Delaware court affirms $2 bln Southern Copper judgment

Aug 27 (Reuters) - The Delaware Supreme Court affirmed on Monday a $2 billion judgment awarded to Southern Copper Corp by a lower court that found it overpaid for a company it bought from its controlling shareholder.

The state's highest court also affirmed a $304 million attorneys' fee approved by the Court of Chancery for the lawyers representing the shareholders who brought the case.

The ruling stems from a 2005 deal in which Southern Copper bought Minera Mexico from Grupo Mexico, which also controlled Southern Copper.

Chancery Court judge Leo Strine ruled in October that Southern Copper overpaid by $1.263 billion, and ordered Grupo Mexico to repay the difference. Strine added interest to the damage award which brought the total to about $2 billion.

The case focused attention on Chancery Court judge Leo Strine, who handed down the judgment and the huge attorneys' fee just months after becoming the court's first new chief judge in 14 years.

The attorneys' fee is the largest ever of its kind awarded by Delaware's Court of Chancery, one of the country's busiest courts for big shareholder disputes. Defendants blasted the fee for amounting to $35,000 an hour, more than 30 times the rate in comparable cases.