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Court backs lawyer demanding Sh1.4 billion from KBC pensioners
Judge says the registrar erred in principle by failing to use the figure in the judgment (Sh18.4 billion) to determine the value of the subject matter, leading to a gross underassessment of the lawyer’s fees.
A Nairobi-based lawyer has received a court’s permission to renew his demand for payment of Sh1.4 billion from the Kenya Broadcasting Corporation (KBC) pensioners for recovery of unremitted contributions seven years ago.
This is after Justice Ocharo Kebira reversed the decision of the Employment and Labour Relations Court’s registrar, Ms Aziza Ajwang, to award the lawyer, Mr Omoke Morara, Sh57.5 million as payment for the services offered. The judge said there was underassessment of the fees payable.
If his demand succeeds, the lawyer may join the list of lawyers who earned the highest legal fees from clients in a single case in the country’s litigation history.
The judge ordered a fresh assessment of the Advocate-Client Bill of Costs based on Sh18.4 billion, the amount the KBC pensioners were awarded by the Labour Relations Court in the judgment delivered in April 2022.
“Advocacy-Client costs are considered as compensation for the services rendered. Given the history of this matter, the Taxing Officer should expedite the reassessment,” said judge Kebira.
In the initial award, the registrar had based her decision on an observation that the trustees of the pension scheme had instructed the lawyer to recover Sh873 million from KBC.
But while ruling on an application filed by the lawyer challenging the registrar’s decision, the judge said the registrar erred in principle by failing to use the figure in the judgment (Sh18.4 billion) to determine the value of the subject matter, leading to a gross underassessment of the lawyer’s fees.
He also ordered the registrar to award the lawyer waking up fees, one-half enhancement, interest and value added tax.
Lawyer Morara is seeking the payment of Sh1.43 billion from the trustees of the KBC staff retirement benefits scheme after initiating a suit in September 2018 against KBC for unremitted pension sums of its members.
The trustees later fell out with the lawyer in 2022 after securing a favourable judgment from Justice Maureen Onyango at the Employment and Labour Relations Court on April 27, 2022, where they were awarded the sums with interest of three per cent per annum.
According to Justice Kebira, since the trustees computed the value of the dispute at Sh18 billion and the lawyer computed the same at Sh18.4 billion the registrar would have recalculated the amount using the formula indicated in the judgment to ascertain which of the two was correct. Both figures were not significantly different, he noted.
“The Taxing Master erred in principle when she failed to use the judgment to determine the value of the subject matter, leading to a gross underassessment of the lawyer’s instructions fees. The respondent gave its counsel instructions to pursue the sum mentioned as the sum owed to them, for recording by the court as the final figure in the judgment. It is estopped from attempting to run away from this figure,” said the judge.
“The underassessment affected the amounts under the waking-up fees, and the enhancement by one-half of the instructions fees under the Advocates [Remuneration] Order”.
The pension scheme through its chairman Mr Martin King’azia had opposed the renewed demand asking the court to uphold the registrar’s award.
