By Memorandum Opinion entered by The Honorable Maryellen Noreika in Mixing & Mass Transfer Technologies, LLC v. SPX Corporation et al., Civil Action No. 19-529-MN (D.Del. November 4, 2020), the Court denied the SPX Defendants’ motion for attorneys’ fees after finding that Defendants were not a prevailing party.
By way of background, between 2005 and 2007, Plaintiff and a division of SPX were involved in litigation. In 2007, the litigation was resolved by Settlement Agreement between Plaintiff and SPX. Id.at *1. The Settlement Agreement contained a general waiver and release and included a provision for attorneys’ fees for the prevailing party in the event any party breached the Settlement Agreement and any other party was required to bring legal proceedings to enforce the Settlement Agreement. Id.at *2.
In 2019, Plaintiff filed an action against the SPX Defendants asserting patent infringement claims, unfair competition and false advertising claims under the Lanham Act, and other common law claims. Id. at *2. In response, Defendants filed a motion to dismiss all claims for failure to state a claim based on the general waiver and release provision contained in the Settlement Agreement. Defendants contended those provisions in the Settlement Agreement released them from all of the claims asserted by Plaintiff. Id. After oral argument on the motion to dismiss, the Court dismissed two of the six claims without prejudice and thereafter Plaintiff voluntarily dismissed without prejudice the remaining four claims. Id. at * 2-3. Thereafter...
