Opinion ID: 759223
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: gierlinger's challenges to the posttrial order

Text: 77 On her appeal, Gierlinger principally challenges so much of the Posttrial Order as denied her motion for prejudgment interest and denied in part her request for attorneys' fees pursuant to 42 U.S.C. § 1988. Her challenges to the denial of prejudgment interest and to certain of the fee rulings have merit.
78 In a suit to enforce a federal right, the question of whether or not to award prejudgment interest is ordinarily left to the discretion of the district court, see, e.g., Endico Potatoes, Inc. v. CIT Group/Factoring, Inc., 67 F.3d 1063, 1071-72 (2d Cir.1995), which is to take into consideration (i) the need to fully compensate the wronged party for actual damages suffered, (ii) considerations of fairness and the relative equities of the award, (iii) the remedial purpose of the statute involved, and/or (iv) such other general principles as are deemed relevant by the court, Securities & Exchange Commission v. First Jersey Securities, Inc., 101 F.3d 1450, 1476 (2d Cir.1996) (internal quotation marks omitted), cert. denied, --- U.S. ----, 118 S.Ct. 57, 139 L.Ed.2d 21 (1997); see, e.g., Wickham Contracting Co. v. Local Union No. 3, 955 F.2d 831, 833-34 (2d Cir.1992), cert. denied, 506 U.S. 946, 113 S.Ct. 394, 121 L.Ed.2d 302 (1992). 79 To the extent, however, that the damages awarded to the plaintiff represent compensation for lost wages, it is ordinarily an abuse of discretion not to include pre-judgment interest. Saulpaugh v. Monroe Community Hospital, 4 F.3d 134, 145 (2d Cir.1993) (emphasis in original, internal quotation marks omitted) (backpay award under Title VII), cert. denied, 510 U.S. 1164, 114 S.Ct. 1189, 127 L.Ed.2d 539 (1994); see also Sands v. Runyon, 28 F.3d 1323, 1327 (2d Cir.1994) (same under Rehabilitation Act, 29 U.S.C. § 701 et seq.); Equal Employment Opportunity Commission v. County of Erie, 751 F.2d 79, 81 (2d Cir.1984) (same under Equal Pay Act, 29 U.S.C. § 206(d)); Donovan v. Sovereign Security, Ltd., 726 F.2d 55, 58 (2d Cir.1984) (same under Fair Labor Standards Act, 29 U.S.C. § 201 et seq.). Awarding prejudgment interest in such cases prevents the defendant employer from attempting to enjoy an interest-free loan for as long as it can delay paying out back wages, Saulpaugh v. Monroe Community Hospital, 4 F.3d at 145 (internal quotation marks omitted), and helps to ensure that the plaintiff is meaningfully made whole, see, e.g., Loeffler v. Frank, 486 U.S. 549, 558, 108 S.Ct. 1965, 100 L.Ed.2d 549 (1988) (Prejudgment interest, of course, is an element of complete compensation. (internal quotation marks omitted)). These principles apply with equal force to awards of backpay in cases brought under § 1983. See Miner v. City of Glens Falls, 999 F.2d 655, 662 (2d Cir.1993) (upholding prejudgment interest award in § 1983 case); see also Equal Employment Opportunity Commission v. County of Erie, 751 F.2d at 81 (the express statutory provision for the award of prejudgment interest is unnecessary). 80 In the present case, the district court denied Gierlinger's motion for prejudgment interest on the jury's $117,739 damages award, stating two grounds: (1) that the jury's award itself included such interest, and (2) that Gierlinger had failed to mitigate her damages. With respect to the former, the court stated that 81 [i]nasmuch as the jury awarded monetary damages to compensate for all financial damages (Court Exh 1 [the special verdict form] ) (emphasis supplied) suffered in connection with any loss of past and/or future income and it had been instructed on the concept of present valuation--albeit in the context of future damages--, this Court presumes that the jury included in its damage deliberations and calculations an amount of prejudgment interest deemed by it to be appropriate on the portion of the award representing past lost wages--i.e., that it had fixed in mind that the plaintiff was to be fully compensated now for what she should have received earlier. 82 Posttrial Order at 7-8. With respect to its second reason, the court stated that the evidence at trial established that Gierlinger has had the opportunity and ability to mitigate her economic damages through other employment, that the jury award thus fully compensate[d] her for any actual damages she has suffered. Id. at 8. The court concluded that an award of prejudgment interest would be an unjustified windfall. Id. In the circumstances of this case, neither ground was appropriate. 83 The court's presumption that the jury's award included prejudgment interest finds no support in the record. The special verdict form merely asked the jury to determine the extent, if any, of Gierlinger's financial damages for loss of past and future income. The natural reading of this language does not require the jury to engage in complicated computations of interest, but merely asks it to find the amount of the income that Gierlinger lost as a result of her termination. In the absence of specific instructions, neither the word financial nor the word damages meaningfully alters that natural reading. Cf. Bank of New York v. Amoco Oil Co., 35 F.3d 643, 662 (2d Cir.1994) (under the reasonable expectations of the ordinary businessperson, use of the word 'damages' [in a settlement agreement] was not intended to include prejudgment interest). 