Mark Hunt appeared on The MMA Hour this week with Ariel Helwani to discuss his current lawsuit with the UFC. In addition, his lawyer clarified he Order for Hunt to pay legal fees and costs.
With respect to the report that Hunt owes the UFC over $300,000 in attorney fees and costs, it is directed to an ill-prepared report by MMA Fighting which relies on a non-attorney’s discovery of a filing on Google Scholar. As Hunt’s attorney, Christina Denning, pointed out the motion for attorney fees came from the UFC’s Motion to Dismiss Hunt’s lawsuit. The Order and Judgment were entered last spring. Denning referred to it as “old news.” She indicated that the motion and order from the trial court came prior to the appellate ruling. She also stated that they would appeal the ruling from the court so you might infer that they are not set to pay the fees and costs until an appeal is filed and decision entered.
Denning noted that the status of the ruling was “unknown” and that the Ordered preceded the appellate ruling which is key.
For context, if a party files a Motion to Dismiss and the trial court agrees, they are deemed a ‘prevailing party.’ Per the UFC contract, if a legal issue is determined and a party wins the case, they are entitled to attorney fees and costs associated with the lawsuit (i.e., filing fees, copies, costs for depositions, etc.) The trial court sided with the UFC and granted the motion along with issuing a Judgment. This occurred last spring. Notably, the request by the UFC originally occurred in December 2019 (which I reported on but apparently no one picked up).
If Hunt was going to pay, the UFC would have moved on it by now via supplemental pleading or other means of making sure Hunt has a way to pay for the amount. But that has not happened.
Without knowing the whole story, but relying on Hunt’s attorney, it is clear that the appeal to the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals had something to do with it. Hunt is appealing the court order.
It’s likely that Hunt will argue that the appeal court’s remand to the trial court for additional proceedings negates the prior order and judgment. It could be that Hunt’s attorney will need to file a motion to ‘set aside’ the judgment filed by the Court. This would be just like an appeal of the court order.
While there are cases where a party receives attorney fees and costs but still loses a portion of the case, it’s still unclear if that will happen in this situation. Why the trial court decided to issue its order even though the case was set for appeal makes no sense. Hunt’s attorney had asked that the court postpone its decision until after the appeal court opinion. Yet, it decided to go through with the issuance.
MPO will continue to follow. You should probably stick around here if you want actual reporting and analysis of the situation.
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