Fishkin Lucks secured complete dismissal of claims against its client, a privately-held energy company, by a former executive seeking more than $7 million in fees and expenses incurred in two prior arbitrations between the parties. The claimant brought his claims in a Delaware arbitration before a three-member panel of the American Arbitration Association, asserting that he was entitled to reimbursement of previously incurred legal fees and expenses under theories of contractual indemnification and “bad-faith fee-shifting.” After obtaining leave to file a motion to dismiss, the Firm sought dismissal on five independent grounds, including that (i) the indemnification provision in the parties’ operating agreement did not authorize first-party fee-shifting, (ii) bad-faith fee-shifting cannot be asserted as an independent cause of action in a standalone proceeding, and (iii) the claimant’s claims were barred by a three-year statute of limitations. After extensive briefing and oral argument, the panel issued a written opinion and award dismissing the claims with prejudice, finding that the Firm’s arguments justified complete dismissal of claimant’s claims.
