Opinion ID: 588801
Heading Depth: 4
Heading Rank: 5

Heading: Challenges to Particular Time-sheet Entries

Text: 74 Appellants contend that the fee award, contrary to the district court's own criteria, includes compensation for services not devoted to the summary judgment litigation, the interlocutory appeal, or the procedural due process claim. Appellants contest the allowance of compensation based on certain mixed entries which appear to combine hours devoted to compensable and noncompensable services. 75 Our concerns about ambiguous time-sheet entries are well recognized. See, e.g., Furtado v. Bishop, 635 F.2d 915, 922 (1st Cir.1980) (disallowing compensation for Conf[erence] G. Sousa and travel, since the entry did not indicate the time spent in conference and we are disinclined to compensate an attorney at professional rates for travel time....). Accordingly, we have culled out, for disallowance on these grounds, various mixed entries to which appellants have called our attention, totaling $3,502.60. 44 In other respects, we find that the district court's handling of various mixed time entries was well within its broad discretion. Metropolitan Dist. Comm'n, 847 F.2d at 17 (separation of wheat from chaff, within broad limits, is within the discretion of the district court). 76 Appellants challenge an apparent allowance of compensation based on at least three entries for research relating to interlocutory appellate review. As the defendant state officials unquestionably were entitled to an interlocutory appeal from the denial of their motion for partial summary judgment on qualified immunity grounds, appellants insist that no interlocutory appeal research was necessary. We remind appellants that there were two other appellate claims which they had no right to present on interlocutory appeal. See Domegan v. Fair, 859 F.2d 1059, 1061-62 (1st Cir.1988) (no interlocutory appeal permitted on two of appellants' three claims). We have been given no reason to believe that the services rendered in connection with these three entries were unnecessary. 45 77