JACKSON OKOT, and CICILIA JOSEPH, o/b/o Minor AKIM CARLO, Plaintiffs v. JOSEPH CONICELLI, an individual and governmental officer, in his individual and official capacities, the CITY OF PORTLAND, and the PORTLAND POLICE DEPARTMENT, Defendants
Civil No. 99-254-P-C
UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT
FOR THE DISTRICT OF MAINE
180 F. Supp. 2d 238
January 18, 2002, Decided
MEMORANDUM OF DECISION AND ORDER ON MOTION
FOR ATTORNEYS' FEES
Plaintiffs Jackson Okot and Akim
Carlo, having respectively obtained jury verdicts for $501 in compensatory
damages and $1 in nominal damages in a trial against Defendant Joseph
Conicelli, a former police officer with the Portland Police Department, now
seek attorneys' fees under 42 U.S.C. § 1988(b) in the amount of $85,168 and
expenses in the amount of $3,077. See Docket No. 32. For the reasons that
follow, the Court will grant Plaintiffs' motion for attorneys' fees, with
reductions to reflect Plaintiffs' partial success and reasonable litigation
practices.
BACKGROUND
This case arose out of an arrest
of Plaintiffs by Defendant Conicelli that occurred on May 25, 1998. Plaintiffs
initially filed a thirteen-count Complaint against Defendant Conicelli in his
individual and official capacities, the Portland Police Department, [*241] and
the City of Portland. See Complaint (Doc. No. 1). In their Complaint,
Plaintiffs alleged that Defendant Conicelli had violated 42 U.S.C. § 1983 and 5
M.R.S.A. § 4682 by using unlawful search and seizure tactics, unlawfully
arresting them, using excessive force in arresting them, and discriminating
against them on the basis of their race in violation of their federally
protected rights under the Fourth and Fourteenth Amendments of the United
States Constitution and Article I §§ 5 and 6-A of the Maine Constitution. See
id. at Counts I, III, V. Plaintiffs also alleged that the City of Portland and
the Portland Police Department had violated 42 U.S.C. § 1983 and 5 M.R.S.A. §
4682 by failing to adequately hire, supervise, and train Conicelli and by
failing to adequately investigate his conduct towards Plaintiffs on the night
of May 25, 1998. See id. at Counts II, IV, VI. Plaintiffs' Complaint also
contained counts for assault, battery, false imprisonment, negligent infliction
of emotional distress, and intentional infliction of emotional distress against
all Defendants, and a claim under 15 M.R.S.A. § 704 against all Defendants. See
id. at Counts VII, VIII, IX, X, XI, XII. Plaintiffs alleged physical and
emotional pain and suffering, mental and emotional distress, embarrassment, and
humiliation, for which they requested compensatory and punitive damages.
Prior to trial, Plaintiffs dropped all claims against Defendants the
City of Portland and the Portland Police Department, as well as their race
discrimination claims against Defendant Conicelli, see Plaintiffs' Opposition
to Defendants' Motion for Summary Judgment (Doc. No. 9) at 1 n.1; Recommended
Decision on Defendants' Motion for Summary Judgment (Doc. No. 17) at 6 n.4, and
the Court, therefore, issued summary judgment against Plaintiffs on these
counts. See Order Affirming the Recommended Decision of the Magistrate Judge
(Doc. No. 20). The Court denied summary judgment with respect to Defendant
Conicelli's defense of qualified immunity. See id. During trial and prior to
the close of Plaintiffs' case, Plaintiffs withdrew their claim for punitive
damages, and all state law claims were dropped. Hence, the sole issue presented to the jury was whether Defendant Conicelli should
be held liable for violating Plaintiffs' constitutional rights by unlawfully
detaining them, falsely arresting them, and using excessive force against them
on the night of May 25, 1998. The jury found that Conicelli had violated both
Plaintiffs' constitutional rights, and it awarded Plaintiff Okot $501 in
compensatory damages and Plaintiff Carlo $1 in nominal damages.
DISCUSSION
42
U.S.C. § 1988 provides that in a § 1983 action such as Plaintiffs', a
"court, in its discretion, may allow the prevailing party . . . a
reasonable attorney's fee as part of the costs." Plaintiffs have moved for
attorneys' fees in the amount of $85,168 and expenses in the amount of $3,077.
