This case arises out of a complex series of cases that has been in litigation since the early 1960s. The underlying cases involve generally the ownership and valuation of helium extracted by National Helium Corporation and sold to the federal government from 1963 to 1973. The only issues on appeal and cross-appeal in this case are (1) whether the trial court abused its discretion in awarding attorneys’ fees on the basis of a percentage of a common fund, and (2) whether Ashland Oil is precluded from recovering a share of the common *453 fund because of a prior holding of this court. We affirm the court’s award of attorneys’ fees and hold that Ashland Oil is not precluded from recovering from the common fund. We remand for a determination of appropriate attorneys’ fees in the cross-appeal.
The issues litigated in this series of cases related to right to payment for and valuation of helium extracted from natural gas from the Hugoton and Panhandle areas of Kansas, Oklahoma, and Texas. The parties in this appeal are members of the class of lessee producers who obtained judgment in 1983 establishing that they were entitled to a specified amount for the helium extracted by National Helium Corporation. National Helium Corp. v. Panhandle Eastern, No. KG-1980 (D.Kan. Nov. 3, 1983). After appeals were taken from that judgment, the parties settled the protracted controversy by agreeing to payment for the helium at a rate of $3.60 per thousand cubic feet plus interest. That settlement agreement requiring National Helium to pay approximately ninety-one million dollars was submitted to the court on October 16, 1984. The landowners’ share of the settlement was approximately sixteen million dollars and the lessee producers’ share was approximately seventy-five million dollars. Several law firms that represented various lessee producers and had represented the class of lessee producers through most or all of the class action litigation filed applications for attorneys’ fees and expenses to be paid from the lessee producers’ common fund recovery of seventy-five million dollars. These law firms (class counsel) represented appellees and cross-appellants in this case. The fee applications were accompanied by reconstructed time records and other documentation of time spent and work performed. The applications sought attorneys’ fees in addition to payments the attorneys had received throughout the course of the litigation.
After appropriate notice to the producer class members and landowners, the trial court held hearings on a motion to approve the settlement agreement and on the applications for attorneys’ fees and litigation expenses. Appellants in this case, three lessee producers, opposed the fee applications. The district court approved the settlement agreement and awarded class counsel an amount equal to 16.5% of the lessee producers’ seventy-five million dollar share of the common fund. Appellants challenge the court’s decision to award attorneys’ fees based on a percentage of the common fund. They claim that the award should have been based upon an analysis of the hours reasonably spent multiplied by a reasonable hourly rate.
I.
An award of attorneys’ fees is a matter uniquely within the discretion of the trial judge who “has intimate knowledge of the efforts expended and the value of the services rendered.”
United States v. Anglin & Stevenson,
The fee the trial court establishes must be reasonable. In statutory fee cases “the most useful starting point for determining the amount of a reasonable fee is the number of hours reasonably expended on the litigation multiplied by a reasonable hourly rate.”
Hensley v. Eckerhart,
The Supreme Court has, in our judgment, answered the first question presented here. In
Blum v. Stenson,
a statutory fee case, the Court stated:
“Unlike the calculation of attorney’s fees under the ‘common fund doctrine’ where a reasonable fee is based on a percentage of the fund bestowed on the class,
a reasonable fee under § 1988 reflects the amount of attorney time reasonably expended on the litigation.”
The award of attorneys’ fees is based on substantially different underlying purposes in a common fund case than in a statutory fees case. The common fund doctrine “rests on the perception that persons who obtain the benefit of a lawsuit without contributing to its costs are unjustly enriched at the successful litigant’s expense.”
