Opinion ID: 665979
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: Reasonableness of Sanctions

Text: 24 Linder's remaining claim is that the attorney fee award is excessive. Compensatory sanctions under Rule 11 must be reasonable in amount. 11 Navarro-Ayala, 968 F.2d at 1427 (citing cases). 25
26 The district court awarded the City 12 $53,528.81 in attorney fees and costs incurred during the merits phase of the litigation by all defendants, representing approximately 487 hours devoted to legal services by counsel appearing for the five individual defendants, and by the City Solicitor in behalf of the City and the same five individual defendants in their official capacities. Linder does not challenge the individual fee applications, but asserts that the aggregate hours were not reasonably required because defendants did not take proper measures to mitigate fees by delegating jointly-required in-court services and submitting unitary filings to avoid unnecessary duplication of services. See Navarro-Ayala, 968 F.2d at 1427 (compensatory sanctions allowed only for costs reasonably incurred) citing Thomas v. Capital Sec. Services, Inc., 836 F.2d 866, 879 (5th Cir.1988); see also Dubisky v. Owens, 849 F.2d 1034, 1037 (7th Cir.1988) (similar). 27 The district court rejected Linder's argument, finding instead that if plaintiffs' case had not been so utterly without merit, this 'redundant' representation might have proved essential to these defendants, Silva, slip op. at 13 (May 6, 1993), and therefore that the employment of multiple attorneys during the merits phrase was reasonably required. We agree that it was reasonable for the five defendants, in their individual capacities, to obtain representation by their own counsel while the merits of plaintiffs' claims remained in litigation, since counsel to the City represented the individual defendants in their official capacities only. Linder points to no authority for the implicit assumption that reasonable mitigation efforts require that the private interests of parties sued in their individual capacities must go unrepresented. Cf. Mariani, 983 F.2d at 8 n. 5. Nor has he shown that the respective private interests of these individual defendants during the merits phase did not conflict to the point that mutual representation was precluded. 13 Cf. Brandt v. Schal Assoc., Inc., 960 F.2d 640, 648 (7th Cir.1992) ([w]e have little sympathy for the litigant who fires a big gun, and when the adversary returns fire, complains because he was only firing blanks). 28 The court further found that the total time spent by each attorney on the merits was not excessive. Silva, slip op. at 13 (Nov. 5, 1992). The court also disallowed all fees for legal services, except those services directly rendered to the City, after the point in time when it became clear that no conflicts of interest precluded the individual defendants' joint representation by counsel to the City. See Brandt, 960 F.2d at 649 (no failure to mitigate where sanctioned attorney's broad complaint necessitated investment of extensive attorney time in defense and district court carefully monitored procedure). A party is required to mitigate expenses only insofar as is reasonable. Our review of the record discloses no basis for supposing that the district court abused its discretion by allowing a $53,528.81 reimbursement to the City for legal services rendered during the merits phase. See Navarro-Ayala, 968 F.2d at 1426 (When the district court settles upon a monetary sanction and fixes a dollar amount, a reviewing tribunal should defer, within broad limits, to the district court's exercise of its informed discretion. Nevertheless, the court of appeals must be careful not merely to 'rubber-stamp the decisions of the district court.' ) (citation omitted). 29
30 The district court disallowed all fees requested in relation to the sanctions phase of the litigation except for those incurred by the City. 14 The court found that counsel to the individual defendants had been notified in advance that the City no longer believed there existed any conflict of interest precluding joint representation. Thus, the court allowed only $21,821.15 in total fees and costs for 188 out of over 1500 hours expended by all counsel representing defendants during the sanctions phase. Linder does not challenge the reasonableness of the fees incurred by the City in the sanctions phase. 15 31 We therefore affirm the district court judgement. 32 Affirmed.