Defendants oppose Plaintiffs' motion for attorneys' fees on a number of
grounds. First, Defendants argue that neither Plaintiff qualifies as a
prevailing party under 42 U.S.C. § 1988(b). Second, Defendants argue that
Plaintiffs' requested fees are unreasonable in that Attorney Millers's hourly
rate of $145 is excessive, Plaintiffs seek compensation for an excessive number
of hours and an unwarranted number of attorneys to perform various tasks, and
Plaintiffs have requested fees for time spent pursuing claims on which they did
not succeed and strategies that were abandoned prior to trial. Defendants also
challenge Plaintiffs' submission of costs as unreasonable and ask the Court to
reduce any fees that it decides to award to [*242] account for what Defendants
assert is Plaintiffs' failure to exercise billing judgment in submission of the
fees petition now before the Court.
A. Plaintiffs' Status as Prevailing Parties
In
determining whether a party qualifies for attorneys' fees under 42 U.S.C. 1988,
a court must determine whether a party is a prevailing party within the meaning
of the statute and whether the requested fees are reasonable. See Hensley v.
Eckerhart, 461 U.S. 424, 433, 103 S. Ct. 1933, 1939, 76 L. Ed. 2d 40 (1983).
Under the Supreme Court's "generous formulation of the term," a party
who has obtained "at least some relief on the merits of his claim" is
a prevailing party. Farrar v. Hobby, 506 U.S. 103, 111, 113 S. Ct. 566, 121 L.
Ed. 2d 494 (1992). This formulation includes a party who has received an award
of nominal damages. See id. at 113-14,
113 S. Ct. at 574. Hence, in this case, both Okot and Carlo are prevailing
parties within the meaning of 42 U.S.C. § 1988. n1
B.
The Reasonableness of the Submitted Fees
The
Court's determination that Plaintiffs are prevailing parties does not
automatically entitle Plaintiffs to all fees that they have requested. The
Court must also determine whether Plaintiffs' requested fees award is
reasonable. This analysis generally begins with a lodestar calculation of
"the number of hours reasonably expended on the litigation multiplied by a
reasonable hourly rate." Hensley, 461 U.S. at 433, 103 S. Ct. at 1939. In
making the lodestar calculation, a court considers the prevailing rates in the
community for attorneys with similar experience and qualifications to those for
whom fees have been requested, as well as whether fees have been requested for
"duplicative, unproductive, or excessive hours." Gay Officers Action
League et al. v. Commonwealth of Puerto Rico, 247 F.3d 288, 295 (1st Cir.
2001). In determining the reasonableness of Plaintiffs' submitted time, a court
may reduce a fee award to exclude "hours inadequately explained or
detailed." O'Connor v. Huard, 117 F.3d 12, 18 (1st Cir. 1997); see
also Phetosmphone v. Allison Reed Group, Inc. , 984 F.2d 4, 8 (1st Cir.
1993). A court also "may bring to bear its knowledge and experience
concerning both the cost of attorneys in its market area and the time demands
of the particular case." Wojtkowski v. Cade, 725 F.2d 127, 130 (1st Cir.
1984). Ultimately, the party requesting fees bears the burden of establishing
the reasonableness of the rates and hours submitted in a fees petition.
See Weinberger v. Great Northern
Nekoosa Corp., 801 F. Supp. 804, 807 (D. Me. 1992), aff'd, 47 F.3d 463 (1995).
Several other factors also inform a court's determination regarding the
reasonableness of requested fees, including the degree of success obtained in
the litigation. See Hensley, 461 U.S.
at 435-37, 103 S. Ct. at 1940-41. n2 The determination [*243] of degree of
success is a significant factor in a court's evaluation of a fees petition, see
id., and it is measured in light of "a plaintiff's success claim by claim,
. . . the relief actually achieved, [and] the societal importance of the right
which has been vindicated." See Coutin v. Young and Rubicam Puerto Rico,
Inc., 124 F.3d 331, 338 (1st Cir. 1997). In cases in which a party has
succeeded on only some claims, a court should exercise its judgment to ensure
that parties do not recover for work expended on unsuccessful claims, but also
to ensure that parties are not penalized for raising alternative legal
arguments in good faith. See Hensley,
461 U.S. at 435, 103 S. Ct. at 1940. Hence, a party who establishes that claims
on which that party did not prevail are based on "a common core of
facts" or "related legal theories" to those claims on which the
party did prevail may receive complete compensation for the work pertaining to
such facts or theories. Lipsett v. Blanco, 975 F.2d 934, 940-41 (1st Cir.
1992). Once a prevailing party establishes the interrelatedness of the facts
and theories, it becomes the opposing party's burden to establish a basis for
segregating the hours spent on the successful and unsuccessful claims. See id.