84 Further, the concept of prejudgment interest was at no point mentioned to the jury. Although instructed that it would be required to reduce to present value any amounts that it found Gleason's conduct would cause Gierlinger to lose in the future, the jury was not instructed that its duties included the calculation of interest on wages lost in the past. 85 Nor, given the trial evidence as to Gierlinger's loss of back wages, is the size of the award so great as to suggest that the jury on its own sought to award interest on lost past wages. Gierlinger testified that her starting salary as a probationary trooper was approximately $19,000 per year and that, in the eight years between her termination and the third trial, she had worked for approximately five years, earning $6,000-$9,000 annually. The $117,739 awarded by the jury (which is approximately one-third the size of the $340,000 loss calculated by the first jury in 1992) corresponds roughly to the difference between the lost NYSP salary--at the starting level--for the past eight years and the amount Gierlinger had earned instead. We conclude that the district court erred in presum[ing] that the jury included prejudgment interest in its damage award. 86 Nor was the court entitled to deny prejudgment interest on the basis of its own view that Gierlinger had not sufficiently mitigated her damages, for a denial on the basis of that view invaded the province of the jury. The jury was expressly instructed that Gierlinger had an obligation to take steps to mitigate her damages and that a failure to mitigate should reduce the size of her award. (See Third Trial Tr. Instructions at 16 (She has to have shown to you that she has done everything she could to what we call mitigate, to lessen the effect of those damages.)). Since there is no indication to the contrary, [i]t must be assumed that the jury followed instructions, Trademark Research Corp. v. Maxwell Online, Inc., 995 F.2d 326, 340 (2d Cir.1993), and that the jury's award reflected a reduction for such failure to mitigate as the jury found. The court was not entitled to deny prejudgment interest on the basis that the jury did not adequately take the mitigation factor into account. 87 We thus conclude that neither of the grounds relied on by the district court in denying prejudgment interest was tenable, and that the denial was an abuse of discretion. We therefore remand for the calculation and award of such interest. 88 We note that an award of prejudgment interest is not appropriate with respect to an award of damages for future losses, see, e.g., Scarfo v. Cabletron Systems, Inc., 54 F.3d 931, 961 (1st Cir.1995); Boyle v. Pool Offshore Co., 893 F.2d 713, 719 (5th Cir.1990), and if there were a reasonable basis for inferring that part of the jury's award sought to compensate for future losses, we would have the district court determine what portion of the award should be attributed to each category of loss, see Fed.R.Civ.P. 49(a) (essential question which was not included on special verdict form, and whose inclusion was not requested by the parties, should be answered by the court). In the present case, however, we think it clear from the record that the jury's award represented damages only for lost past, not future, income. In the charging conference discussion among the parties and the court as to what the jury was to be told with respect to how to discount an award of damages for lost future income, Gleason suggested that the court simply ... tell the[ jury] if they get to that point to come back and ask for additional instructions as to such factors as life expectancy. (Third Trial Tr. Charging Conf. at 34.) The court adopted that suggestion; and, after telling the jury of the need to discount and describing only generally how such a calculation is performed, the court said if you get into that situation I will provide you with percentage rates and even give you a computer if you need it. (Third Trial Tr. Instructions at 16). We have seen no indication in the record that the jury (which did request supplemental instructions on liability) ever returned to the court for further instruction on the discounting of damages for future losses. 89 Our inference that the jury did not return for such instructions--and that it gave no other indication that it meant to award damages for future losses--is further supported by the litigation posture of Gleason. In his brief on appeal, he in no way suggests that the jury ever sought such instructions. And in the district court, when Gierlinger moved for prejudgment interest, Gleason did not oppose. 90 We therefore remand for amendment of the judgment to include an award of prejudgment interest to Gierlinger on the entire $117,739 verdict.