Boeing Co. v. Van Gemert,
Notwithstanding these differences, the percentage reflected in a common fund award must be reasonable; and, as in the statutory fee cases, the district court must “articulate specific reasons for fee awards to give us an adequate basis,”
Ramos,
The trial court in this case found
that the amount represented by this percentage is reasonable and is required to adequately compensate such counsel for the legal services performed in this litigation for the following reasons: The extraordinary complexity and protracted nature of this helium litigation since July, 1963; the amount of time spent by each of counsel as reflected in the evidence, which evidence is accepted by the Court; the high quality of the service performed; the novelty of the issues; the number of adverse parties and the quality of opposing counsel; the vast number of hotly contested issues at all stages of this litigation; the number of cases, hearings, appeals and other proceedings conducted by counsel, the vast number of documents, exhibits, records and other materials required to be reviewed, analyzed; the vast amounts of legal research required on many novel substantive and procedural issues; the nature of the arrangements by such counsel for payment from clients of only minimal or subsistence fees pending conclusion of the cases and the highly contingent right of recovery from the inter-pleader fund in view of the debatable legal issues relating to liability and valuation; the skill and tenacity of counsel in conducting settlement negotiations and in refusing to accept very substantial and appealing, but inadequate, settlement offers at an earlier time; the enormously beneficial result conferred thereby upon the members of the Class. Such legal services were performed without unnecessary duplication and in an efficient manner. 1
There is ample evidence in the record to support each of the reasons relied upon by the trial judge. The court here clearly considered all of the relevant Johnson factors and applied them appropriately. The trial judge considered the time and work involved. The record contains documentation supporting the time claims. The court records in this litigation attest to the novelty and difficulty of the questions presented. This trial judge personally observed many of the relevant stages of this series of cases and thus was in a unique position to judge the skill requisite to perform the legal service properly as well as the experience, reputation, and ability of the attorneys. The court specifically relied on these factors in establishing the percentage. The record contains evidence that a substantial portion of the work of class counsel for many years was devoted to these cases, and thus precluded or reduced their opportunity for other employment. The “customary fee” factor in a common fund case is the same as the factor suggesting consideration of awards in similar cases. We note that a review of other federal common fund cases demonstrates that a 16.5% attorneys’ fee award is clearly within the range of awards deemed reasonable by other courts in similar or less lengthy and less complex cases. 2
*456 The facts underlying both the “time limitations” factor and the “length of the professional relationship with the client” factor are evident from the remarkable length of class counsel’s representation and the litigation itself. Finally, as we have observed, a decisive factor in this common fund class action case is the amount involved and the results obtained. In evaluating this factor the trial judge appropriately balanced the interests of the beneficiaries in light of the efforts of counsel on their behalf.
Although the
Johnson
factors are relevant in determining a reasonable fee in a common fund case, the inherent differences between statutory fee and common fund cases could justify a trial judge’s decision to assign different relative weights to those factors in the two types of cases. For example, the first factor—time and labor required—is an essential touchstone for recovery in a statutory fee case where reasonableness is measured in part by reference to the lodestar analysis. In a common fund case, however, although time and labor required are appropriate considerations, the ninth
Johnson
factor—the amount involved and the results obtained— may be given greater weight when, as in this case, the trial judge determines that the recovery was highly contingent and that the efforts of counsel were instrumental in realizing recovery on behalf of the class. We recognized in
Ramos,
We are mindful of the subjective nature of the determination a trial judge must make when an award is not anchored in the seemingly more objective lodestar formula. The trial judge in a common fund case must “act as a fiduciary for the beneficiaries” of the fund. Report of the Third Circuit Task Force,
Court Awarded Attorney Fees,
II.
One of the cases not tried by this trial judge and the subject of the cross-appeal was
Ashland Oil, Inc. v. Phillips Petroleum Co.,
Cross-Appellant, Ashland Oil Co. (Ash-land), seeks reversal of the district court’s determination that Ashland is foreclosed from seeking an award of fees and expenses because of this court’s holding in
Ashland I.
That case, however, was in a different posture than the case on appeal here. We denied an award of attorneys’ fees in 1975 because we construed the litigation at that time as “plain and simple commercial litigation” involving two competing parties — one of whom would recover against the other.
Ashland,
Our analysis here of the purposes of attorneys’ fee awards in common fund cases as a form of fee sharing rather than fee shifting, demonstrates that a common fund case is quite different from simple commercial litigation where one party recovers from another and attorneys’ fees are generally not recoverable. Here Ash-land is not attempting to recover attorneys’ fees from Phillips in an amount over and above the amount of liability — such an attempt is precluded by this court’s Ashland I holding. Rather, Ashland is seeking attorneys’ fees out of an amount established as the total award. Thus, the percentage of the common fund recovery that Ashland now seeks differs markedly from the fee request considered by this court in Ashland I. Therefore, we hold that our Ashland I holding does not preclude Ash-land from receiving an award of attorneys’ fees and costs in this case if, in the opinion of the trial court, such an award is justified and warranted. We therefore reverse the district court on the cross-appeal and remand for further proceedings consistent with this opinion.
AFFIRMED IN PART, REVERSED IN PART AND REMANDED,
Notes
. In its final order the district court amended the portion of its proposed order that contained these findings. The court stated, however, that it intended only that its final order be "incorporated and integrated” with the affected part of the proposed order; there was no intent to supersede these findings and not only are they unaffected by the final order, but they clearly support it.
.
See, e.g., In re New York City Municipal Securities Litigation,
[1984 Transfer Binder] Fed.Sec.L. Rep. (CCH), Para 91,419 (S.D.N.Y.1984) (33%) [Available on WESTLAW,
. Even though the "time and labor involved" factor does not necessarily anchor the determination of reasonable fees in the common fund situation, it is a relevant factor and the availability of contemporaneous time records enhances the trial court’s ability to properly evaluate it. The attorneys in this case did not consistently maintain contemporaneous time records. In part this failure must be attributed to the fact that such records were neither generally kept nor required during part of the period this litigation was pending.