BOSTON, Nov 28 (Reuters) - A federal appeals court says it expects a Boston judge to "promptly" issue a ruling after a five-year delay in a dispute between three law firms over how to divide more than $20 million in fees arising out of a $784.6-million settlement with Pfizer.
A three-judge panel of the 1st U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals on Monday declined for the time being to force U.S. District Judge Douglas Woodlock to rule within 60 days, as all sides in the fee dispute had jointly requested.
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But the panel stressed it had an "expectation that the district court will promptly decide the matters before it in this case where the subject of the dispute has been pending and apparently ready for decision for five years."
The panel, which included Chief U.S. Circuit Judge David Barron and Circuit Judges Gustavo Gelpi and Lara Montecalvo, denied the law firms' Nov. 2 request without prejudice, meaning they can refile it at a later date.
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Woodlock's chambers and the law firms' lawyers did not respond to requests for comment.
According to a semi-annual judicial report, as of March 31, Woodlock had 42 civil cases with motions pending for more than six months and five awaiting decisions more than half a year after a bench trial, more than any other Massachusetts federal judge.
Those bench trials included a four-day, non-jury trial Woodlock presided over in 2018 in the fee dispute between the three law firms Sakla...
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