91 Gierlinger requested attorneys' fees at the rate of $200 per hour for 39 hours spent by her original attorney Pamela H. Thibodeau in preparing the complaint and the first amended complaint and in opposing defendants' motion to dismiss; and $235 per hour for 873.6 hours spent on her case in the six years thereafter by her second attorney Willard M. Pottle, Jr., including pretrial discovery, motion practice, the first, second, and third trials, and the appeal following the first trial. The district court granted the request in part; but it refused to award any fees with respect to the appeal following the first trial, preparation for the second trial, and motions that were not made; and it denied in part the fees requested for the second trial and for motion practice and trial preparation time between the second and third trials. The court also denied any fees for services performed by Thibodeau. As to the fees awarded for Pottle's services, the court allowed a rate of $195 an hour. Gierlinger challenges each of the denials. 92 The calculation of the reasonable fee to be awarded to a prevailing § 1983 claimant pursuant to 42 U.S.C. § 1988 is to be based principally on a lodestar figure, which is arrived at by multiplying the number of hours reasonably expended on the litigation ... by a reasonable hourly rate. Hensley v. Eckerhart, 461 U.S. 424, 433, 103 S.Ct. 1933, 76 L.Ed.2d 40 (1983); see, e.g., LeBlanc-Sternberg v. Fletcher, 143 F.3d 748, 763-64 (2d Cir.1998); Cruz v. Local Union Number 3 of the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers, 34 F.3d 1148, 1159 (2d Cir.1994). The district court must thus 93 examine the hours expended by counsel and the value of the work product of the particular expenditures to the client's case. Efforts put into research, briefing and the preparation of a case can expand to fill the time available, and some judgment must be made in the awarding of fees as to diminishing returns from such further efforts.... In making this examination, the district court does not play the role of an uninformed arbiter but may look to its own familiarity with the case and its experience generally as well as to the evidentiary submissions and arguments of the parties. 94 DiFilippo v. Morizio, 759 F.2d 231, 235-36 (2d Cir.1985); see, e.g., Luciano v. Olsten Corp., 109 F.3d 111, 116 (2d Cir.1997); Clarke v. Frank, 960 F.2d 1146, 1153 (2d Cir.1992). If the court determines that certain claimed hours are excessive, redundant, or otherwise unnecessary, Hensley v. Eckerhart, 461 U.S. at 434, 103 S.Ct. 1933, the court should exclude those hours in its calculation of the lodestar. 95 In light of the district court's familiarity with the case, its award of attorneys' fees is reviewed only for abuse of discretion. See, e.g., In re Bolar Pharmaceutical Co. Securities Litigation, 966 F.2d 731, 732 (2d Cir.1992) (per curiam). However, reviewable for  'abuse of discretion' is not the equivalent of 'unreviewable,'  id., and it is important that we be informed by the record of why the district court acted as it did, id.; see Orchano v. Advanced Recovery, Inc., 107 F.3d 94, 99 (2d Cir.1997). Thus, when the court concludes that certain hours are not deserving of compensation, it must ordinarily state its reasons for excluding those hours as specifically as possible in order to permit meaningful appellate review. LeBlanc-Sternberg v. Fletcher, 143 F.3d at 764 (internal quotation marks omitted); Orchano v. Advanced Recovery, Inc., 107 F.3d at 99. 96 With these principles in mind, we reject Gierlinger's challenges to the denial of fees for work in connection with motions and applications that were not made; but we find merit in most of her other challenges, principally because the court abused its discretion in denying compensation for certain categories of work, and because the court failed to provide explanations for other exclusions.
