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SALT LAKE CITY — Plaintiffs in Utah's same-sex marriage recognition case will receive $95,000 in attorneys fees from the state of Utah under a stipulated agreement between the parties.
A stipulation and joint motion filed Monday in Utah's U.S. District Court says the state has agreed to pay $95,000 and the plaintiffs agreed to accept the sum as full settlement of motions for attorneys fees filed in the local federal court and the 10th Circuit Court of Appeals.
The plaintiffs had initially sought nearly $200,000 in attorneys fees and costs, according to motions filed in the federal district and appellate courts.
The fees are connected to the work the plaintiffs' attorneys performed on appeals, and filing and defending a lawsuit that demanded that the state extend marital benefits to about 1,300 gay and lesbian couples who were married after U.S. District Judge Robert J. Shelby struck down Utah's voter-approved gay marriage ban last winter.
Four same-sex couples sued Utah after the state refused to recognize the unions of couples who married during the 17-day period when the marriages were legal.
U.S. District Judge Dale Kimball ruled in May that Utah had to extend marital benefits to same-sex couples who married during December 2013 and January 2014 before the U.S. Supreme Court issued a stay in that case, Kitchen v. Herbert.
Meanwhile, the state appealed Kimball's decision on the marriage recognition case to the 10th Circuit Court, eventually obtaining a stay from the Supreme Court.
In October, same-sex marriage became legal in Utah after the Supreme Court declined to hear the state's appeal of a lower court ruling allowing gays and lesbians to marry. A day later, the state dropped its appeal of the federal court ruling in the marriage recognition case.
