Gray1 CPB, LLC v. SCC Acquisitions, Inc.

— You cross continents and spend years trying to collect a judgment for your client. Late one Friday afternoon, the debtor’s lawyer walks into your office and hands you a cashier’s check for almost $13 million, covering the entire judgment and all accumulated interest. Do you accept the check or say, “No thank you, I need to make a motion for attorney fees first?” Put another way, is a bird in the hand worth two in the bush?

Grayl CPB, LLC (Grayl), obtained a judgment against SCC Acquisitions, Inc., and Bruce Elieff (collectively defendants). Almost two years later, defendants paid the amount of the outstanding judgment and accrued interest with a cashier’s check. In the interim, Grayl allegedly incurred more than $3 million in attorney fees in an effort to enforce its judgment. The fees were largely incurred in litigating a separate action against Elieff in an effort to untangle what Grayl asserted were a number of fraudulent transactions resulting in the placement of fraudulent liens on Elieff’s real property as part of a scheme to insulate Elieff’s properties from the judgment.

According to Grayl, it was only when it appeared the separate action was imminently headed…