97 The district court denied Gierlinger all fees for services performed by Thibodeau, her first attorney, stating only that the request for fees founded upon hours expended by Thibodeau represents a request for redundant, unnecessary, and unavailing work. Posttrial Order at 13. No explanation was provided by the district court, and we are forced to speculate in our attempt to reconcile this assessment with the record, for Thibodeau's work is clearly reflected in Gierlinger's second amended complaint, which provided the framework for the litigation. 98 Thibodeau drafted both the original complaint and the first amended complaint. As described in Part I.C. above, when the individual defendants contended that the first amended complaint did not sufficiently describe the conduct attributed to each individual, the district court agreed and granted Gierlinger leave to file a second amended complaint. The second amended complaint was filed by Pottle, Thibodeau having recently left the private practice of law. It is clear, however, that most of the work reflected in the second amended complaint was the work of Thibodeau, not Pottle. Both the first and second amended complaints were 32-paragraph pleadings stating five claims for relief, including one claim under Title VII, one under § 1983, and three under state law. The principal difference was that in p 4, which in both pleadings identified the defendants, the second amended complaint summarized the conduct attributed to each individual defendant. An additional difference was that three of the five ad damnum paragraphs of the first amended complaint were revised in the second to omit the phrase punitive damages in the amount of $500,000. In all other respects, the second amended complaint was virtually verbatim the same as the first amended complaint. (Indeed, so similar are the two pleadings that the parties included only the first amended complaint in their joint appendix on this appeal, and they called it, in the table of contents, the second.) 99 Further, for his services from the time of his entry into the case through the filing of the second amended complaint, Pottle billed only 12.3 hours, in which he apparently, inter alia, conferred with his client, familiarized himself with the case, and drafted particularized descriptions of the conduct attributed to each of the nine individual defendants. It hardly seems that he would have had time within those 12.3 hours to, in addition, redo the substantial drafting job already done by Thibodeau in the first amended complaint. We see no basis on which the court could reasonably find Thibodeau's work redundant. 100 It is hypothetically possible that the court viewed Thibodeau's work as unnecessary or unavailing because the first amended complaint asserted claims against defendants other than Gleason, and because as to those defendants Gierlinger did not succeed. However, this possibility seems inconsistent with the record, for a prevailing plaintiff should be compensated even for work done in connection with an unsuccessful claim if that claim was intertwined with the claim on which she succeeded, see, e.g., Hensley v. Eckerhart, 461 U.S. at 433-37, 103 S.Ct. 1933; LeBlanc-Sternberg v. Fletcher, 143 F.3d at 762; Reed v. A.W. Lawrence & Co., 95 F.3d 1170, 1183 (2d Cir.1996), and the district court found--no doubt on this basis--that all of the time spent by Pottle in pretrial discovery and preparation for the first trial (while many defendants other than Gleason remained in the case) was reasonable and necessary. 101 In short, we see no basis on which the time spent by Thibodeau in drafting the initial complaints and in pursuit of the case thereafter--at least prior to the defense motions to dismiss--could reasonably have been deemed duplicative, unreasonable, or unnecessary. 102 It is also possible that some of the time spent by Thibodeau in defending the first amended complaint against defendants' motions to dismiss--for example, NYSP's motion to dismiss the § 1983 claim--may properly be viewed as unreasonable. See, e.g., Will v. Michigan Department of State Police, 491 U.S. 58, 64, 71, 109 S.Ct. 2304, 105 L.Ed.2d 45 (1989) (neither a state agency nor a state official sued in his official capacity is a person within the meaning of § 1983) (decided six days after this suit was commenced). However, the opposition to defendants' motions consumed only 13.8 of Thibodeau's total 39 hours, and it is unclear how much of even those 13.8 hours were devoted to work that was not reasonably necessary. 103 We conclude that the denial of fees for Thibodeau's work should be vacated, and we remand for an award of fees for at least 25.2 hours of her services. Gierlinger is free on remand to submit more informative evidence as to the nature of Thibodeau's services for the remaining 13.8 hours.
