Ledyard v. WMS Gaming, Inc.

Summary

The court held that the statute authorizes a municipality to recover reasonable attorney's fees incurred in a related federal action when that action directly concerns and determines the municipality's authority to pursue an underlying state personal-property-tax collection proceeding. Because the statutory phrase was ambiguous, the court considered statutory context, related statutes, and prior interpretations, concluding that the federal litigation was sufficiently connected to the state collection action. The court reversed the Appellate Court and directed it to affirm the trial court's judgment.