Court Opinion

ID: 9470872
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-05 03:18:40.075712+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:42:09.069648
License: Public Domain

WYZANSKI,
Senior District Judge, concurring:
My reasons for concurring in Judge Newman’s opinion require a brief statement.
Without qualification I agree with the substance and the form of Judge Newman’s opinion on all matters except the amount to be allowed to counsel per hour and the amount, if any, of a bonus factor. What I propose to deal with here concerns only those two exceptions.
Like Judge Friendly, sitting in this case as a senior judge, I feel more than usually bound by prior decisions of this Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit. Indeed, being a senior judge assigned from another circuit, I am particularly deferential to the views of my colleagues based upon precedents established in their own regular circuit.
Bound by the precedents of this Court of Appeals, I do not consider myself free to adopt what, at least tentatively, I believe to be the sound measure of compensation, i.e. one based on the following three elements: (1) the rate per hour which a private attorney of equivalent competence would reasonably charge to compensate him for his own personal services, plus (2) the fee-applicant’s own actual overhead (up to the point of but not beyond a reasonable amount), plus (3) an allowance (sometimes called a “bonus”) reflecting the fact that many cases of a similar type are handled by the applicant-attorney or his organization without yielding him or it any compensation whatsoever, or less than reasonable compensation. My own approach would reach parallel conclusions whether the applicant be an attorney in private practice, or in a public-interest law firm, or in a government office, or elsewhere.
Inasmuch as I do not feel free in this particular case to follow the foregoing formula, and I am aware that, if not satisfied with Judge Newman’s opinion, a party to this case may seek an en banc hearing of this case, and may file a petition for certio-rari on a basis like that which on May 31, 1983 led the Supreme Court of the United States to grant review in Blum v. Stenson, Sup.Ct. Oct. Term 1982, No. 81-1374, s.c. 512 F.Supp. 680 (S.D.N.Y.), aff’d, 671 F.2d 493 (2d Cir.1981), I concur in Judge Newman’s opinion. However, in so doing, I look upon the $75 “break-point”, proposed by Judge Newman, as a mere ad hoc device for disposing of the case at bar. The $75 figure apparently comes from The Equal Access to Justice Act, which was designed to compensate defendants whom the government had sued without basis; it has no relation to appropriate compensation for attorneys serving in Civil Rights Act cases. Other circuits when dealing with Civil Rights Act awards have promulgated standards which impliedly permit an hourly allowance which in an appropriate case would exceed $75, e.g. National Association of Concerned Veterans v. Secretary of Defense, 675 F.2d 1319, 1324-7 (D.C.Cir.1982).
In summary, I concur with Judge Newman principally because I believe that the most appropriate and soundest course is for me to do all I can to expedite consideration of this case by an en banc court of this circuit and, if needed, by the Supreme Court of the United States.