Opinion ID: 561200
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: Amount of attorneys' fees awarded

Text: 34 Mackey alternatively argues that the fee award of nearly $100,000 was excessive. We review this award for an abuse of discretion. See Hensley v. Eckerhart, 461 U.S. 424, 437, 103 S.Ct. 1933, 1941, 76 L.Ed.2d 40 (1983); Blum v. Stenson, 465 U.S. 886, 898-901, 104 S.Ct. 1541, 1548-50, 79 L.Ed.2d 891 (1984). The district court provided a thorough and thoughtful explanation of the lodestar fee at which it arrived. It discounted for hours that it deemed to be unreasonable. We reject Mackey's claim that the district court abused its discretion in failing to find that more hours were excessive. 35 We conclude, however, that the district court granted a multiplier of 1.33 on improper grounds. Even though the district court properly recognized that some of the factors derived from Kerr v. Screen Extras Guild, Inc., 526 F.2d 67, 70 (9th Cir.1975), cert. denied, 425 U.S. 951, 96 S.Ct. 1726, 48 L.Ed.2d 195 (1976), were properly subsumed in the lodestar figure, see Cabrales v. County of Los Angeles, 864 F.2d 1454, 1464 (9th Cir.1988), it nevertheless relied on impermissible grounds for enhancement. The time involved is clearly subsumed in the lodestar figure, and the difficulty of the case is similarly inappropriate as a ground of enhancement. See Fadhl v. City and County of San Francisco, 859 F.2d 649, 651 n. 2 (1988). Finally, the district court relied upon the risk inherent in Merritt's case. A majority of the Supreme Court has held, however, that risk in the individual case is not a proper ground for a multiplier. Pennsylvania v. Delaware Valley Citizens' Council, 483 U.S. 711, 734, 107 S.Ct. 3078, 3091, 97 L.Ed.2d 585 (1987) (concurring opinion of Justice O'Connor); see Fadhl, 859 F.2d at 650 n. 1 (Justice O'Connor's concurring opinion constitutes Court's holding in Delaware Valley ). Enhancements for risk are only appropriate when supported by a showing that such enhancement is necessary to attract competent counsel in the relevant community for the class of cases in question. Delaware Valley, 483 U.S. at 734, 107 S.Ct. at 3091 (concurring opinion of Justice O'Connor). There is neither a finding nor evidence here to establish that necessity. We therefore reverse that portion of the district court's fee awards that includes multipliers of 1.33, and we remand the fee awards to the district court for recalculation and reentry of the awards without the multiplier.