CBS Holdings, LLC v. Hexagon US Federal, Inc. (Madison County Lease Renewal & Fee Fight)
Hexagon US Federal, Inc. ('HexFed') sued CBS Holdings, LLC in Madison Circuit Court after CBS Holdings, the building's new owner, disputed whether HexFed had validly renewed its lease on two bays of office/industrial space. The trial court ruled for HexFed on every claim, reformed the lease to fix a mutual drafting mistake, and the Alabama Supreme Court affirmed that judgment on October 18, 2024. A second appeal over the resulting $174,987.45 attorney-fee award went the other way: on July 11, 2025, the Court found HexFed's heavily redacted billing records didn't support the award and sent the fee question back down for a properly documented ruling.
Why it matters
A cautionary tale for prevailing parties seeking contractual attorney fees in commercial lease litigation: even a party that wins outright on the merits can lose its fee award on appeal if it redacts too much of its own billing detail to let a court evaluate reasonableness under Alabama's Peebles factors. Landlords and tenants negotiating fee-shifting lease provisions should expect that collecting on them requires producing detailed, largely unredacted time records, not just a final invoice total.
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