However, in "massaging" the lodestar to account for partial success,
a district court should bear in mind that the Supreme Court has instructed that
"'where recovery of private damages is the purpose of . . . civil rights litigation,
a district court, in fixing fees, is obligated to give primary consideration to
the amount of damages awarded as compared to the amount sought.'" Farrar,
506 U.S. at 114, 113 S. Ct. at 575 (quoting Riverside v. Rivera, 477 U.S. 561,
585, 106 S. Ct. 2686, 2700, 91 L. Ed. 2d 466 (1986) (Powell, J., concurring)).
Nevertheless, a rule of automatic and strict proportionality between the
recovery obtained and a fees award has been flatly rejected by the Supreme
Court and the Court of Appeals for the First Circuit. See Coutin, 124 F.3d at 339-40 (quoting Rivera,
477 U.S. at 574, 106 S. Ct. at 2694);
see also id. at 585, 106 S. Ct. at
2699-700 (Powell, J., concurring). Additionally, the degree of success plays a
role in nominal damages, as the Supreme Court has indicated that in cases in
which a party has "recovered only nominal damages because of his failure
to prove an essential element of his claim for monetary relief, . . . the only
reasonable fee is usually no fee at all." Farrar, 506 U.S. at 115, 113 S.
Ct. at 576 (citation omitted). In determining whether to completely deny fees
in a nominal damages case, a Court may consider the significance of the legal
issue on which the party prevailed and the public import of the litigation. See id. at 120-22; 113 S. Ct. at 578-79
(O'Connor, J., concurring); c.f.
O'Connor, 117 F.3d at 18 (endorsing district court's consideration of
deterrent impact of litigation in determining reasonableness of fees award).
While the lodestar method is "the most useful starting point for
determining the amount of a reasonable fee," Hensley, 461 U.S. at 433, 103
S. Ct. at 1939, the lodestar method is not required in all cases. In cases in
which nominal damages have been [*244] obtained and in cases in which "a
plaintiff's victory is purely technical or de minimus, a district court need
not go through the usual complexities involved in calculating attorney's
fees." Farrar, 506 U.S. at 117, 113 S. Ct. at 576 (O'Connor, J.,
concurring) (emphasis in original). However, the lodestar method remains the
preferred method for making a fees award determination and "spurning all
consideration of a lodestar places a substantial burden upon the district court
to account for its actions." Coutin , 124 F.3d at 338.
In this case, Plaintiffs prevailed
on only one of thirteen claims against only one of three Defendants, for which
Plaintiff Okot was awarded $501 in compensatory damages and Plaintiff Carlo was
awarded $1 in nominal damages. Plaintiffs maintain that although this success
may seem minimal or technical from a numerical point of view, the claim on
which they prevailed, a § 1983 claim rooted in Fourth Amendment violations, was
the central thrust of their overall case and thus represents a significant
victory on the merits. Plaintiffs contend that given the nonpecuniary
nature of the damages they suffered,
the limited monetary amount of the judgment neither negates nor undermines
their victory. Plaintiffs also maintain that they have achieved an important
public goal in this litigation by sending a message to the Portland Police
Department and the City of Portland that "you cannot detain a suspect and
haul him into the police station without probable cause and you cannot slam a
suspect's face into the sidewalk during a search, even if you think you are
dealing with a potentially explosive racial incident." Plaintiffs' Reply
to Defendant's Opposition to Plaintiffs' Petition for Attorneys' Fees (Doc. No.
41) at 7. Defendants dispute Plaintiffs' characterization of their victory,
noting that the race discrimination claims, deemed central to the case by
Plaintiffs, were withdrawn during the summary judgment phase of the litigation.
Defendants also contend that Plaintiffs' decisions not to seek declaratory or
injunctive relief, to withdraw their claim against the institutional Defendants
during the summary judgment phase of the litigation, and to withdraw their
claim for punitive damages in the middle of trial, as well as their settlement
positions throughout the pretrial phases of the case belie Plaintiffs'
assertion that the case was intended to, and did, achieve important public
goals. Plaintiffs reply that even after they withdrew their race discrimination
claims, race continued to play an important role in trial, in that the
admission of Defendant Conicelli's racial statements convincingly explained to
the jury the motivation underlying his actions. Additionally, Plaintiffs insist
that because the City of Portland is indemnifying Conicelli, the judgment
entered against him will alter the relationship between the Portland Police
Department and the public.
The Court regards the legal
issue on which Plaintiffs prevailed was one of the central issues in the case
and believes that the jury's verdict that Defendant Conicelli violated both
Plaintiffs' constitutional rights does have the potential to send a message of
significant social implications to the Portland Police Department and the City
of Portland. For this reason, the Court believes that it would be inappropriate
to completely forego the lodestar calculation in this case, despite its
apparent authority to do so. However, the Court agrees with Defendants that
Plaintiffs' success in this case was only partial and that, given the
demonstrated priority of monetary relief exhibited by Plaintiffs throughout the
litigation, from the time they filed their complaint, throughout the settlement
negotiations, up until the time that they withdrew their claim for punitive
damages, it is "'obligated to give primary [*245] consideration to the
amount of damages awarded as compared to the amount sought.'"
