Opinion ID: 492687
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: Reasonableness of Hours

Text: 16 Grossman and Flynn requested compensation for 6,036.8 hours for their work in the underlying litigation. The district court opinion provides a lengthy and detailed explanation for its finding reasonable all of the hours requested. Several important factors motivated the court. The court recognized that this case was one of the first of its kind in this country, thereby raising novel and complex legal and factual issues. Although the Supreme Court decided Estelle v. Gamble, 429 U.S. 97, 97 S.Ct. 285, 50 L.Ed.2d 251 (1976) three years into the Lightfoot I litigation, the district court noted the difficulty in taking an abstract and untried legal standard and molding it to fit the facts of a particular case. Moreover, the court noted that the plaintiffs were faced with massive discovery which was difficult not only because they were forced to prove their case through the mouths of the defendants' medical staff, but because they necessarily had to gain the medical expertise to understand systematic deficiencies. To add to an already difficult and lengthy task, the state strenuously fought the plaintiffs every step of the way, causing the court to remark that this was one of the most bitterly fought battles ever before it. 619 F.Supp. at 1488. The court found no duplication of effort and the number of hours petitioned for conservative. The court therefore approved as reasonable the attorneys' request for 6,036.8 hours. 17 The state argues that the district court's adoption of the exact number of hours claimed clearly shows that the court performed no independent analysis. Although the state does not dispute that the plaintiffs' attorneys actually worked over 6,000 hours, it asserts that the number of hours actually worked rarely equals the number of hours reasonably expended, citing Ohio-Sealy Mattress Manufacturing Co. v. Sealy, Inc., 776 F.2d 646 (7th Cir.1985). For example, the state argues that the admittedly massive discovery was unreasonable in light of the medical panel's first report and the coinciding Estelle decision. For a more reasonable figure, the state asserts, the court should have looked to Palmigiano, 466 F.Supp. 732, and limited the number of hours to 1,220 as in that case. 18 Initially, we reject the state's assertion that the attorneys here should be paid for only 1,220 hours of their work simply because attorneys in Palmigiano, an unrelated prisoners' rights case, worked only 1,220 hours. To the contrary, the Supreme Court instructs that, [t]he amount of the fee awarded turns on the facts of each case. Hensley, 461 U.S. at 429, 103 S.Ct. at 1937. See Hibma v. Odegaard, 769 F.2d 1147, 1157 (7th Cir.1985). While it is proper to consider the number of hours found reasonable in a similar but unrelated case, merely adopting that number as reasonable in a pending case would almost certainly constitute an abuse of discretion. That is of no concern here, however, since the court in its determination properly considered the hours ordinarily necessary competently to prepare comparable cases, Bonner v. Coughlin, 657 F.2d 931, 934 (7th Cir.1981); Lightfoot II, 619 F.Supp. at 1487 (quoting Bonner ), in addition to relying upon its own observations of the attorneys in action, its own experience with complex civil rights litigation, the attorneys' testimony and work-product, and the testimony of the plaintiffs' expert in prisoners' civil rights litigation. 19 In Marek v. Chesney, the Supreme Court held that a prevailing plaintiff for purposes of Sec. 1988 is not entitled to any attorney's fees incurred after a valid Fed.R.Civ.P. 68 settlement offer has been made. 5 The district court construed the state's argument regarding the plaintiffs' refusal to settle as one under Marek, and found that, since no adequate Rule 68 offer had been made, Marek did not apply. The state asserts in this court that it never made a Rule 68 argument; that the district court misconstrued its argument below. Appellant's Reply Brief at 5. But see Argument of Patricia Chapin, Report of Proceedings at 39 (July 26, 1985) (Marek is significant not only for the Rule 68 provisions upon which this defendant relies.... It specifically says if there is a settlement offer on the table as there was in this particular case, a Rule 68 offer, that affects the assessment of the results achieved.). Regardless, what the state's argument boils down to is that counsel should not be paid for the majority of the hours expended after the plaintiffs' allegedly unreasonable refusal to settle. The state asserts that the Supreme Court's decision in Estelle, combined with the first medical panel report, should have ended this litigation. We agree. That the litigation continued was not the fault of plaintiffs, however, for bringing the litigation to an end required the state to offer an adequate and comprehensive plan for remedying unconstitutional prison conditions overall. This was never done by the state. Instead, the district court, with the assistance of extensive post-trial briefs, tackled the job. Hence the district court properly rejected the state's argument that the plaintiffs' refusal to settle was unreasonable. To the contrary, the court found, and we agree, that the relief ultimately obtained was far more favorable than any offer of settlement. 