Irvine Firm Wins Fees

An Orange County judge awarded $1.3 million in legal fees and costs to lawyers for former piano distributor Vernon Schafer Jr. in a lawsuit that the Anaheim resident won last fall against Daewoo International (America) Corp., the U.S. subsidiary of giant Daewoo Group in Seoul.

Superior Court Judge Mason L. Fenton awarded the fees and costs to the Irvine firm of Rus, Miliband, Williams & Smith, which won a jury verdict of $13.6 million in October for Schafer on accusations that Daewoo defrauded him and destroyed his business, which distributed the once popular Schafer & Sons pianos through his Colton Piano chain.

Schafer accused Daewoo of providing shoddy pianos, refusing to pay for servicing, wrongly drawing down his line of credit and using his name for two years after his company went bankrupt in 1991. Daewoo has said previously that it will appeal the verdict.