Krause v. Rhodes

During the 1970 Kent State protests, Ohio National Guard members fired into a crowd, killing four students including Allison Krause, and the injured victims and decedents' representatives (plaintiffs) sued Ohio Governor Rhodes and others (defendants). After lengthy litigation, the parties settled for $675,000, court-approved, with $600,000 going directly to plaintiffs, $50,000 to contingent-fee attorneys, and $25,000 for expenses; the state had specifically conditioned settlement on plaintiffs personally receiving at least $600,000. Although all plaintiffs and counsel, including attorney Steven Sindell, had agreed to make the ACLU lead counsel for appeals, and Sindell separately had a 33.5% contingency-fee agreement with plaintiffs, the settlement allocated Sindell's firms only $33,740 of the $50,000 attorneys' fee pool, with the ACLU lawyers receiving nothing. Sindell appealed, arguing his contingency-fee agreement invalidated this limitation.