104 Gierlinger sought fees for 66.3 hours spent by Pottle in preparing for the second trial, plus 103.1 hours in conducting that trial for two weeks prior to the district court's sua sponte declaration of a mistrial. The court denied fees for all of the preparation time, stating that [i]n light of the plaintiff's attorney's familiarity with the case, such are redundant and excessive. Posttrial Order at 11 n. 4. It denied all but 70 hours of the trial time, stating as follows: 105 Recognizing ... that the lack of a fee award for such time spent reduces the effective compensation rate for all the time expended on the case and acknowledging that the undersigned should have more tightly controlled the reins guiding the conduct of himself and the attorneys, but also noting that the plaintiff's attorney is not blameless for this mistrial, this Court finds that compensation for 70 hours of work for such period of time is reasonable. 106 Id. at 11-12 (footnote omitted) (emphasis added). We are troubled by both rulings. 107 First, we cannot agree that it was appropriate to award no fees for trial preparation time. Despite there having been a prior trial of the case, no competent attorney would embark on a retrial without some preparation. This is especially true when there has been a lengthy interval between the two trials. Here, the first trial had concluded more than two years before the second trial began. Further, the second trial was not to have precisely the same scope as the first, for at the first trial there were nine defendants, whereas at the second there was one. While this undoubtedly simplified the issues somewhat, the elimination of eight out of nine defendants could not have simplified the case proportionately, for some of the eliminated defendants were alleged to have engaged in conduct that was set in motion by Gleason. In any event, the differences would doubtless have required some organizational effort with respect to the presentation of Gierlinger's case against Gleason. 108 We conclude that it was unquestionably reasonable for Pottle, after the two-year hiatus, to, inter alia, review the three-week transcript of the first trial, review files to refresh his recollection, organize his proposed exhibits, and prepare his witnesses. In sum, at least a significant portion of the time claimed was reasonably necessary. 109 Second, we cannot agree that it was appropriate to compensate Pottle for less than all of the time reasonably spent conducting the second trial, for the record belies the district court's rationale that Pottle bore significant responsibility for the mistrial. When the court sua sponte declared the mistrial, it initially stated that the reason was that Gierlinger was interviewed by a reporter ... with Mr. Pottle immediately present, and that resulted in a story [about the trial] in the next day's papers. (Transcript of Second Trial (Second Trial Tr.), July 28, 1994, at 40.) However, when Pottle strenuously denied having any involvement in the publicity, the court stated that it would not have to prove Pottle's involvement because the publicity was not the real reason for the mistrial. Thus, after reading the article into the record, the court stated that the publicity 110 in and of itself wouldn't justify declaring a mistrial except I noted particularly and would be prepared to prove it if necessary, except it won't be, the involvement of you, Mr. Pottle, in that. 111 But basically and beyond that and for a second reason, I think the trial has gotten completely out of hand. I blame myself to a high degree for that. We've had strong colloquys going on from time to time throughout the trial and in the presence of the jury, and the matter is out of hand, so I'm declaring a mistrial. 112 (Second Trial Tr. at 43 (emphasis added).) The court stated that the major reason for the mistrial was that I strongly feel that the case has gotten out of control and ought to be re-started, and I take a share of the blame in that myself. (Id. at 48.) The judge again attributed the mistrial to the colloquys at trial as it informed the second jury that he had ended the trial because the matter has gotten out of hand, that we have had so much argument, condemnation of Mr. Pottle from myself as the trial has gone on ... that that has ... poisoned the well.... (Second Trial Tr. at 52.) And at the third trial, the court explained to the new jury: 113 I considered that I had acted in an erroneous fashion during the trial, parading a lot of legal arguments in front of the jury, [and] I decided that that trial ought to be stopped, aborted, and I did that.... 114 (Third Trial Tr. Aug. 28, 1996, at 2.) 115 In sum, although the court initially blamed Pottle for creating the need for a mistrial, it retreated from that position, stating expressly that the publicity, even if attributable to Pottle, wouldn't justify declaring a mistrial. (Second Trial Tr. at 43.) And at no point did the court identify any misconduct whatever by Pottle at the trial. This record is insufficient to warrant the partial denial of an award of attorneys fees for the second trial on the ground that Pottle should bear significant responsibility for the mistrial. 116 On remand, the district court should award fees for the number of hours reasonably spent by Pottle in connection with preparing for and conducting the second trial. 117