Farrar, 506 U.S. at 114, 113 S. Ct. at 575 (quoting Riverside, 477 U.S. at 585,
106 S. Ct. at 2700 (Powell, J., concurring)). The Court is not convinced by
Plaintiffs' attempt to characterize the purpose of this litigation as serving
significant public goals. Unlike the plaintiffs in Rivera, Plaintiffs did not
seek injunctive or declaratory relief. Unlike the plaintiff in O'Connor,
Plaintiffs did not seek declaratory relief and did not present their claim for
punitive damages to the jury. n3 Indeed, Plaintiffs withdrew virtually every
single claim designed to serve broader public goals and withdrew the claims
against the Defendants most empowered to alter the relationship between the
Portland Police Department and the citizens of Portland -- the City of Portland
and the Portland Police Department itself. The Court found this strategy
puzzling throughout the course of the litigation and is now confounded by
Plaintiffs' assertion that, despite their withdrawal of all institutional
claims and their claim for punitive damages, this litigation served to
accomplish significant public goals. Plaintiffs' partial success and limited
monetary relief in light of the demonstrated goals of their litigation will
play a significant role in the Court's assessment of the reasonableness of their fees petition.
The Court will account for
Plaintiffs' limited success in two ways. First, in considering the itemized
lodestar arguments raised by Defendants, the Court will consider whether to
reduce the time allocated to specific tasks to account for Plaintiffs' partial
success. In making these determinations, the Court will bear in mind the
interrelatedness of several of the factual bases and legal theories underlying
Plaintiffs' claims and consider whether Plaintiffs' billing sufficiently
indicates the interrelatedness of the claims underlying the work billed, as
well as whether Defendants have set forth a sufficient basis for segregability.
n4 Second, the Court will consider, after completion of the lodestar
calculation, whether further reduction of the fees award is appropriate to
reflect the limited success of Plaintiffs' case.
1. Hourly Rates
Plaintiffs' submitted fees request accounts for work performed by three
attorneys at the law firm of Friedman Babcock & Gaythwaite: Harold
Friedman, Sally A. Morris, and Catherine Miller; one paralegal at the firm,
Kristy Tracy; and the lawyer who worked on the case prior to the firm's
retention of the case, James Michael Stovall. See Declaration of Harold J.
Friedman (Doc. No. 33). Plaintiffs have billed at hourly rates of $200 for
Attorney Friedman, $145 for Attorneys Morris and Miller, $100 for Attorney
Stovall, [*246] and $65 for Paralegal Tracy. See id. Defendants do not contest
the hourly rates for Attorneys
Friedman, Morris, and Stovall, but Defendants do object to the $145 hourly rate
for Attorney Miller, maintaining that an hourly rate of $100 better accounts
for Attorney Miller's lack of any documented litigation experience and limited
number of years in the legal profession.
Prevailing rates in the community determine the reasonable hourly rate.
See Grendel's Den, Inc. v. Larkin, 749 F.2d 945, 954 (1st Cir. 1984). Attorney
Miller graduated from law school and was admitted to the Maine bar in 1997. See
Friedman Declaration P 6. She practices in both Maine and New Hampshire federal
and state courts. See id. Attorney Friedman declares that Attorney Miller has
experience in civil rights litigation, but does not detail the nature of this
experience. See id. Although Plaintiffs have submitted three other declarations
by attorneys generally attesting that the hourly rates charged by Friedman,
Babcock & Gaythwaite are consistent with prevailing market conditions in
Portland, see Declaration of David G. Webbert (Doc. No. 34); Declaration of
Richard L. O'Meara (Doc. No. 35); Declaration of Sally Morris (Doc. No. 40),
Plaintiffs do not submit any document explaining why it is reasonable to charge
the same rate for Attorney Miller as that for Attorney Morris, who has been
practicing law since 1992 and who has extensive, documented experience
litigating civil rights cases. See Declaration of Sally Morris PP 2-4. Nor do
Plaintiffs explain why the work of Attorney Miller should be billed at a rate
higher than that of Attorney Stovall, who was also admitted to the Maine bar in
1997. See Friedman Declaration P 7. The Court regards an hourly rate of $145 as
excessive for Attorney Miller and it will,
therefore, reduce her hourly rate to $100.