6 Lightfoot II, 619 F.Supp. at 1485. 20 Even if the plaintiffs' reasonably refused to settle, the state asserts, it was not reasonable for them to spend over 6,000 hours litigating this case. The state relies on Ohio-Sealy Mattress Manufacturing Co. v. Sealy, Inc., to support its argument that the number of hours actually worked does not generally equal the number reasonably expended. In Ohio-Sealy, we stated that the court must disallow hours devoted to unrelated, unsuccessful claims[,] hours which the attorneys would not bill to their clients.... [and] hours for which the plaintiff provides inadequate documentation. 776 F.2d at 651. 21 The district court carefully reviewed the attorneys' time sheets and considered their testimony regarding the division of tasks. Grossman petitioned for 3,070.5 hours for the underlying litigation, while Flynn petitioned for 2,966.3. The court found these time expenditures well-documented and, where necessary, conservatively reconstructed. 7 At the fee hearing, Grossman testified that he had handled discovery for issues relating to psychiatric care, medical care, physician coverage, and intake screening, while Flynn's discovery work covered environmental health care and ancillary health personnel. He further testified that both attorneys did not attend every deposition and that they hired law students to do much of the non-lawyer work (for which they did not seek fees). In addition, Alvin Bronstein, a national expert in prison and civil rights litigation, testified on behalf of the plaintiffs that 6,036.8 hours was reasonable considering the difficulty in representing prisoners and the complexity of the issues in this type of case. Although the state tried to compare Lightfoot I with Palmigiano, Bronstein opined that the vast differences between the two cases made such a comparison impossible. Finally, when the state's own expert, John Bauman, testified as to the dollar value of Lightfoot I, he based his estimate upon the same number of hours claimed by counsel, albeit at lower than the requested hourly rates. After considering all of this evidence, as well as relying on its own observations of the litigation, the court found the number of hours claimed reasonable. Under the circumstances, we will not second-guess the court's judgment. 22 Nonetheless, the state asserts that no client would pay for the 829.50 hours counsel claim they spent in preparing the massive post-trial brief. It is true that at first glance the hours billed towards the post-trial brief appear lengthy. It is the district court which benefited from the preparation of this document, however, and we therefore defer to that court's judgment as to whether the time was well-spent. It was one thing to prove to the court that the prison's medical system was grossly deficient; it was quite another to guide the court in devising a plan for totally revamp[ing that system] to such an extent that it now serves as a model for prison health care. Lightfoot II, 619 F.Supp. at 1489. Had the state been required to develop an adequate plan of its own for overhauling the entire system at Menard, it is not implausible to suggest that it would have cost the state at least as much as the plaintiffs' post-trial brief. We therefore cannot disagree with the district court that the hours spent preparing the brief were reasonable. 23 Finally, the state argues that counsels' vague description of time spent on the post-trial brief is insufficient to insure against double-billing. The district court found no duplication of effort, however, and we will not now penalize the attorneys simply because their later time-keeping may have lacked the extreme detail of their earlier records. As the Supreme Court has noted, an attorney is not required to record in great detail how each minute of his time is expended[, as long as] ... counsel identif[ies] the general subject matter of his time expenditures. Hensley, 461 U.S. at 436-37 n. 12, 103 S.Ct. at 1941 n. 12. The attorneys have done so here. We agree with the district court that the attorneys' time has not been inappropriately allocated to one task over another. All work appears necessary and proper and is properly charged to the state under Sec. 1988.