Opinion ID: 517427
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: fees of expert witnesses

Text: 63 In addition to counsel fees and other costs, the district court ordered appellant to reimburse Freeman to the tune of $7,756.25, representing the reasonable fees of his retained experts. 9 PMC argues that the award was contrary to the Supreme Court's decision in Crawford Fitting Co. v. J.T. Gibbons, Inc., 482 U.S. 437, 107 S.Ct. 2494, 96 L.Ed.2d 385 (1987). Because of the posture in which this appeal arises, we find it unnecessary to decide plaintiff's possible entitlement to such fees under federal law. The Commonwealth's statutory framework contains a sufficient answer to the question posed. 64
65 In federal jurisprudence, the shifting of litigatory expenses is generally governed by statute. See, e.g., 28 U.S.C. Sec. 1920 (costs taxable by court include [f]ees and disbursements for ... witnesses); 28 U.S.C. Sec. 1821 (Except as otherwise provided by law, a witness in attendance at any [federal] court ... shall be paid an attendance fee of $30 per day....). In Crawford Fitting Co. v. J.T. Gibbons, Inc., supra, the Supreme Court explained that section 1821 limits the amount of witness fees awardable, and section 1920 allows a court to tax such fees as costs only within those limits. 107 S.Ct. at 2497-98. In the absence of statutory or contractual authorization for more generous payments, federal courts are constrained by the $30-per-day cap when ordering one side to pay for the other's expert witnesses. Id. at 2499. 66 Crawford involved an award to prevailing defendants covering expenses reasonably incurred for experts, bestowed under the authority of Fed.R.Civ.P. 54(d). 10 The Court concluded that Rule 54(d) must be administered in conjunction with existing statutes; therefore, the rule does not provide a separate source of limitless discretion to tax expert witness fees as costs. Crawford, 107 S.Ct. at 2497-98. Our pre-Crawford precedent under Rule 54 hewed to much the same line. See Bosse v. Litton Unit Handling Systems, 646 F.2d 689, 695 (1st Cir.1981) (in diversity case, expert's fees above statutory amount cannot be taxed under authority of Rule 54); see also Templeman v. Chris Craft Corp., 770 F.2d 245, 249-50 (1st Cir.) (similar), cert. denied, 474 U.S. 1021, 106 S.Ct. 571, 88 L.Ed.2d 556 (1985). 67 Appellant asks that we treat this case as parading around the same old stamping ground and reduce the fees for plaintiff's experts drastically to conform with the section 1821 ceiling. The imprecation, however, is deceptively simplistic; in reality, PMC seeks not merely to enforce Crawford, but instead to elongate it beyond the contours of Rule 54, extending its holding to situations where express fee-shifting statutes apply. 11 The march is not an inevitable one; the Crawford majority clearly recognized that the $30 limit, 28 U.S.C. Sec. 1821, could be superseded by statutory or contractual authorization, if sufficiently explicit. 107 S.Ct. at 2499. See also IWA v. Champion International Corp., 790 F.2d 1174, 1179 n. 7 (5th Cir.1986) (listing twenty-eight federal statutes authorizing award of expert witness fees), aff'd sub nom. Crawford Fitting Co. v. J.T. Gibbons, Inc., 482 U.S. 437, 107 S.Ct. 2494, 96 L.Ed.2d 385 (1987); cf. United States v. Metropolitan Dist. Comm'n, 847 F.2d 12, 20 n. 10 (1st Cir.1988) (affirming award of expert witness fees under Federal Water Pollution Control Act, 33 U.S.C. Sec. 1365(d)). As three Justices pointed out in Crawford, the decision did not treat with awards to prevailing plaintiffs under the Fees Act, 42 U.S.C. Sec. 1988. See Crawford, 107 S.Ct. at 2499 (Blackmun, J., concurring); id. at 2500 n. 1 (Marshall and Brennan, JJ, dissenting). 68 The ADEA, 29 U.S.C. Sec. 626(b), expressly incorporates the fee-shifting mechanism of the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA), which provides that a court: 69 shall, in addition to any judgment awarded to the plaintiff or plaintiffs, allow a reasonable attorney's fee to be paid by the defendant, and costs of the action. 