2. Paralegal Fees
Defendants dispute the reasonableness of any compensation for work
performed by Paralegal Tracy. Plaintiffs argue that they are entitled to
compensation for reasonable paralegal time, citing Missouri v. Jenkins, 491 U.S.
274, 109 S. Ct. 2463, 105 L. Ed. 2d 229 (1989), and Lipsett v. Blanco, 975 F.2d
934 (1st Cir. 1992). Plaintiffs argue that two reasons justify compensation for
paralegal time: prevailing market practices and efficiency. Defendants argue
that Plaintiffs should not receive compensation for time spent by paralegals,
stating that the relevant precedent does not mandate the inclusion of such fees
and that this Court has previously held that "'such charges are properly
includable in firm overhead.'" See Opposition Motion at 12 (citing
Weinberger, 801 F. Supp. at 823).
This Court has previously expressed its view that charges for the work
of paralegals "are properly included in firm overhead" and that,
"to the extent that paralegals are allowed to perform work that
constitutes 'the practice of law' under Maine law, such practice is
inconsistent with Maine law." Weinberger, 801 F. Supp. at 823. The Court
continues to regard 4 M.R.S.A § 807(1) as prohibiting the recovery of
attorneys' fees for work done by paralegals that involves the legal judgment
and analysis constituting the practice of law. Although the Court of Appeals
for the First Circuit did affirm a district court's decision to grant fees for
paralegal times in Lipsett, it did not hold that such fees were not required,
and it did not address the unauthorized practice of law issue and the overhead
inclusion rationale that have consistently motivated this Court's decisions to
deny compensation for paralegal fees. The documentation submitted by Plaintiffs
fails to distill [*247]tasks performed by Paralegal Tracy that do not involve
the type of legal judgment properly performed by lawyers or that are not
properly accounted for in firm
overhead. The Court, therefore, will not award any attorneys' fees for the work
that she performed.
3. Reasonableness of Hours Charged to
Complete Tasks
First, Defendants challenge the amount of time Plaintiffs spent drafting
the Complaint. Defendants assert that Plaintiffs' bill reflects 26.8 hours
dedicated to preparing the Complaint and argue that a single attorney should
have been able to draft the Complaint in two to three hours. The Court's review
of Plaintiffs' bill has led it to conclude that Plaintiffs have charged 23.7
hours for the initial preparation of this case leading up to the filing of the
Complaint, including charges for time spent interviewing Plaintiffs,
researching potential claims, and drafting the Complaint. Six and two-tenths
hours of work were clearly dedicated to Plaintiffs' unsuccessful state law
claims, and the Court will strike those hours from the bill. Of the remaining
17.5 hours, 2.5 were spent conducting initial client interviews and
communicating with Attorney Stovall about the work that he had already
performed in relation to the case. The Court believes that the 2.5 hours spent
on this initial interview activity were reasonable and it will, therefore,
grant Plaintiffs' fee petition with regard to these charges. The Court agrees
with Defendants that Plaintiffs have submitted charges for an unreasonable
amount of time, 15 hours, for the general drafting and research of the
Complaint, particularly in light of the fact that Plaintiffs prevailed on only
one of the thirteen counts set forth in the Complaint. Plaintiffs' petition
fails to adequately detail much of the initial research in a manner that
convinces the Court that the time spent researching the unsuccessful and
successful claims cannot be segregated. The Court will, therefore, reduce the
amount of hours for which Plaintiffs can recover fees for this task to 5 hours:
2.5 hours at Attorney Miller's rate; 2 hours at Attorney Morris's rate; and .5
hours at Attorney Friedman's rate.
