UPDATE 1-Northrop could face lawyer fees from 1996 crash

(Adds Northrop statement)

LOS ANGELES, Oct 30 (Reuters) - A California appeals court ruled on Tuesday that Northrop Grumman Corp (NOC.N: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz) could owe $10 million to a Brazilian attorney who won a $100 million judgment against the aerospace and defense company in connection with a 1996 plane crash that killed 99 people.

The decision by the Second Appellate District in Los Angeles reversed a lower court's finding that lawyer Renato Guimaraes Jr. had waited too long to enforce his claim for attorneys' fees in U.S. courts.

But the appellate panel ruled that a 10-year statute of limitations applies to legal actions that seek recognition and enforcement of foreign money judgments rather than the four-year limit applied by the trial court.

The appellate panel sent the case back to the lower court for trial on Guimaraes' claims. Northrop, the Pentagon's No. 3 contractor, declined comment on the opinion.

After a trial in 2000, a Brazilian court concluded that Northrop was at fault in the crash because a thrust reverser made by the company malfunctioned. It awarded more than $100 million in damages to the families plus attorneys' fees of 20 percent of the damages.

Northrop appealed the judgment, but settled with the families while the appeal was pending.

The company paid $50 million, plus attorneys' fees to a New York firm that served as U.S. counsel, to settle the case but refused the Brazilian court order to pay Guimaraes, who had filed and tried the case in Brazil, said Walter Lack, a Los Angeles lawyer who represented Guimaraes on appeal.

"In theory, Northrop is going to have to pay the attorneys' fees twice," Lack said. (Reporting by Gina Keating)