acted as his own attorney, took an appeal to the Los Angeles County Superior Court, which awarded Stratton $6,778.85, plus $31,365 in attorney fees. Beck took a further appeal, arguing that Stratton’s attorney’s fees motion had been filed too late and that the fees awarded were unreasonably high. But California Court of Appeal rejected both arguments and affirmed the judgment in favor of Stratton, awarding an additional $57,420 in appellate attorney’s fees against Beck. And that’s not all: It also affirmed the trial court’s award of an additional $9,020 in fees Stratton had incurred in opposing a motion to reconsider, for a grand total of $66,510.
And all because of a $303.50 payroll mistake.
