> ## Content Index > Fetch the complete content index at: https://www.smdp.com/llms.txt > Use this file to discover other available public pages before exploring further. # City Hall sues law firms for asking too much - URL: https://www.smdp.com/city-hall-sues-law-firms-for-asking-too-much/ - Published: 2004-05-18T15:00:00.000Z - Updated: 2026-10-23T04:20:02.000Z - Author: John Wood - Tags: Government & Politics, Santa Monica, #archive-import *$66 million hangs in the balance* They wanted to get paid. Instead, they got sued. A group of lawyers hired by City Hall to help litigate the largest lawsuit in Santa Monica history has been sued by local officials for allegedly asking for an exorbitant amount of legal fees — $66 million worth. The lawsuit was filed by City Hall just days after it settled its last claim against more than a dozen oil companies that in 1996 contaminated local water wells with MtBE, a fuel additive. More than $120 million has been promised to City Hall by the oil companies, who also will pay for a new water treatment plant, which is expected to cost several hundred million dollars. Three outside law firms and dozens of attorneys worked on a contingency basis in the MtBE case. City Hall’s lawsuit seeks to have their contract made void and asks that the lawyers instead be paid on a “quantum meruit” basis, meaning they would be paid as a judge sees fit. According to the lawsuit, the outside lawyers may have nullified their contract by interpreting it in such a way that benefits them most. They also may have nullified it because they allegedly had an internal agreement for splitting the settlement that wasn’t approved by City Hall. According to its contract with the outside lawyers, City Hall was to pay the outside firms between 10 percent and 27 percent of any settlement, depending on how long litigation lasted. Though the MtBE suit was filed in 2000, there were long periods of inactivity, City Hall’s suit claims. But lawyers say they’re owed 25 percent of the settlement money and a portion of what the treatment facility will be worth once it’s built. It’s unclear how much City Hall officials think the outside attorneys ought to be paid. The lawsuit doesn’t specify an exact amount and instead seeks to have the contract pronounced void, and the outside attorneys reimbursed on the quantum meruit basis, as determined by the courts. The suit also describes as “premature and not ripe for consideration” how much, if any, City Hall should pay the lawyers for helping to secure the water treatment facility. “There’s no set number because it depends on a lot of different calculations,” said Assistant City Attorney Joe Lawrence, who oversaw litigation in the MtBE case. “However, we are extremely far apart, and unfortunately we’ve been unable to reach any kind of compromise or agreement. We need to get the matter resolved, and so the city filed a lawsuit... 6C6,“The city is disappointed that it has come to this point in time,” he added. “We had every hope that we would have been able to reach an agreement without a lawsuit, but since that has not been possible we think it’s in the public interest to get the issue resolved as quickly as we can.” Dallas-based attorney Fred Baron, one of the outside lawyers retained in the MtBE case, said Monday he was bewildered and disappointed by the lawsuit. “I’ve been practicing law 33 years, and I’ve done it exclusively on contingency fee contracts and I’ve never had a client ever try to renege on the contract itself — this is the first time,” said Baron, adding outside attorneys performed the majority of work on the case. “We never received an inkling from the city that they intended to renege on the contract. Indeed, they told us that we had done a magnificent job for the city.” Sacramento-based attorney Duane Miller agreed. “We’ve worked for four years and we’ve achieved a result that the city has described as exceeding their expectations,” said Miller, whose firm placed a lien against any payments in the case. “There was an army of lawyers and their supporting staff involved in this litigation on behalf of the city... The documents involved in the case are literally in the millions.” > “There was an army of lawyers and their supporting staff involved in this litigation on behalf of the city... the documents involved in the case are literally in the millions.” — – DUANE MILLER Attorney City Hall closed all five wells at the Charnock Well field in West Los Angeles after it was discovered MtBE had seeped into the groundwater from nearby underground fuel storage tanks. Charnock supplied about half of the water to 300,000 customers in Santa Monica, including more than 85,000 residents. After first trying to resolve the matter out of court, City Hall hired additional legal help and filed suit against the oil companies in 2000. City Attorney Marsha Moutrie said the MtBE lawsuit was the exception to City Hall’s rule of only hiring outside lawyers on an hourly basis. She said City Hall did so to save money because it realized from the outset the case would involve long and complicated litigation. Baron and Miller said they never submitted a bill to City Hall, but added they asked that an appraiser be hired to value the water treatment facility. “We know how much cash was recovered, that was easy. But the better question is, ‘What’s the value of the water treatment facility?’” Baron said. “The city has refused to even acknowledge that we have a contract at this point that is valid... At this point in time, the city apparently is seeking to rescind the contract completely... I’m very discouraged by that.” The two groups unsuccessfully mediated the matter with retired Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Keith Wisot last month. There are no further mediation sessions scheduled. *Originally published in the Santa Monica Daily Press print edition on May 18, 2004.* [Read the original PDF.](https://s3.us-east-1.amazonaws.com/smdp%5Fbackissues/051804.pdf?ref=smdp.com)