Opinion ID: 2638074
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 4

Heading: Attorney Fee Calculation

Text: ¶ 16 The WLAD entitles prevailing plaintiffs to reasonable attorneys' fees. RCW 49.60.030(2). To calculate a lodestar amount, a court multiplies the number of hours reasonably expended by the reasonable hourly rate. Bowers v. Transamerica Title Ins. Co., 100 Wash.2d 581, 597, 675 P.2d 193 (1983). The hours reasonably expended must be spent on claims having a common core of facts and related legal theories. Martinez v. City of Tacoma, 81 Wash.App. 228, 242-43, 914 P.2d 86 (1996). The court should discount hours spent on unsuccessful claims, duplicated or wasted effort, or otherwise unproductive time. Bowers, 100 Wash.2d at 597, 600, 675 P.2d 193. In order to reverse an attorney fee award, an appellate court must find the trial court manifestly abused its discretion. Boeing Co. v. Sierracin Corp., 108 Wash.2d 38, 65, 738 P.2d 665 (1987). That is, the trial court must have exercised its discretion on untenable grounds or for untenable reasons. State ex rel. Carroll v. Junker, 79 Wash.2d 12, 26, 482 P.2d 775 (1971). ¶ 17 In this case, the trial judge awarded Pham and Lara attorney fees in an amount approximately $50,000 less than they had requested. While the trial court found the attorneys' rates to be reasonable, he excluded from the lodestar calculation hours that he found were unnecessarily expended or not reasonably related to the plaintiffs' favorable resolution. Specifically, the trial judge declined to award fees for hours spent on an unsuccessful claim for injunctive relief, the propriety of which was in doubt after Initiative 200 (I-200) became law. The trial court also declined to award fees for hours spent working on the plaintiffs' unsuccessful cross-motion for summary judgment in the federal district court, the plaintiffs' motion on the merits at the Court of Appeals, their second amended complaint, which was never filed, and development of media contacts. The trial court excluded hours spent working on plaintiffs' appeals, their unsuccessful request for a fee multiplier, income tax offset issues, settlement discussions, and determination of the impact of a plaintiff's death on the judgment. After having declined to award fees for these hours, the trial court determined that the plaintiffs were entitled to $297,532.77 in attorney fees and $42,092.02 in costs. ¶ 18 The Court of Appeals concluded that the trial court erred when it declined to award fees for some of these activities, faulting the trial court for focusing on the short term failure of certain components of the litigation, rather than on the long term success of the litigation as a whole. Pham, 124 Wash.App. at 726, 103 P.3d 827. The court regarded the rejected hours as part of the common core of facts and related legal theories upon which the ultimately successful claim was based. Id. The court concluded that neither the findings of the court nor the record below indicate that the work of plaintiffs' attorneys was characterized to any substantial degree by duplication, wastefulness, churning, or other sins of mismanagement. Id. at 725-26, 103 P.3d 827. ¶ 19 However, in its findings of fact, the trial court did reason that the hours at issue were unproductive or that they were not sufficiently related to the successful claim, both relevant considerations under the Bowers test. The trial court questioned the propriety of seeking injunctive relief because this case was factually unique and the intervening passage of I-200 called the legality of injunctive relief into doubt. See Clerk's Papers (CP) at 650; see also Hensley v. Eckerhart, 461 U.S. 424, 440, 103 S.Ct. 1933, 76 L.Ed.2d 40 (1983) (noting that where a plaintiff achieved only limited success, the district court should award only that amount of fees that is reasonable in relation to the results obtained). The trial court concluded that the motion for summary judgment in federal court, motion on the merits at the Court of Appeals, motion to file a second amended complaint, which was never filed, and time spent on media contacts were not reasonably related to the favorable claims. Finally, the trial court concluded that time spent on additional matters was time unnecessarily expended. Because the trial court's reasoning relies on the notion that these hours were unnecessarily expended, unproductive, or not sufficiently related to the successful claim, considerations allowed under the Bowers test, Bowers, 100 Wash.2d at 597, 675 P.2d 193, the trial court considered proper factors and did not commit an error of law. Moreover, the trial court took care to reduce the fees only in proportion to the amount of time devoted to these specific tasks. See Martinez, 81 Wash.App. at 243, 914 P.2d 86. ¶ 20 In this case, the trial judge took care to enter 35 findings of fact justifying his reasonable fee calculation. This case involved a complex pretrial procedural history, involving both federal and state courts, an appeal to the Ninth Circuit, and an interlocutory appeal to the Court of Appeals. The case eventually culminated in a jury trial. In all cases, but especially in ones as complex as this one, it is the trial judge who has watched the case unfold and who is in the best position to determine which hours should be included in the lodestar calculation. See Hensley, 461 U.S. at 437, 103 S.Ct. 1933. That is why the law requires us to defer to the trial court's judgment on these issues. The issue before us is not whether we would have awarded a different amount, but whether the trial court abused its discretion. Pham and Lara have not shown that the trial court abused its discretion in calculating attorney fees in this case.