70 29 U.S.C. Sec. 216(b). Insofar as cost-shifting is concerned, laws such as 29 U.S.C. Sec. 626(b) and 42 U.S.C. Sec. 1988 seem sisters under the skin. Most notably, the ADEA's legislative history reveals that Congress viewed it as similar to earlier, more traditional enactments. See H.Rep. No. 805, 90th Cong., 1st Sess., reprinted in 1967 U.S.Code Cong. & Admin.News at 2213, 2214. We agree that, [a]lthough the Age Discrimination in Employment Act is not a civil rights act within the meaning of section 1988, age discrimination cases commonly cite section 1988 cases on fee questions. Heiar v. Crawford County, Wisconsin, 746 F.2d 1190, 1203 (7th Cir.1984); cf. Wildman v. Lerner Stores Corp., 771 F.2d 605, 609-14 (1st Cir.1985) (adopting section 1988 analysis anent counsel fees in ADEA case). Therefore, section 1988 jurisprudence seems pertinent in considering recoverability of expenses in ADEA cases. And, because a federal civil rights type of statute containing a separate cost-shifting provision is at issue in this case, Crawford, without some further extrapolation, would not be directly controlling. See, e.g., Sapanajin v. Gunter, 857 F.2d 463, 465 (8th Cir.1988) (award of experts' fees in civil rights case proper because not made as a taxation of costs pursuant to 28 U.S.C. Sec. 1821, but as an expense under 42 U.S.C. Sec. 1988 ... Crawford Fitting thus does not apply); but cf., e.g., Sevigny v. Dicksey, 846 F.2d 953, 959 (4th Cir.1988) (Sec. 1988 does not provide statutory authority for the awarding of compensation for non-legal experts). 71
72 We have no occasion today to consider extending Crawford to a situation involving a prevailing ADEA claimant. As indicated above, see supra Part II, Freeman brought--and recovered on--parallel federal and state claims. Despite the doubt which Crawford casts over the district court's ability to award expert witness fees in excess of the $30-per-day ceiling under federal law, the rule of the case does not constrain state law. The Court's decision in Crawford emanated from, and was grounded in, the express limits imposed on witness fees by a federal statute, 28 U.S.C. Sec. 1821. See supra. But Freeman recovered under state law as well as federal, and section 1821 has no analog in Massachusetts law that would apply in connection with Freeman's successful prosecution of his state-law claim. Thus, Crawford is inapposite to the latter recovery. 73 We explain briefly. In this case, Freeman moved for fees and costs under both federal and state law. The Commonwealth has granted explicit cost-shifting authority in Mass.Gen.L. ch. 151B, Sec. 9. 12 Costs, however, are neither enumerated nor defined therein. Unlike in federal law, there is no discernible cap: the amount of witness fees awardable as costs in Massachusetts is not limited to $30 per day, or to any other fixed sum. Rather: In civil actions ... in which no provision is expressly made by law, the costs shall be wholly in the discretion of the court. Mass.Gen.L. ch. 261, Sec. 13; see also George v. Coolidge Bank & Trust Co., 360 Mass. 635, 277 N.E.2d 278, 282 (1971) (entitlement to, and amount of, expert witness fees wholly within court's discretion). Under state law, where the award of costs is statutorily authorized, judges are vested with discretion either expressly or by judicial construction in determining the size of the award. Linthicum v. Archambault, 379 Mass. 381, 398 N.E.2d 482, 489 (1979). 74 As with prejudgment interest, see supra Part II, the cost-shifting envisioned by Chapter 151B constitutes part of the substantive remedy created by state law, and applies when a federal court, having obtained jurisdiction, proceeds to hear and determine the state-law claim. See, e.g., Pan American World Airways, Inc. v. Ramos, 357 F.2d 341, 342 (1st Cir.1966) (Puerto Rico statute allowing assessment of attorneys' fees for obstinacy recognized in federal court as a matter of substantive right); accord Marshall v. Perez Arzuaga, 828 F.2d 845, 852 n. 10 (1st Cir.1987), cert. denied, --- U.S. ----, 108 S.Ct. 1027, 98 L.Ed.2d 991 (1988). The statutory wording itself, the discretion invested by state statutes which are in pari passu with the cost-shifting provision, e.g., Mass.Gen.L. ch. 261, Sec. 13, and the judicial gloss placed upon the language by the SJC, e.g., Linthicum, 398 N.E.2d at 488; George, 277 N.E.2d at 282, combine to import into the substantive state-law remedy an element of flexibility, both as to entitlement and amount. A prevailing plaintiff may receive expert witness fees in a Chapter 151B case if the court in its discretion chooses to award them, and in whatever sum the court deems reasonable. A federal court empowered to determine a state-law claim (whether by reason of diversity, pendent jurisdiction, or otherwise) must be accorded this same degree of flexibility. 