118 With respect to the nearly two-year period between the end of the second trial and the commencement of the third trial, Gierlinger sought fees for 206.1 hours of services by Pottle. Those services included making a motion to recuse Judge Elfvin, who had said, also sua sponte, that he would recuse himself but then took no action to do so; responding to and making in limine motions with respect to the evidence to be presented at the third trial; responding to a motion to dismiss the Title VII claims in light of this Court's May 1995 decision in Tomka v. Seiler Corp., 66 F.3d 1295; and preparing for the third trial. The court allowed only 80 hours for this work, stating as follows: 119 For the period August 23, 1994 to August 11, 1996 Pottle seeks compensation for 206.1 hours spent preparing and arguing the plaintiff's motion for the undersigned's recusal, preparing the plaintiff's and responding to the defendant's pretrial motions and arguing such and otherwise preparing for trial. Such amount is excessive and repetitive and will be reduced to 80 hours. 120 Posttrial Order at 12 (footnotes omitted). It appears that the court did not disallow the time spent on the recusal motion, for the court stated that [s]uch motion had substantial support in the undersigned's own declaration, at the time he declared the mistrial, that he probably would recuse himself. Id. n. 5. 121 Gierlinger infers that, because the district court singled out the recusal motion in this way, the court must have disallowed all preparation for trial and addressing pretrial motions. (Gierlinger brief on appeal at 11.) We reject this interpretation, since the court allowed fees for 80 hours, whereas Pottle's time records show only 3.9 hours devoted to the recusal motion. We think it likely that the court disallowed all time spent in preparation for the third trial, since it had expressly refused to allow fees for preparation for the second trial. Disallowance of reasonable trial preparation time with respect to the third trial was an abuse of discretion for reasons similar to those stated in Part III.B.2. above. The interval between the second and third trial was nearly two years. Some trial preparation time was necessary. It is not possible, however, to know which other services the court found reasonable and which it found unreasonable, for, except for the statement quoted above, the court provided no explanation. We therefore remand to the district court for the award of a reasonable fee for time spent preparing for the third trial, and for an explanation as to any other time the court viewed as excessive and repetitive. 122
123 Gierlinger also sought fees for approximately 31 hours in 1996 that Pottle spent preparing the present fee application, plus 11.4 hours he spent in 1992 preparing a fee application following the jury's verdict against Gleason at the first trial. The district court disallowed the 11.4 hours, stating only that such are duplicative of the time expended on the instant fee application and are, therefore unnecessary and unreasonable. Posttrial Order at 10. Gierlinger challenges this ruling, apparently arguing that the time spent on the fee application in 1996 focused only on the services provided from May 1993 to September 1996 and thus did not duplicate the 11.4 hours spent in 1992. 124 This explanation may be accurate. However, it was Gierlinger's burden to show the reasonableness of the fees she sought, and the time records submitted by Pottle in support of this aspect of Gierlinger's fee application did not indicate that the 1996 work on the fee application related only to the services performed since May 1993. Nor did Pottle's affidavit make any representation as to these services. Given the uninformative material submitted by Gierlinger as to the existence or extent of overlap, we cannot conclude that the district court abused its discretion in denying fees for the earlier 11.4 hours. 125 We also reject Gierlinger's challenges to the court's denial of compensation for some 35 hours spent preparing for motions that were never filed. Gierlinger's brief reveals no basis for reversal of these denials.
