Opinion ID: 179127
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: Whether the District Court Abused Its Discretion in its Award of Attorney's Fees to Plaintiff

Text: Finally, Defendant contests the amount of the district court's award of attorney's fees to Plaintiff, pursuant to the fee-shifting provisions of 42 U.S.C. § 1988. Defendant's principal objections, both of which were rejected by the district court, are (1) that two specific billing entries were improperly included in the fee calculation, and (2) that the district court failed to award Plaintiff only a percentage of his total lodestar amount. In support of her first objection, Defendant cites two allegedly improper entries primarily concerning Plaintiff's attorney's attendance at landlord/tenant proceedings regarding the rent disputes between Ms. Thomas and Mrs. Harris. The district court accepted Plaintiff's explanation that his attorney's attendance at these hearings was related to his pursuit of the ultimately successful Fourth Amendment claim, as Plaintiff's attorney was present at these hearings to observe the behavior of Defendant Balinski and Mrs. Harris, both key figures in this case, in an anticipatory effort to rebut Defendant's use of the results of these proceedings at trial. The district court did not abuse its discretion in rejecting Defendant's objection and accepting Plaintiff's explanation. In support of her second objection, Defendant argues that the district court erred in not awarding Defendant only a fraction of the lodestar amount. Reasonable attorney's fee awards are determined by the fee applicant's lodestar, calculated by multiplying the proven number of hours worked by a court-ascertained reasonable hourly rate. Hensley v. Eckerhart, 461 U.S. 424, 433, 103 S.Ct. 1933, 76 L.Ed.2d 40 (1983). Here, the district court determined the lodestar amount to be $102,480 (512.40 hours at an hourly rate of $200). Defendant argues that Plaintiff is entitled only to 33% of this amount. It is unclear precisely how Defendant calculated this particular percentage, but Defendant's argument for reducing the lodestar amount appears to be based on two facts in the record: (1) that Plaintiff originally sued defendants other than Defendant Balinski, and (2) that the case originally included more claims than those that were eventually successful. As to the first fact, the district court found that Plaintiff's attorney already properly excluded time spent on a distinct failure-to-train claim against Defendant Ella Bully-Cummings. As to the second, the district court found that the focus of Plaintiff's litigation efforts has been his Fourth Amendment unlawful search claim against Balinski, and based this determination on the fact that two out of the three summary judgment motions filed in this case concerned that claim, while the third concerned the failure-to-train claim, and that time had already been properly excluded. Further, the district court of its own initiative excluded time spent on claims it found insufficiently related to the one successful at trial. Accordingly, the district court did not abuse its discretion in making its fee award.
For the above reasons, the decisions of the district court are AFFIRMED.