NOT FOR PUBLICATION

UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS

FOR THE NINTH CIRCUIT

ANTONIO FERNANDEZ

,

Plaintiff

- Appellant,

v.

ROBERTA A. TORRES; CBC

RESTAURANT CORP.

, a Delaware Corporation

,

Defendants

- Appellees. No. 20

- 5 5723

D.C. No.

2 :1 8

- cv

- 0 9424

- FMO

- SK Central District of California, Los Angeles

MEMORANDUM *

Appeal from the United States District Court

for the Central District of California Fernando M. Olguin , District Judge, Presiding

Submitted October 4, 2021 * *
Pasadena, California

Before: GRABER and OWENS, Circuit Judges, and BREYER, ** * District Judge.

Antonio Fernandez appeals the district court’s order granting in part and

* This disposition is not appropriate for publication and is not precedent except as provided by Ninth Circuit Rule 36

- 3.

** The panel unanimously concludes this case is suitable for decision without oral argument. See Fed. R. App. P. 34(a)(2).

*** The Honorable Charles R. Breyer, United States District Judge for the Northern District of California, sitting by designation. 

# FILED

OCT 7 2021

MOLLY C. DWYER, CLERK

U.S. COURT OF APPEALS2

denying in part his motion for attorneys ’ fees and costs

, following settlement of his

claims under the Americans with Disabilities Act and California’s Unruh Civil

Rights Act against Roberta Torres and CBC Restaurant Group

. We have

jurisdiction under 28 U.S.C. § 1291, and we reverse and remand

.

The district court abused its discretion when it ignor ed the time billed by

three of Fernandez’s five attorneys because the case w as “overstaffed

. ” See

Moreno v. City of Sacramento , 534 F.3d 1106, 1115 (9th Cir. 2008). While we

agree with the district court that Fernandez’s lawyers overbilled, it was “arbitrary”

to ignore entirely the time billed by three of the five lawyers

. Id. at 1113. The se

three appear to have performed at least some necessary work, such as drafti ng a

joint Rule 26 report and a settlement agreement. To the extent that overstaffing

resulted in inefficiencies, the district court should reduce the fee award in

proportion to those inefficiencies, rather than through a “shortcut.” Id.

The district court also abused its discretion in calculating the hours of the

two attorneys whose work it considered. The court provided cogent reasons for its

specific cuts as to various tasks, but its final additional 10% reduction for “general

excessiveness” lacked any justification. Although the court may order a “haircut”

of ten percent with only a “cursory explanation,” Id. at 1112, it must provide a

“specific articulation of [its] reasoning” when ordering a larger reduction.

Chaudhry v. City of Los Angeles , 75 1 F.3d 1096, 111 1 (9th Cir. 2014) (quotation3

marks omitted)

. Thus , w hen a court has already reduced the fee award, it must

provide further explanation to reduce it by another ten percent. See Gonzalez v.

City of Maywood , 729 F.3d 1196, 1200 (9th Cir. 201 3).

However, t he district court did not abuse its discretion in reducing the hourly

rate s for the two attorneys. They did little to show the court that their requested

rate s were “in line with those prevailing in the community for similar services” by

rea sonably comparable lawyers. Chaudhry , 751 F.3d at 111 0 (quotation and

citation omitted). Though the court provided relatively little explanation in its

order, this reduction was justified because the case was a simple one and the

attorneys had failed to provide much information

. See id. ; Moreno , 534 F.3d at

1114.

REVERSED and REMANDED

.