Opinion ID: 2330512
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 4

Heading: Supplemental Fees

Text: Ms. Lively also claims the right to attorneys' fees associated with the filing of her petition for attorneys' fees. Her original petition for fees and costs makes a clear assertion of her right to be compensated for these fees, and that right is certainly well supported. See, e.g., General Fed'n of Women's Clubs v. Iron Gate Inn, Inc., 537 A.2d 1123, 1129-30 (D.C. 1988); Envtl. Defense Fund v. EPA, 217 U.S.App. D.C. 189, 209, 672 F.2d 42, 62 (1982); Copeland, supra, 205 U.S.App. D.C. at 406, 641 F.2d at 896; Cobell v. Norton, 231 F.Supp.2d 295, 307 (D.D.C. 2002). The petition, however, failed to indicate that the figure submitted to the court did not include hours billed in preparing the petition, or an estimate thereof. The first mention that these supplemental fees were excluded from the original calculation occurs in footnote three of Ms. Lively's reply to the appellees' oppositions to the petition, which was filed the same day the trial court issued its decision. Ms. Lively argues that the trial court's failure to address these fees in its order constitutes a denial of these fees. We disagree. Ms. Lively filed a supplement to her petition which fully explained the situation to the trial court the same day she filed this appeal. We therefore decline to rule on this issue before the trial court has the opportunity to make its ruling on Ms. Lively's supplemental petition. See New 3145 Deauville, L.L.C. v. First Am. Title Ins. Co., 881 A.2d 624, 630 (D.C.2005) (holding that the preferable course of action is to permit the trial court to address in the first instance these further arguments).