Trials & Litigation

Company's 'bad faith' coin stunt leads to judgment for attorney fees

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A judge in Larimer County, Colorado, has ordered a welding company to pay attorney fees and costs after attempting to pay a $23,500 settlement in loose coins.

Judge Joseph Findley said in a Monday decision JMF Enterprises and its owner John Frank acted “maliciously and in bad faith,” CBS Colorado reports. The company will have to pay up by more conventional means, he said.

JMF Enterprises tried to pay the settlement by delivering the coins to the Denver office of Danielle Beem, the lawyer representing JMF Enterprises subcontractor Fired Up Fabrication. Beem’s client had alleged that JMF Enterprises refused to pay it in full for work done on an apartment building.

The loose coins were dumped “loosely and randomly” in a specially constructed metal box on a flatbed truck, the judge said in his opinion. The coins weighed 6,500 pounds, which is 3,500 more pounds than Beem’s freight elevator could hold, she previously told CBS Colorado.

Beem had told CBS Colorado that the coin delivery was “a symbolic middle finger” and a “grand waste of time.” She said she is seeking more than $8,000 in fees.

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