Defendants dispute the reasonableness of Plaintiffs' billing for a
number of discovery-related activities. Defendants contend that Plaintiffs'
billing of 4.5 hours for discovery planning activities is unreasonable, n5
insisting that experienced lawyers should immediately know that discovery will
involve requesting the production of documents, deposing key figures, and
sending interrogatories to the key parties in the case. The Court does not view
4.5 hours of discovery planning activities as unreasonable, and it will not
reduce those charges. Defendants also contest Plaintiffs' submission of charges
for 46.6 hours of general discovery, highlighting that most of the time billed
by Plaintiffs was not dedicated to preparing for or conducting depositions,
but, instead, was dedicated to drafting and reviewing general discovery
material. Upon review of the petition, the Court agrees with Defendants that
46.6 hours of general discovery activity is unreasonable. The Court will reduce
Plaintiffs' charges for general discovery activities to 30 hours: 7 hours at
Attorney Friedman's hourly rate; 3 hours at Attorney Morris's hourly rate; and
20 hours at Attorney Miller's hourly rate. Additionally, Defendants challenge
Plaintiffs' charges of 9 hours of activity relating to the deposition [*248] of
Plaintiff Okot, arguing that the bill indicates duplicative effort, that the deposition
lasted only 1.5 hours, and that a reasonable attorney would have spent only an
additional 3 hours preparing for the deposition. n6 The Court does not regard 9
hours of activity preparing a key witness who is a Plaintiff to be
unreasonable. The Court will, therefore, allow Plaintiffs to recover attorneys'
fees for this activity. Similarly, the Court will grant Plaintiffs' fee
petition with regard to the 2.4 hours of activity dedicated to the deposition
of Plaintiff Carlo. Defendants also argue that
Plaintiffs' billing of 5 hours for the deposition of Defendants' expert,
Professor Greg Connor, is excessive and based on duplicative efforts by two
lawyers. n7 The Court does not view the 5 hours dedicated to deposing Professor
Connor as excessive, particularly in light of the fact that 2.5 of those hours
were spent actually deposing Professor Connors. Finally, Defendants argue that
because two attorneys attended the deposition of Defendant Conicelli, the Court
should strike Attorney Miller's November 14, 1999, time entry of 3.0 hours for
this activity. Plaintiffs reply that although two attorneys attended the
deposition of Conicelli, the second attorney's time has been cut from the
petition. The Court will not strike Attorney Miller's work charges relating to
the deposition of Defendant Conicelli.
Third,
Defendants argue that Plaintiffs should not be compensated for the 5 hours
spent on settlement-related activity, insisting that because Plaintiffs'
settlement position was unreasonable, the time Plaintiffs spent preparing for
settlement conferences and considering settlement was unreasonable. The Court
views 5 hours of settlement activity as reasonable, and, therefore, it will not
strike these charges from Plaintiffs' bill.
Fourth, Defendants challenge the reasonableness of the time Plaintiffs'
attorneys spent preparing the summary judgment motion in this case. Although
Defendants assert that Plaintiffs seek 111 hours spent on work pertaining to
summary judgment, the Court regards Plaintiffs' bill as indicating that they
spent 100.1 hours preparing for summary judgment. Defendants argue that it
should have taken Plaintiffs' counsel twenty hours to work on the part of the
summary judgment motion on which they prevailed. Plaintiffs respond that they
did not brief the issues that were decided against them on summary judgment.
The Court initially notes that 3.9 of the hours charged for Plaintiffs' work in
connection with summary judgment pertain to Defendants' interlocutory appeal of
the Court's ruling. The Court regards Plaintiffs' attempt to defend a favorable ruling as reasonable, and it will,
therefore, grant Plaintiffs' fee petition with regard to those hours. As for
the remaining 96.2 hours, the Court agrees with Defendants that Plaintiffs'
bill is unreasonably high. Particularly in light of the fact that Plaintiffs
dedicated most of their opposition to Defendants' summary judgment motion to
one issue of qualified immunity, the Court believes that twenty-five hours
constitutes a reasonable time for this task. Moreover, although Plaintiffs did
prevail [*249]on the major claim they continued to pursue in their response to
Defendants' Motion for Summary Judgment, the fees petition does not clearly
indicate the nature of Plaintiffs' legal research or drafting for all hours
billed, thus making it impossible for the Court to determine whether the
attorneys' activity pertained to the common factual bases underlying
Plaintiffs' claims or to common legal theories pertaining to Plaintiffs'
successful and unsuccessful claims.
Fifth, Defendants challenge the reasonableness of the time spent
drafting the pretrial memorandum. Plaintiff has billed 7.3 hours for the
drafting of this memorandum. Defendants argue that this should have taken one
hour. The Court agrees. This item should be compensated for at Attorney
Morris's hourly rate of $145.
Sixth, Defendants argue that
Plaintiffs' request for compensation of 166 hours of trial preparation is
unreasonable in that it reflects duplicative efforts between lawyers and
paralegals and between the lawyers, and that it was inefficient. Defendants
argue that an experienced attorney with a part-time assistant should have been
able to prepare for trial in 40 hours. Defendants also argue that Plaintiffs'
submission of a bill for 68.7 hours of time spent handling the three-day trial
is unreasonable, and that Plaintiffs should be compensated no more than 36
hours for the three-day trial.
The Court finds that 50 hours is a
reasonable allocation of time to trial preparation, in light of the result
obtained, and that 30 hours is a reasonable allocation of time to the actual
trial. This
reduction is made on the basis of the Court's judgment in respect to reasonable
efficiency of counsel applied to the designated tasks without wasteful
duplication. Finally, the Court thinks it appropriate for Plaintiffs to be
compensated for this time, allocable to various attorneys, at an average
composite rate of $125 per hour with a reduction of 25% to reflect the somewhat
limited extent of success at trial, or $7,500.
