C&P Secures Verdict Worth $2.7 Million for Estate of South Carolina Lawyer
In a jury trial held in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia, Clinton & Peed has a secured a verdict worth up to $2.7 million for the estate of John (“Jack”) C. West, Jr., a South Carolina lawyer who represented the individuals taken and held hostage from the U.S. embassy in Tehran, Iran, during the period from November 1979 through January 1981.
For more than two decades, Jack West—whose father was the U.S. Ambassador to Saudi Arabia during the Iran hostage crisis—worked together with attorney Thomas Lankford to try to get the former hostages and their families compensation. Those efforts culminated in the 2015 passage of the U.S. Victims of State Sponsored Terrorism Act, which entitled their group of clients to approximately $270 million. The attorneys are entitled to receive 25% of those funds as fees. The compensation is paid from a fund established by the Act, if and when funds are available. To date, the former hostages and their families have received approximately 24% of the compensation to which they are entitled.
In 2017, Lankford and West negotiated a Settlement and Release Agreement that entitled Mr. West to $300,000 and 8 1/3% of all legal fees paid out of the funds after the date of the agreement. Lankford paid the $300,000, but never paid West his share of future legal fees. After Mr. West passed away in March 2020 due to complications from Covid-19, Mr. Lankford and his college friend of 50 years Ed Wilson (of Venable LLP) claimed that in three conversations witnessed only by Lankford and Wilson, Mr. West orally waived his right to compensation under the agreement.
After posing several questions, the jury rejected Lankford’s waiver argument and awarded Mr. West’s estate $566,157.01 (his share of legal fees paid to date). The Court has set briefing and arguments for the estate’s claim to attorneys’ fee shifting under the contract’s indemnification clause.
The case is styled McKoy et al. v. Lankford et. al., Case No. 1:22-cv-604 (LMB/JFA) (E.D. Va. filed May 25, 2022).
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Managing partner Tim Clinton conducted the trial, with advice of the other attorneys at the firm and support from Jonathan Lamb. The matter came to the firm as a referral from a former opposing counsel on a related matter.