126 The district court denied Gierlinger's request for fees for 63.3 hours in connection with Gierlinger I, the appeal following the first trial, on the ground that she was not the prevailing party as to that appeal. We have several difficulties with this denial. 127 Parenthetically, we note that Gierlinger was not entirely unsuccessful in Gierlinger I, for Gleason had urged this Court in part to grant him judgment as a matter of law. We rejected that request, see Gierlinger I, 15 F.3d at 34 n. 1, and thus, Gierlinger prevailed in part on that appeal. 128 More importantly, a § 1983 plaintiff's eligibility for an award of fees under § 1988 does not depend on her success at interim stages of the litigation, but rather depends on the ultimate outcome of the litigation. See, e.g., Hanrahan v. Hampton, 446 U.S. 754, 758-59, 100 S.Ct. 1987, 64 L.Ed.2d 670 (1980) (per curiam) (reversing award of attorneys' fees to plaintiffs for success on appeal from a directed verdict against them, stating that if plaintiffs lost at their new trial it could not seriously be contended that [they] had prevailed). A plaintiff is a prevailing party in the litigation within the meaning of § 1988 if she has received actual relief on the merits of h[er] claim, Farrar v. Hobby, 506 U.S. 103, 111, 113 S.Ct. 566, 121 L.Ed.2d 494 (1992), and she should not necessarily be denied fees for hours expended on interim stages of the case in which a ruling was made in favor of the party against whom she ultimately prevailed. Cf. Reed v. A.W. Lawrence & Co., 95 F.3d 1170, 1183 (2d Cir.1996) (a prevailing party may even receive a fee award for time spent on an interlocking claim that was not ultimately successful). Since Gierlinger is the prevailing party in the litigation and the Gierlinger I appeal turned out to be only an intermediate stage, the proper inquiry is not whether Gierlinger's efforts on the appeal itself were successful, but rather whether, in light of the circumstances of the litigation as a whole, those efforts were reasonable. 129 The record reveals that Gierlinger's efforts to defend the first judgment were reasonable and that, indeed, it would be inequitable to deny her fees with respect to Gierlinger I because the problems that led to the partial reversal on that appeal were not attributable to Gierlinger. The errors at the first trial were (a) that the district court did not instruct the jury expressly that it could not find Gleason liable on the § 1983 claim on the basis of a respondeat superior theory, and (b) that the jury was asked to find, as to each defendant, simply whether there is liability, and was not asked to specify the theory on which it found any defendant liable. This Court concluded that a new trial of the claims against Gleason was required because it was 130 not possible to determine from the [jury] instructions whether the jury found Gleason liable on the theory of respondeat superior, which is not available on a § 1983 claim, or liable for his own performance as a commanding officer. 131 Gierlinger I, 15 F.3d at 34. We went on to note that the failure to give the necessary instructions with respect to respondeat superior liability would not necessarily have required a reversal if the special verdict form had simply required the jury to specify the basis for any finding of liability:[s]ince separate theories of liability with different standards of individual involvement were presented to [the] jury, it would have been better practice and aided appellate review had the trial court made use of special interrogatories on the liability issues. 132 Id. 133 If Gierlinger had proposed erroneous jury instructions, or if she had opposed correct instructions or an appropriate special verdict form, there would be a strong basis for denying her fees for some, if not all, of the hours her attorney expended on Gierlinger I. But the record shows just the opposite. In the charging conference at the first trial, when Gleason's attorney stated that under § 1983, no one is responsible simply by means of being in charge because [t]here's no respondeat superior liability (Transcript of First Trial, May 20, 1992, vol. 10, at 12), Gierlinger's attorney agreed (id. at 13). And when the court asked whether Gierlinger objected to the addition of a specific instruction that there could be no liability on a respondeat superior theory, her attorney answered in the negative: 134 THE COURT: ... [N]o hurt if the jury has that pointed out to them that if Gleason, for example, can't be held liable because of something [one of Gleason's subordinate officers] did or something like that? 135 . . . . . 136 MR. POTTLE: No, I have no problem with that because I think that's probably the basic charge, that it's directed at the individual. 137 THE COURT: Yeah, that's an add-on part of [sic ] you have no objection? 138 MR. POTTLE: No. 139 (Id. at 13.) 140 Further, Pottle pointed out that the court's proposed special verdict form was not particularized as to the possible doctrinal bases for liability and stated that it's possible that the[ jury] could have one verdict on ... one cause of action ... and another verdict on another cause of action. (Id. at 121-22.) The district court, however, rejected Gierlinger's suggestion that it amend the verdict form. (Id.) Had the court accepted her suggestion, it seems likely that the outcome in Gierlinger I would have been different, and the litigation would have ended in Gierlinger's favor at that point. 