Opinion ID: 778428
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 4

Heading: Expert witness fees and costs

Text: 22 Flagstar claims that the district court abused its discretion in failing to apportion a percentage of the requested expert witness fees and costs to the losing plaintiffs. In particular, Flagstar maintains that the court should not have granted $50,514.35 in expert witness fees for Martin Wing because his testimony pertained not only to the two successful sets of plaintiffs, but also to the three sets of plaintiffs whose claims were rejected by the jury. This same argument is put forth by Flagstar to challenge the $12,104.53 that the district court awarded in costs. Flagstar also contests $600 of the $1,350 in expert witness fees awarded for George Galster on the basis that he did not testify. Because it concedes that the district court's award of $23,569.12 in expert witness fees for Calvin Bradford did not include costs associated with his testimony for the sets of plaintiffs whose claims were unsuccessful, Flagstar does not challenge this component of the award. 23 Section 1988(c) provides that [i]n awarding an attorney's fee under subsection (b) of this section in any action or proceeding to enforce a provision of section 1981 or 1981a of this title, the court, in its discretion, may include expert fees as part of the attorney's fee. 42 U.S.C. § 1988(c). As noted above, we will not disturb a district court's determination regarding the award of attorney fees and costs unless the court has abused its discretion. Perotti v. Seiter, 935 F.2d 761, 763 (6th Cir.1991). 24 The district court stated that the expert witness fees for Wing should not be reduced because his testimony was directed not to the specific defenses relating to particular plaintiffs but rather to the discriminatory nature of [Flagstar's] lending policies and substantially contributed to the success of the Edwards[es] and the Paschals at trial. In reaching this conclusion, the district court noted that the Supreme Court has held that where the facts or legal theories of different parties are interrelated, a district court does not have to apportion expenses mechanically on the basis of their success or failure. Hensley, 461 U.S. at 438, 103 S.Ct. 1933. The district court also granted the plaintiffs all of the costs they requested because there is no basis for the Court [to find] that these costs should be apportioned between the [successful plaintiffs] and the unsuccessful plaintiffs at trial. Indeed, it appears that even if only the [successful plaintiffs] proceeded to trial, these costs would still have been incurred. As to Galster, the district court did not state its reasons for granting $1,350 for his expert witness fee, which consisted of $750 for Galster's deposition and $600 for his potential appearance at trial. 25 We first turn to Flagstar's challenge to the fees regarding Wing. Unlike the evidence presented by Bradford, none of Wing's testimony applied to specific plaintiffs. Instead, it focused on Flagstar's general lending practices. A review of the trial record and the billing invoices that Wing submitted confirm the general applicability of his testimony. Also, contrary to Flagstar's claim, $50,514.35 for Wing's service as an expert witness in this complicated case is neither patently unreasonable nor disproportionate to the damages awarded. We therefore conclude that the district court did not abuse its discretion in granting the successful plaintiffs $50,514.35 in witness fees for Wing. 26 The $12,104.53 in costs were also not apportionable between the five sets of plaintiffs. Although the plaintiffs filed documentation in support of their request for costs and included detailed entries in their fee petition for each cost, Flagstar has not contested any specific entry. After reviewing the fee petition and the supporting documentation, we find no reason to question the district court's conclusion that these costs were related to the efforts of the successful plaintiffs. We therefore conclude that the district court did not abuse its discretion in granting the successful plaintiffs $12,104.53 in costs. 27 Finally, Flagstar contends that the district court abused its discretion in granting the $600 portion of George Galster's expert witness fee that was billed for his potential appearance at trial, even though he was not called to testify. Because the district court did not think that Flagstar was contesting the plaintiffs' request for Galster's fee, the court did not fully discuss its reasons for granting the request. The district court did, however, point out that the plaintiffs intended to call Galster as a witness, but that [t]he need for his testimony was obviated by the ruling that defendant's expert could not testify. 28 We have not been able to find any Sixth Circuit case that directly addresses whether fees for nontestimonial expert services are compensable under 1988(c). The First and Fifth Circuits, however, have granted a request for expert witness fees in similar situations. Piester v. IBM, Corp., 1998 WL 1267929, at  (1st Cir. May 14, 1998) (unpublished table decision) (holding that the district court did not abuse its discretion in granting attorney fees where the record fully supports a finding that the party reasonably expected to call the expert as a witness); Nissho-Iwai Co., Ltd. v. Occidental Crude Sales, Inc., 729 F.2d 1530, 1553 (5th Cir.1984) (Although courts do not ordinarily allow fees for witnesses who have not testified at trial, a court may award such a fee if the witness was ready to testify but extrinsic circumstances rendered his testimony unnecessary.). Because Galster was hired to be an expert witness, and he would have testified if the district court had not excluded the testimony of Flagstar's expert witness at the tail end of the trial, we conclude that the district court acted within its discretion in granting the successful plaintiffs the expert witness fees for Galster. 29 Perhaps none of these expert witness fees and miscellaneous costs will be affected by the fact that we have reversed the judgment in favor of the Paschals. This is an issue, however, that the district court may consider upon remand if an appropriate objection is made by Flagstar.