Bank Merger Class Counsel Can Keep $59 Million Fee Award

The class representative in a $327 million securities settlement over the merger of BankAmerica Corp. and NationsBank waited too long to challenge the $59 million attorneys’ fee award, the Eastern District of Missouri ruled.

David P. Oetting argued that class counsel should disgorge the award because funds intended for the class were misappropriated or misdirected, resulting in an excessive fee award.

The award should be based instead on class counsel’s lodestar calculation of $20 million, he said.

But Oetting has known about those events for 15 years, the court said Nov. 12.

“With the undue passage of time, memories have ...