13 See Northern Heel Corp. v. Compo Industries, Inc., 851 F.2d 456, 475 (1st Cir.1988) (in diversity case, inasmuch as entitlement to counsel fees comprised a substantive part of the state-law remedy for a state-law cause of action, the proper rule of decision governing the award should have been derived from Massachusetts, rather than federal law); Bright v. Land O'Lakes, Inc., 844 F.2d 436, 444 (7th Cir.1988) (Wisconsin statute which authorized award of actual costs of the action including reasonable attorney's fees covered expenditures for expert witnesses, and applied in federal courts to override restrictions of 28 U.S.C. Sec. 1821); see also Blanchette v. Cataldo, 734 F.2d 869, 878-79 (1st Cir.1984) (federal court may award reasonable fees and costs to successful claimant under state law, specifically, Mass.Gen.L. ch. 93A). 75 Although there is no Massachusetts case squarely on point, we view it as highly probable that the SJC would interpret section 9 as permitting courts to shift expert witness fees in favor of prevailing plaintiffs in age discrimination cases. The phraseology of the law intimates as much, and the law's objectives cinch the proposition. Insofar as enactment of the statute represents a legislative policy choice, it is a choice, we suggest, to furnish courts with a mandate to ensure 'effective access to the judicial process' for persons with civil rights grievances. Hensley v. Eckerhart, 461 U.S. 424, 429, 103 S.Ct. 1933, 1937, 76 L.Ed.2d 40 (1983) (quoting H.Rep. No. 94-1558 at 1, 94th Cong., 2d Sess. (1976)). If citizens are to assert their state-ceded rights meaningfully in Massachusetts, and if those malefactors who would deny such rights are to be deterred, then prevailing plaintiffs should be given the chance to recover what it costs to enforce the rights in court. It would turn things topsy-turvy to saddle civil rights claimants--no matter how galling their deprivations or how vindicatory the outcome of their suits--with whopping fees for the services of expert witnesses. To leave prevailing plaintiffs unreimbursed for such expenditures might well make the game not worth the candle, surely disserving the ends of a cost-shifting rule. 76 That Massachusetts shares these sentiments is not much a matter of conjecture. The linchpin of our prophecy is the SJC's opinion in Linthicum v. Archambault, supra. Linthicum involved a consumer protection law, Mass.Gen.L. ch. 93A, which stipulated that successful plaintiffs shall ... be awarded reasonable attorney's fees and costs.... Mass.Gen.L. ch. 93A, Sec. 9(4). Notwithstanding the generality of the statutory reference, the SJC--with a weather eye to the purposes for which the law was enacted--discerned a presumption favoring the award of expert witness fees: 77 The usual rule in Massachusetts is that the litigant must bear his own expenses.... Chapter 93A is a statutory exception to that rule. Although the award of expert witness fees is usually discretionary, George v. Coolidge Bank & Trust Co., 360 Mass. 635, 640, 277 N.E.2d 278 (1971), we think that reasonable expert witness fees should normally be recoverable in a ch. 93A case in order to vindicate policies of the act. See generally Note, Expert Witness Fees: Protection for the Indigent Party, 48 Nw.U.L.Rev. 106 (1953). 78 Linthicum, 398 N.E.2d at 488. 79 We are confident that the SJC would interpret the cognate provision in Chapter 151B, Sec. 9 in like fashion. Chapter 151B is to be liberally construed to meet its goals. Katz v. MCAD, 365 Mass. 357, 312 N.E.2d 182, 187 (1974). The law's clear purpose ... is to implement the right to equal treatment guaranteed to all citizens by the constitutions of the United States and the Commonwealth. Id. In shaping awards under Chapter 151B, Massachusetts courts have consistently adopted the rationale that if there is to be a 'windfall', such benefit should accrue to the injured party rather than to the wrongdoer. Buckley Nursing Home v. MCAD, 20 Mass.App. 172, 478 N.E.2d 1292, 1299 (1985) (quoting Jones v. Wayland, 374 Mass. 249, 262, 373 N.E.2d 199 (1978)). These principles bear eloquent testimony, we suggest, to the accuracy of a forecast that the SJC would, in an appropriate case, allow expert witness fees under Chapter 151B's cost-shifting provision as a necessary incident of litigation. 14 80
