Court Opinion

ID: 9482675
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-05 08:57:09.087657+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:49:07.962979
License: Public Domain

EMILIO M. GARZA, Circuit Judge,
dissenting in part:
I agree with everything in the panel opinion except for the decision not to send this case back to the district court with instructions to calculate Exxon’s fee in accordance with the formula prescribed by this court in Johnson v. Georgia Highway Express, 488 F.2d 714 (5th Cir.1974); see also Hensley v. Eckerhart, 461 U.S. 424, 429-40, 103 S.Ct. 1933, 1937-43, 76 L.Ed.2d 40 (1983) (applying Johnson factors), clarified by Cobb v. Miller, 818 F.2d 1227, 1231-32 (5th Cir.1987).
In my view, the district court simply has not satisfied our Johnson standard.15 Although I acknowledge that the sanctioning power of the district court is potent (for example, I agree that the district court may calculate Exxon’s fee based solely on the information supplied by Exxon), I am not comfortable in allowing the district court’s power to sanction to serve as license for ignoring our Johnson formula— especially where the district court has reduced its calculation of attorney fees to a comparative analysis of fees charged by counsel in the case before it and awarded $2.4 million.
Accordingly, I would vacate the amount of the district court’s award and remand with instructions to apply the Johnson formula to the Exxon-supplied information.

. In rendering an award of attorney’s fees, we have held that a district court must consider:
(1) the time and labor required;
(2) the novelty and difficulty of the question(s) presented;
(3) the skill requisite to properly perform the legal service;
(4) the preclusion of other employment due to the acceptance of the case;
(5) the customary fee;
(6) whether the fee is fixed or contingent;
(7) the time limitation imposed by the client or the circumstances;
(8) the amount involved and result obtained;
(9) the experience, reputation, and ability of the attorneys;
(10) the "undesirability” of the case;
(11) the nature and length of the professional relationship with the client; and
(12) awards in similar cases.
Johnson, 488 F.2d at 717-19 (including commentary on each factor).