[PUBLISH] In the United States Court of Appeals For the Eleventh Circuit

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No. 22-10048 ____________________

EMERGENCY RECOVERY, INC., et al., Plaintiff-Appellants, versus BRYAN HUFNAGLE, et al.,

Defendant-Appellees.

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Appeal from the United States District Court for the Middle District of Florida D.C. Docket No. 8:19-cv-00329-SCB-JSS ____________________ USCA11 Case: 22-10048 Document: 30-1 Date Filed: 08/14/2023 Page: 2 of 27

2 Opinion of the Court 22-10048

Before BRANCH, BRASHER, and ED CARNES, Circuit Judges. ED CARNES, Circuit Judge: Two companies filed a lawsuit in federal court against two of their former employees, who had served in executive positions. The former executives responded by suing the companies in Florida state court. They later moved for summary judgment in the federal action. While that motion was pending, the companies moved for a voluntary dismissal without prejudice of their federal action, which the executives opposed. The district court granted the companies’ motion for voluntary dismissal, and it denied the executives’ request for attorney’s fees and costs incurred in defending the federal lawsuit to that point. It did so because it thought that the work their attorneys had done in the federal case would be useful in the parallel state court case, which was ongoing. The executives appealed that order, and we vacated it and remanded for the district court to: “address what portion of the work performed by the executives’ attorneys in the federal litigation will be useful in the state court litigation, explaining the basis for its decision.” Emergency Recovery, Inc. v. Hufnagle, 861 F. App’x 355, 361 (11th Cir. 2021). We also asked the district court to then “weigh the equities and decide whether to condition the dismissal on the companies’ payment of these expenses.” Id. On remand, the district court again granted the voluntary dismissal, stating that the executives could move for fees and costs again if the companies refiled their federal lawsuit against them. USCA11 Case: 22-10048 Document: 30-1 Date Filed: 08/14/2023 Page: 3 of 27

3 Opinion of the Court 22-10048

The executives moved to alter or amend that judgment and be awarded fees and costs immediately, which the court denied. This is the executives’ appeal. They contend that the district court failed to follow our mandate and abused its discretion when it failed to award them costs and fees immediately. We are not persuaded. I. Background Emergency Recovery, Inc. (ERI) is a company owned by Bobbie Celler. The company offers medical billing services for healthcare providers. In 2017 ERI hired Bryan Hufnagle as its chief operating officer and Joseph King as its senior vice president of operations. They both signed employment agreements with ERI. Those agreements provided that they would work for ERI as executives for two years, they could be terminated only for just cause, and they would not disclose any of ERI’s trade secrets or confidential mat