October 13, 2020 - The Shelby County Commissioners will be discussing United States District Court case Morrow, et al v. Shelby County, et al, including pending claims for attorney's fees during their meeting Wednesday, October 14, 2020.
At the time of the original filing of the case in federal court in 2008, the complaint then alleged that law enforcement officers representing Tenaha, and Shelby County participated in an illegal practice of stopping, detaining, searching and seizing property from people traveling through Tenaha.
None of the officers or officials named in the complaint are working for the county or city of Tenaha any longer.
This has resulted in several years of litigation involving the city of Tenaha and Shelby County government in federal court as defendants.
According to court documents, the defendants agreed to pay and the plaintiff attorneys agreed to accept $520,000 as attorney's fees on June 15, 2012 to cover expenses up to that date.
Moving forward to present day, on September 15, 2020 and according to court documents, the plaintiff attorneys sought award of interim attorney's fees and costs which have been incurred from September 1, 2016 to March 31, 2020.
Plaintiff attorneys originally were requesting $359,470; however, the court saw fit to reduce this amount in siding with some arguments of the defense.
United States District Judge Rodney Gilstrap ordered the plaintiff's be awarded a sum of $289,433.96 in fees and costs which are to be paid by the defendants.
There is no outline in the referenced court documents indicating how much money Shelby County will be responsible for paying and for how much Tenaha will be responsible.
According to the outcome of the OCtober 14, 2020 meeting of the Shelby County Commissioners' Court, Shelby County will be paying $186,500 which leaves the City of Tenaha to pay $102,933.96.
Related article:
Commissioners Move to End Morrow v Shelby County; County to Pay $186,500
