When the court dismissed the garage lawsuit last summer, the judge ordered that the plaintiffs pay reasonable fees and costs incurred by the co-op in defending the suit.  Over the next few months the parties submitted arguments to a referee regarding how much the plaintiffs should have to pay.

On December 22, the referee recommended that the court award the co-op $161,088.72 in fees and costs.  We assume the court will adopt this recommendation.

It is not yet clear to us, however, how the amount already paid by one of the five plaintiffs (who settled with the co-op a few months ago for his share of the fees that were accrued at that time) will factor into this, or whether the co-op will receive any discount from our lawyers for the portion of the fees and expenses billed that the referee decided were not “reasonable” (although the lawyers are certain to disagree with that decision).

Regardless, it is highly likely that each of the remaining four plaintiffs is likely to have an extra $40k (give or take) line item on their maintenance bill in the near future, which should serve as a cautionary tale to any other shareholder who is considering suing the co-op without a really solid case.