Attorneys: James A. Batchelor, Mottaz & Sisk Injury Law, Coon Rapids, Minnesota, for relator/respondent Daniel Johnson. Christine L. Tuft, Arthur, Chapman, Kettering, Smetak & Pikala, P.A., Minneapolis, Minnesota, for relators/respondents Concrete Treatments, Inc. and Technology Insurance Company. M. Elizabeth Giebel Mandel, Lynn, Scharfenberg & Hollick, Minneapolis, Minnesota, for respondents Furniture & Things, Inc. and SFM Mutual Insurance Company.
Considered without oral argument.
PROCACCINI, Justice
In an opinion filed May 29, 2024, we affirmed the decision of the Worker’s Compensation Court of Appeals (WCCA) in part, reversed in part, and remanded. See Johnson vs. Concrete Treatments, Inc., 7 N.W.3d 119 (Minn. 2024). On June 5, 2024, employee Daniel Johnson filed a notice of taxation of costs and disbursements and a motion for attorney fees. No objection was filed to the notice of taxation of costs and disbursements. Concrete Treatments, Inc. and Technology Insurance Company filed a response opposing the motion for attorney fees.
A prevailing party is entitled to costs and disbursements. Minn. Stat. § 176.511, subd. 4 (2020); Minn. R. Civ. App. P. 139.01–.02. No party has disputed that Johnson is the prevailing party or that he is entitled to costs and disbursements totaling $850. We therefore direct that costs and disbursements be taxed in the amount of $850.
Johnson has also moved for attorney fees in the amount of $8,000 and expenses in the amount of $861.83. Rule 139.05, subdivision 1, allows a party to move for an award of attorney fees incurred “on appeal.” The circumstances in which an employee may recover attorney fees in a workers’ compensation case are governed by statute:
Where upon a review by the supreme court upon certiorari, an award of compensation is affirmed, or modified and affirmed, or an order disallowing compensation is reversed, the court may allow a reasonable attorney fee incident to the review. This allowance of an attorney fee shall be made a part of the judgment order of the supreme court.
Minn. Stat. § 176.511, subd. 5 (2022).
Concrete Treatments, Inc. and Technology Insurance Company do not dispute that Johnson qualifies for attorney fees under the statute. Instead, it argues that the fees Johnson seeks are “excessive and unreasonable” and that Johnson’s motion was “nondescriptive” and should be denied.
We have previously said that a reasonable attorney fee to the employee in an appeal from the WCCA is $4,000 where, as here, the parties filed briefs and we considered the matter on the en banc oral calendar. See Order Regarding Attorney Fee Awards in Appeals from the Workers’ Compensation Court of Appeals, No. ADM09-8006, Order at 2 (Minn. filed Oct. 30, 2017).
Our Order Regarding Attorney Fee Awards states that “[f]ee awards shall not exceed [$4,000] unless the prevailing employee demonstrates, in a motion filed as directed by Minn. R. Civ. App. P. 139.06, that extraordinary circumstances require an increase in the reasonable fee awards provided by this order.” See Order Regarding Attorney Fee Awards in Appeals from the Workers’ Compensation Court of Appeals, No. ADM09-8006, Order at 2 (Minn. filed Oct. 30, 2017). We do not find that extraordinary circumstances are present. Accordingly, a fee of $4,000 is appropriate here.
Based upon all the files, records, and proceedings herein,
IT IS HEREBY ORDERED THAT:
1. The Clerk of the Appellate Courts will tax costs and disbursements in the amount of $850 in favor of Johnson.
2. Johnson’s motion for attorney fees is granted in part and denied in part. Johnson is awarded $4,000 in attorney fees for the appeal to this court.
WCCA decision date, March 14, 2023.