Court Opinion

ID: 9464980
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-05 00:31:56.70909+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:38:54.600846
License: Public Domain

BAZELON, Circuit Judge,
concurring in part and dissenting in part:
I agree with Judge MacKinnon’s conclusion that an award of attorney’s fees is appropriate in this case, and I also concur with his general analysis of the “productive” work requiring compensation. See maj. op. at---of 188 U.S.App.D.C., at 661 — 662 of 580 F.2d. The calculation of attorney’s fees, however, lies in the discretion of the district court, and so that we may meaningfully review the exercise of that discretion we have required the district court to create “a record that elucidates the factors that contributed to the fee decision and upon which it was based.” Evans v. Sheraton Park Hotel, 164 U.S.App.D.C. 86, 97, 503 F.2d 177, 188 (1974). In this case we simply have no idea as to the bases for the district court’s decision. Although the court was concerned with “productive work,” we don’t know what work it considered productive or what fee scale it adopted. Nor do we know how much time Altman actually spent laboring on the “productive work” which the majority concludes is worthy of compensation. For these reasons I believe the case should be remanded to the district court for the creation of an appropriate record.