Seventh, Defendants challenge
the 26 hours that Plaintiffs have billed for assembling the fee petition.
Defendants argue that this should have been accomplished within three to four
hours, particularly given the efficiency of modern computer billing methods.
The Court agrees that Plaintiffs have billed for an excessive amount of time,
and it regards 4 hours as a reasonable amount of time for the preparation of
the fee petition, at Attorney Morris's hourly rate.
Eighth, Defendants argue that the 2.1 hours dedicated by members of the
firm of Friedman Babcock & Gaythwaite to making phone calls to Attorney
Stovall reflects a failure to exercise billing judgment and should, therefore,
be reduced. Defendants also argue that Plaintiffs should not receive any
compensation for the time spent by Attorney Stovall walking them through the
Portland Police Department internal affairs investigation, the federal grand
jury investigation, and the state criminal process. Defendants argue that the bulk of the 15.75 hours billed by Attorney
Stovall constitutes such activity. Plaintiffs explain in their fees petition
that Attorney Stovall worked on this case before the firm of Friedman Babcock
& Gaythwaite, and that he filed notices and conducted witness interviews;
but Plaintiffs do not reply to Defendants' charge that the time that Stovall
dedicated to the grand jury and the state criminal process did not pertain to
the instant case. In the absence of information regarding the pertinence of the
work of Attorney Stovall to the claim on which they prevailed, the Court will
not award attorneys' fees for [*250]the hours charged by him. The Court regards
the telephone conversations between Attorney Stovall and the attorneys who
ultimately worked on the instant case as sufficient to reasonably account for
the work he had performed that contributed to Plaintiffs' success in the
instant case. The Court will, therefore, deny Plaintiffs' fees application with
regard to the hours billed by Attorney Stovall, and it will grant the
application with regard to the hours dedicated by other attorneys to consulting
with Attorney Stovall about the case.
4. Time Spent Searching for an Expert and
Consulting Potential Experts
Defendants also insist that
Plaintiffs should not be compensated for time spent searching for an expert and
consulting with potential experts because Plaintiffs did not ultimately use an
expert in trying the case. Plaintiffs' bill includes 11.1 hours spent
consulting with and searching for potential experts. n8 The Court recognizes
that a search for an expert is a reasonable aspect of trial preparation in a
civil rights case and that Plaintiffs' consultation with potential experts may
have played a role in shaping Plaintiffs' strategy with regard to the claim on
which they ultimately prevailed. However, given Plaintiffs' decision not to use
an expert at trial, the Court regards charges for 10.4 hours as excessive. The
Court will, therefore, reduce Plaintiffs' charges for expert-related tasks to 4
hours: 3 hours at Attorney Millers' rate; 0.5 hours at Attorney Morris's rate;
and 0.5 hours at Attorney Friedman's rate.
5. Reasonableness of Costs
Defendants challenge the reasonableness of the costs in this case, arguing
that $1,426.35 in photocopying costs occurred on June 30, 2000, seven days
after the trial, and that the remaining $1,137.95 photocopying costs are also
excessive. The Court agrees with Defendants that the photocopying costs
incurred after trial were unreasonable, and it will strike those costs from
Plaintiffs' award. The Court also agrees that the other photocopying costs of
$1,137.95 are excessive, and it will, therefore, reduce this amount by half.
Defendants have not opposed the other costs submitted by Plaintiffs, which
total $460.74, and the Court will grant
these costs. Given these reductions, Plaintiffs will be awarded costs of $1029.72.
6. Further "Massaging" of the
Lodestar to Account for Plaintiffs' Partial Success
Defendants argue that because Carlo was not a prevailing party, all work
that has not been attributed to a certain Plaintiff's claims be reduced by 50%.
The Court will not do that because Carlo was a prevailing party and, in any
event, reducing the fees by 50% would not render a realistic assessment of the
amount of time taken to research the prevailing claims in the case, given the
factual and legal overlap.
C. Defendants' Request for a Downward
Reduction
Maintaining that Plaintiffs failed to exercise billing judgment in their
decision to include time spent pursuing their cases against the City and the
Police Department in their billing records even though the claims against the
latter two were dropped by Plaintiffs at the summary judgment phase. Defendants
cite Lewis v. Kendrick, 944 F.2d 949 (1st Cir. 1991), as authority for the
Court's discretion to reduce [*251] fees on this ground. Plaintiffs argue that
they have exercised billing judgment by cutting all of Attorney Wolf's time
from the case, as well as by cutting fees incurred by Attorney Wolf and
Attorney Topchik, who assisted Attorney
Morris while she was on maternity leave during discovery, even though these
attorneys spent time performing productive discovery tasks. Particularly in
light of the complexities of the fee petition now before the Court, the Court
does not regard Plaintiffs' fee petition as demonstrating a failure to exercise
billing judgment. The Court, therefore, will not reduce Plaintiffs' fees on
this ground.
