Opinion ID: 779977
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: whether the requested amount was inflated

Text: 25 MBM and McMahan contend that Toto's calculations of the amount of attorney's fees to which he was entitled was inflated by more than $70,000. They assert that on March 6, 2000, Toto's counsel discounted all of his attorney's fees to $136,103.54. They claim Toto's fee application sought that amount plus $51,394.76 in subsequent invoices, and that those figures totaled $187,498.30, not the $260,447.72 requested by Toto. 26 Toto disagrees with MBM and McMahan about the March 6, 2000 discount and, therefore, about the total amount sought. According to Toto, as of March 6, 2000, he had paid $71,730 in attorney's fees and had an outstanding balance of $151,226.16. He asserts that only the outstanding balance was discounted by ten percent (from $151,226.16 to $136,103.54), and that the $71,730 he had already paid was not affected by that discount. He says that for services up to March 6, 2000, he sought in his fee application $71,730 plus $136,103.54, which totals $207,833.54. Additionally, he sought $51,394.76 in subsequent invoices for fees incurred thereafter. 27 Our review of the Verified Bill of Fees and Costs shows that, as of March 6, 2000, Toto had been billed for attorney's fees and costs in the amount of $222,956.16 ($1,125.00 for May 1999; $1,941.04 for June 1999; $74,682.71 for July, August, September, and October 1999; and $145,207.41 for November and December 1999). The Verified Bill states that [o]n March 6, 2000 ... [Toto's attorney] agreed... to discount the then outstanding balance of $151,226.16 by ten percent to $136,103.54. (emphasis added). The term outstanding balance refers to the amount unpaid as of that date, see Black's Law Dictionary 1129 (7th ed.1999); it does not refer to fees already paid. Therefore, any fees that were already paid were not affected by the ten-percent discount. Although the Verified Bill did not explicitly state that Toto had already paid $71,730, the implication was clear, because the $222,956.16 of attorney's fees and costs would reduce to an unpaid balance of $151,226.16 only if Toto had paid the difference of $71,730. Toto did not give up his claim to the full amount of the $71,730 he had already paid. 28 Adding the $71,730 that Toto had already paid to the $136,103.54 that resulted from the ten percent discount of the unpaid balance, and then adding to that sum the $48,282.26 of attorney's fees and costs from January, February, and March 2000, and the $3,112.50 anticipated for April 2000, the total comes to $259,228.30. Because the district court had already awarded taxable costs of $4,799.33 pursuant to 28 U.S.C. § 1920, that amount is subtracted from $259,228.30, and the balance is $254,428.97. 29 In the verified bill, Toto sought $260,447.72. That figure is erroneous according to our calculations, because it is $6,018.75 more than the $254,428.97 to which Toto was entitled. (There is no reason to think that the error is anything other than a mathematical one.) We will remand to the district court for it to reduce the amount of attorney's fees awarded Toto by $6,018.75.