141 In sum, the fact that Gierlinger did not entirely succeed in the interim stage represented by Gierlinger I is not material because she is the prevailing party in the litigation. The fact that at the first trial the court did not give a sufficiently specific instruction on the unavailability of respondeat superior liability was not the fault of Gierlinger, whose attorney expressly stated that he had no objection to such an instruction. And the fact that the jury's verdict did not reveal the doctrinal basis for its finding of liability on the part of Gleason was not the fault of Gierlinger, whose suggestion for a sufficiently particularized verdict form had been rejected by the court. Given the goal of § 1988 to compensate a plaintiff for what it has reasonably cost to obtain vindication of her meritorious civil rights claim, we conclude that it was an abuse of discretion to deny Gierlinger attorneys' fees with respect to services performed in connection with Gierlinger I. We recognize that the principal error that led to that reversal was also not the fault of Gleason, who proposed a specific charge on respondeat superior liability. But as between the prevailing party and the person the jury has found to be the wrongdoer, it is the latter who should properly bear the expenses reasonably incurred by the prevailing party. We leave it to the district court on remand to determine, in the first instance, how many of the hours claimed by Gierlinger for services in connection with Gierlinger I were reasonably expended. 142 Gierlinger also contends that the district court should have granted her request for an award of costs in connection with the appeal in Gierlinger I. We disagree. After we issued our decision in favor of Gleason, he filed in this Court his bill of costs in the amount of $2,938.48, and Gierlinger did not file any opposition. Nor did she move either to deny costs or to delay any determination of whether the appellate costs should be taxed against her, in order to hinge that determination on the outcome of the litigation. Accordingly, Gierlinger was taxed costs in the above amount, and that award was, pursuant to Fed. R.App. P. 39(d), included in this Court's mandate. The district court had no discretion to set aside this Court's award of costs to Gleason in connection with Gierlinger I.
143 The rates to be used in calculating the § 1988 lodestar are the market rates prevailing in the community for similar services by lawyers of reasonably comparable skill, experience, and reputation. Blum v. Stenson, 465 U.S. 886, 896 n. 11, 104 S.Ct. 1541, 79 L.Ed.2d 891 (1984); see, e.g., Kirsch v. Fleet Street, Ltd., 148 F.3d 149, 172 (2d Cir.1998); Luciano v. Olsten Corp., 109 F.3d 111, 115 (2d Cir.1997). Further, in order to provide adequate compensation where the services were performed many years before the award is made, the rates used by the court to calculate the lodestar should be current rather than historic hourly rates, Missouri v. Jenkins, 491 U.S. at 284, 109 S.Ct. 2463; see id. at 283, 109 S.Ct. 2463 (compensation received several years after the services were rendered ... is not equivalent to the same dollar amount received reasonably promptly as the legal services are performed, as would normally be the case with private billings); LeBlanc-Sternberg v. Fletcher, 143 F.3d at 764 (instructing district court on remand in seven-year litigation to apply current rates, rather than historical rates in order to compensate for the delay in payment). 144 The court is not necessarily required, however, to award attorneys' fees based on current hourly rates when the delay is due in whole or in substantial part to the fault of the party seeking fees. See, e.g., Sands v. Runyon, 28 F.3d at 1334; Saulpaugh v. Monroe Community Hospital, 4 F.3d at 146. Though it would be harsh to deny counsel some allowance for the time value of attorney's fees delayed by considerations of judicial administration, Sands v. Runyon, 28 F.3d at 1334, there is no inequity in requiring counsel to bear the cost of delay caused by him or by his client. 145 The district court here set a $195 hourly rate for Pottle's work--$40 per hour lower than the rate that Gierlinger had requested--based principally on the duration of this litigation and the historical rates earned throughout such time-span in this community by similarly experienced and respected attorneys in civil-rights, labor-law and employment-discrimination lawsuits. Posttrial Order at 13 (emphasis added). The court should instead have set the rate of compensation for Pottle's work by reference to current rates. We recognize that a portion of the delay in judgment in this case is attributable to Gierlinger, who requested a postponement of the third trial--originally scheduled for October 2, 1995--in order to participate in an unusually heavy harvest on her family farm. The court promptly adjourned the trial for 10 months. Even if that entire 10-month delay were attributable to Gierlinger (taking into account calendar congestion that might necessitate postponement of the trial until close to the following year's harvest season), the primary responsibility for the protracted nature of this litigation must be placed on the district court, which, as discussed in Parts III.B.2. and III.B.5. above, made unsolicited errors in the first trial that necessitated a second trial, and sua sponte declared a mistrial at the second trial, necessitating the third trial. On remand, the district court should base the rate component of the fee award on current market rates.