81 This is, we believe, an appropriate case. In our judgment, the district court had discretion to act under the state statute and exercised that discretion in an allowable manner. The fact that the district court made no explicit reference to the statute in its award is, we think, immaterial. The court indicated its awareness of Freeman's eligibility for the succor of state law in authorizing the filing of his fee-and-costs application. See Freeman v. PMC, Civ. No. 83-0403-F, memorandum & order (D.Mass. June 29, 1987), at 2 . Plaintiff's ensuing petition invoked the Massachusetts statute and relied upon it as an alternative ground for reimbursement. Defendant's opposing memorandum vetted the point in some detail. Thus, the parties knew the issue belonged in the case and addressed it. Bearing in mind that this suit was originally filed in state court and removed to federal district court by PMC, there is no inequity in calling up the Massachusetts statute. A defendant who chooses to remove a case from a state forum to a federal one is hard put to complain if the federal court follows state practice in regard to state-law claims contained in the complaint. 82 Nor are we materially disadvantaged by the district court's approach. The fact that the judge awarded witness fees under the ADEA, without reaching the state-law question, should not deter us from considering the issue. An appellate court is not wed to a trial court's reasoning: [W]e are free, on appeal, to affirm a judgment on any independently sufficient ground. Polyplastics, Inc. v. Transconex, Inc., 827 F.2d 859, 860-61 (1st Cir.1987); see also Chongris v. Board of Appeals, 811 F.2d 36, 37 n. 1 (1st Cir.), cert. denied, --- U.S. ----, 107 S.Ct. 3266, 97 L.Ed.2d 765 (1987); Casagrande v. Agoritsas, 748 F.2d 47, 48 n. 1 (1st Cir.1984) (per curiam). Here, the court considered the appropriate factors and weighed them in an acceptable fashion, easily interchangeable in terms of the state-law/federal-law dichotomy. It referred to its award of the disputed sum as costs--which, in the argot of Chapter 151B, is the proper terminology. Nothing in the record suggests any intention to invoke Fed.R.Civ.P. 54(d) or any other peculiarly federal rule on court costs. To disallow the award because the trial judge did not specifically advert to the parallel state statute would mindlessly sacrifice substance on the altar of talismanic labelling. 83 Neither the size nor the composition of the award can successfully be questioned. The record reflects that the court below heeded the relevant considerations. Cf. Northern Heel, 851 F.2d at 476-77 (listing factors to be considered under Massachusetts fee-shifting statutes when setting counsel fees). The statements of experts' charges--there were two experts, Dr. Cobb and an actuary, William Massida--were not rebutted in any manner. The statistician's testimony was crucial to Freeman's case and the actuary's figures were important in computing damages. The charges seem modest by any measure; indeed, appellant has not claimed they were excessive. 84 By the same token, the award of experts' fees need not be shrunk to reflect a division of labor between federal and state claims. Theoretical possibilities aside, the sockdolager is this: Freeman's federal and state claims turn upon exactly the same facts and, with a relatively minor exception (emotional distress), involved proof of the same elements. Because the claims were inextricably intertwined, the expert witnesses' time charges need not be prorated. See Wagenmann v. Adams, 829 F.2d 196, 225 (1st Cir.1987) (legal malpractice action was so factually imbricated with the federal civil rights claims as to make separate treatment of the constituent attorney time inappropriate); Aubin v. Fudala, 782 F.2d at 290-92 (if basic relief recovered on state claim, and state claim is factually and legally interconnected with federal civil rights claim, plaintiff would be entitled to attorneys' fees incurred in prosecution of both claims). Since (1) the district court found that the disputed expenditures were fair and reasonable, (2) that determination has not been challenged on appeal, (3) the interrelationship between the federal and state claims is so close-knit as to forestall the need for proration of the charges, and (4) PMC has cited no special circumstances [which] would render such an award [of experts' fees] unjust, Mass.Gen.L. ch. 151B, Sec. 9, 15 reimbursing plaintiff for the expenses was appropriate as a matter of Massachusetts law.