High Court Spares Labor Regulator From Refunding ESOP Legal Fees

The US Supreme Court declined to hear a bid by a worker-owned company in Hawaii to recover legal fees from the Labor Department after the government lost a 2021 case alleging its former owners over-valued their shares.

Architectural firm Bowers + Kubota Consulting Inc. had hoped the high court would review and overturn a US Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit ruling in favor of the Employee Benefits Security Administration. The company’s former owners wanted to deter the government from bringing crippling litigation against private parties based on what the Ninth Circuit agreed was “shoddy” expert testimony.

EBSA first ...