Frank C. Pollara Group, LLC v. Southgate Crossing Investments, LLC, 1:09-cv-00060

Plaintiffs obtained a jury verdict (June 27, 2013) and a money judgment entered July 13, 2013; post-judgment fee orders were entered May 21, 2015.
Mr. Cope held a Florida judgment against a Plaintiff, sought to intervene, and purchased Plaintiff’s interest in the federal judgment at a U.S. Virgin Islands Marshal’s sale on December 8, 2015.
Defendant deposited $611,736.82 into the District Court registry on March 14, 2016, pursuant to a stipulation between Plaintiff and Mr. Cope.
Plaintiffs moved for release of funds from the registry to pay counsel under a contingency fee agreement and to recover fees/costs; Defendants sought discharge of the judgment; Mr. Cope moved to have the funds deposited in the territorial court registry.
The disputed competing claims (counsel’s charging lien vs. Cope’s purchase rights via territorial proceedings) principally raise questions of territorial law and Superior Court actions (Marshal’s sale).
The Court concluded primary federal proceedings are complete, defendants have satisfied the federal judgment by depositing funds, and territorial forum is the appropriate forum to resolve competing entitlement to those funds.

Issue	Plaintiff's Argument	Defendant's Argument	Held
Whether funds in the federal registry should be released to pay Plaintiffs’ counsel and costs	Counsel’s charging lien under territorial law has priority; funds should be released to satisfy contingency fee agreement and prior fee awards	Funds should remain or judgment be discharged only after satisfaction; additional fees for execution not warranted	Denied: Court declined to release funds; denied additional post-judgment execution fees to Plaintiffs’ counsel
Whether the federal judgment should be discharged upon deposit of funds into the registry	Implicitly opposed to discharge until counsel’s lien disputes resolved in federal court	Deposit into registry satisfies the judgment; court can mark judgment satisfied	Granted: Court discharged the judgment after deposit and marked it satisfied
Proper forum to adjudicate competing claims to the deposited funds (federal vs. territorial)	Plaintiffs urged the federal court to adjudicate counsel’s lien and fee disputes	Defendants and Cope argued territorial courts should resolve lien priority and rights arising from the Marshal’s sale	Held: Transfer funds to Superior Court registry; federal court declines to decide territorial-law fee/lien disputes for reasons of comity and judicial economy

None with official reporter citations were relied upon in the opinion; the court cited several district-level and LEXIS/online-only authorities but no cases with official reporter citations.