Opinion ID: 517427
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: Cost-Shifting Under Massachusetts Law.

Text: 72 We have no occasion today to consider extending Crawford to a situation involving a prevailing ADEA claimant. As indicated above, see supra Part II, Freeman brought--and recovered on--parallel federal and state claims. Despite the doubt which Crawford casts over the district court's ability to award expert witness fees in excess of the $30-per-day ceiling under federal law, the rule of the case does not constrain state law. The Court's decision in Crawford emanated from, and was grounded in, the express limits imposed on witness fees by a federal statute, 28 U.S.C. Sec. 1821. See supra. But Freeman recovered under state law as well as federal, and section 1821 has no analog in Massachusetts law that would apply in connection with Freeman's successful prosecution of his state-law claim. Thus, Crawford is inapposite to the latter recovery. 73 We explain briefly. In this case, Freeman moved for fees and costs under both federal and state law. The Commonwealth has granted explicit cost-shifting authority in Mass.Gen.L. ch. 151B, Sec. 9. 12 Costs, however, are neither enumerated nor defined therein. Unlike in federal law, there is no discernible cap: the amount of witness fees awardable as costs in Massachusetts is not limited to $30 per day, or to any other fixed sum. Rather: In civil actions ... in which no provision is expressly made by law, the costs shall be wholly in the discretion of the court. Mass.Gen.L. ch. 261, Sec. 13; see also George v. Coolidge Bank & Trust Co., 360 Mass. 635, 277 N.E.2d 278, 282 (1971) (entitlement to, and amount of, expert witness fees wholly within court's discretion). Under state law, where the award of costs is statutorily authorized, judges are vested with discretion either expressly or by judicial construction in determining the size of the award. Linthicum v. Archambault, 379 Mass. 381, 398 N.E.2d 482, 489 (1979). 74 As with prejudgment interest, see supra Part II, the cost-shifting envisioned by Chapter 151B constitutes part of the substantive remedy created by state law, and applies when a federal court, having obtained jurisdiction, proceeds to hear and determine the state-law claim. See, e.g., Pan American World Airways, Inc. v. Ramos, 357 F.2d 341, 342 (1st Cir.1966) (Puerto Rico statute allowing assessment of attorneys' fees for obstinacy recognized in federal court as a matter of substantive right); accord Marshall v. Perez Arzuaga, 828 F.2d 845, 852 n. 10 (1st Cir.1987), cert. denied, --- U.S. ----, 108 S.Ct. 1027, 98 L.Ed.2d 991 (1988). The statutory wording itself, the discretion invested by state statutes which are in pari passu with the cost-shifting provision, e.g., Mass.Gen.L. ch. 261, Sec. 13, and the judicial gloss placed upon the language by the SJC, e.g., Linthicum, 398 N.E.2d at 488; George, 277 N.E.2d at 282, combine to import into the substantive state-law remedy an element of flexibility, both as to entitlement and amount. A prevailing plaintiff may receive expert witness fees in a Chapter 151B case if the court in its discretion chooses to award them, and in whatever sum the court deems reasonable. A federal court empowered to determine a state-law claim (whether by reason of diversity, pendent jurisdiction, or otherwise) must be accorded this same degree of flexibility. 13 See Northern Heel Corp. v. Compo Industries, Inc., 851 F.2d 456, 475 (1st Cir.1988) (in diversity case, inasmuch as entitlement to counsel fees comprised a substantive part of the state-law remedy for a state-law cause of action, the proper rule of decision governing the award should have been derived from Massachusetts, rather than federal law); Bright v. Land O'Lakes, Inc., 844 F.2d 436, 444 (7th Cir.1988) (Wisconsin statute which authorized award of actual costs of the action including reasonable attorney's fees covered expenditures for expert witnesses, and applied in federal courts to override restrictions of 28 U.S.C. Sec. 1821); see also Blanchette v. Cataldo, 734 F.2d 869, 878-79 (1st Cir.1984) (federal court may award reasonable fees and costs to successful claimant under state law, specifically, Mass.Gen.L. ch. 93A). 75 Although there is no Massachusetts case squarely on point, we view it as highly probable that the SJC would interpret section 9 as permitting courts to shift expert witness fees in favor of prevailing plaintiffs in age discrimination cases. The phraseology of the law intimates as much, and the law's objectives cinch the proposition. Insofar as enactment of the statute represents a legislative policy choice, it is a choice, we suggest, to furnish courts with a mandate to ensure 'effective access to the judicial process' for persons with civil rights grievances. Hensley v. Eckerhart, 461 U.S. 424, 429, 103 S.Ct. 1933, 1937, 76 L.Ed.2d 40 (1983) (quoting H.Rep. No. 94-1558 at 1, 94th Cong., 2d Sess. (1976)). If citizens are to assert their state-ceded rights meaningfully in Massachusetts, and if those malefactors who would deny such rights are to be deterred, then prevailing plaintiffs should be given the chance to recover what it costs to enforce the rights in court. It would turn things topsy-turvy to saddle civil rights claimants--no matter how galling their deprivations or how vindicatory the outcome of their suits--with whopping fees for the services of expert witnesses. To leave prevailing plaintiffs unreimbursed for such expenditures might well make the game not worth the candle, surely disserving the ends of a cost-shifting rule. 76 That Massachusetts shares these sentiments is not much a matter of conjecture. The linchpin of our prophecy is the SJC's opinion in Linthicum v. Archambault, supra. Linthicum involved a consumer protection law, Mass.Gen.L. ch. 93A, which stipulated that successful plaintiffs shall ... be awarded reasonable attorney's fees and costs.... Mass.Gen.L. ch. 93A, Sec. 9(4). Notwithstanding the generality of the statutory reference, the SJC--with a weather eye to the purposes for which the law was enacted--discerned a presumption favoring the award of expert witness fees: 77 The usual rule in Massachusetts is that the litigant must bear his own expenses.... Chapter 93A is a statutory exception to that rule. Although the award of expert witness fees is usually discretionary, George v. Coolidge Bank & Trust Co., 360 Mass. 635, 640, 277 N.E.2d 278 (1971), we think that reasonable expert witness fees should normally be recoverable in a ch. 93A case in order to vindicate policies of the act. See generally Note, Expert Witness Fees: Protection for the Indigent Party, 48 Nw.U.L.Rev. 106 (1953). 78 Linthicum, 398 N.E.2d at 488. 79 We are confident that the SJC would interpret the cognate provision in Chapter 151B, Sec. 9 in like fashion. Chapter 151B is to be liberally construed to meet its goals. Katz v. MCAD, 365 Mass. 357, 312 N.E.2d 182, 187 (1974). The law's clear purpose ... is to implement the right to equal treatment guaranteed to all citizens by the constitutions of the United States and the Commonwealth. Id. In shaping awards under Chapter 151B, Massachusetts courts have consistently adopted the rationale that if there is to be a 'windfall', such benefit should accrue to the injured party rather than to the wrongdoer. Buckley Nursing Home v. MCAD, 20 Mass.App. 172, 478 N.E.2d 1292, 1299 (1985) (quoting Jones v. Wayland, 374 Mass. 249, 262, 373 N.E.2d 199 (1978)). These principles bear eloquent testimony, we suggest, to the accuracy of a forecast that the SJC would, in an appropriate case, allow expert witness fees under Chapter 151B's cost-shifting provision as a necessary incident of litigation. 14 80