CONCLUSION
In consideration of the
Plaintiffs' partial success in this case and the parties' arguments pertaining
to the reasonableness of Plaintiffs' fees, the Court has decided to GRANT
Plaintiffs' request for an attorneys' fees award but to REDUCE the award
claimed by Sixty-Four Thousand One Hundred Fifty-Nine Dollars ($64,159.00) to
compensate Plaintiffs for only the activities reasonably dedicated toward
achieving their partial success against Defendant Conicelli. Accordingly, the
Court ORDERS that Defendants pay Plaintiffs an amount of Twenty-One Thousand
Nine Dollars and Twenty-Two Cents ($21,009.22) in attorneys' fees and One
Thousand Twenty-Nine Dollars ($1,029.00) in costs.
GENE CARTER
District Judge
Dated at Portland, Maine this 18th day of
January, 2002.
FOOTNOTES:
n1 Defendants have spent a
considerable portion of their brief arguing that Plaintiff Carlo was not a
prevailing party within the meaning of § 1988. This argument is based on an
erroneous characterization of the jury's verdict with regard to Plaintiff
Carlo, in that Defendants contend that Carlo was not awarded nominal damages.
See Opposition to Plaintiffs' Application for Attorney's Fees (Doc. No. 37).
Carlo was awarded nominal damages. See Jury Verdict (Doc. No. 26); Amended
Judgment (Doc. No. 38).
n2 In Hensley, the Supreme
Court enumerated a list of twelve factors that may also inform a court's
reasonableness analysis:
(1) the time and labor
required; (2) the novelty and difficulty of the questions; (3) the skill requisite
to perform the legal service properly; (4) the preclusion of employment by the
attorney due to acceptance of the case; (5) the customary fee; (6) whether the
fee is fixed or contingent; (7) time limitations imposed by the client or the
circumstances; (8) the amount involved and the results obtained; (9) the
experience, reputation, and ability of the attorneys; (10) the
"undesirability" of the case; (11) the nature and length of the
professional relationship with the client; and (12) awards in similar cases.
Hensley, 461 U.S. at 430
n.3, 103 S. Ct. at 1938 n.3 (citing Johnson v. Georgia Highway Express, Inc.,
488 F.2d 714, 717-19 (5th Cir. 1974)).
n3 If anything, the Court views the instant case as similar to
Andrade v. Jamestown Housing Authority, 82 F.3d 1179, 1190-92 (1st Cir. 1996),
in which the Court of Appeals upheld a federal district court's decision to
significantly reduce a fees award in light of the plaintiff's limited degree of
success and the district court judge's conclusion that three of the five claims
were frivolous. Although Plaintiffs argue that this case presents similar
issues to those presented in Domegan v. Ponte, 972 F.2d 401 (1st Cir. 1992),
that decision was vacated by the Supreme Court and remanded to the Court of Appeals
for further consideration in light of the Supreme Court's decision in Farrar.
See Ponte v. Domegan, 507 U.S. 956, 113 S. Ct. 1378, 122 L. Ed. 2d 754 (1993).
n4 The Court is not
persuaded by Defendants' argument that all general tasks should be divided by
two in order to reflect that only Plaintiff Okot prevailed in this case. Not
only does this suggested approach rest on shaky, if any, legal precedent, but,
as the Court has already indicated, Plaintiff Carlo also prevailed in this
case.
n5 Although Defendants
assert that Plaintiffs submitted charges for 5.5 hours of discovery planning
activity, the Court's review of the record leads it to conclude that Plaintiffs
have actually billed for 4.5 hours of discovery planning activity.
n6 The Court notes that the
time entries for Attorney Friedman for the dates of November 14 and 15 do not
break down the amount of time Attorney Friedman specifically spent working on
the deposition of Okot. The Court has reduced Attorney Friedman's time by half
for these dates.
n7 Defendants assert that
Plaintiffs have billed for 5.8 hours of activity relating to the deposition of
Connors. The Court does not regard the 0.8 hours charged for work conducted by
Attorney Friedman as pertaining to the deposition of Professor Connors.
n8 Defendants allege that
Plaintiffs dedicated 10.3 hours to this activity. The Court regards Attorney
Friedman's charges on December 13, 1999, as also relating to this activity.
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