A137610Syers Properties v. Rankin

CourtCalifornia Court of Appeal
DecidedMay 27, 2014
DocketA137610
StatusPublished

This text of A137610Syers Properties v. Rankin (A137610Syers Properties v. Rankin) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering California Court of Appeal primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
A137610Syers Properties v. Rankin, (Cal. Ct. App. 2014).

Opinion

Filed 5/5/14; pub. order 5/27/14 (see end of opn.)

IN THE COURT OF APPEAL OF THE STATE OF CALIFORNIA

FIRST APPELLATE DISTRICT

DIVISION TWO

SYERS PROPERTIES III, INC., Plaintiff and Appellant, A137610 v. ANN RANKIN et al., (Alameda County Super. Ct. No. RG10518323) Defendants and Respondents.

INTRODUCTION Plaintiff Syers Properties III, Inc. challenges the trial court’s award of attorney fees in its unsuccessful legal malpractice action against defendant attorneys Ann Rankin and Terry Wilkens and the Law Offices of Ann Rankin. In a separate opinion, we have affirmed the judgment in that action. (Syers Properties III, Inc. v. Rankin, (May 5, 2014, A136018) [nonpub. opn.].) The trial court awarded defendants attorney fees totaling $843,245.27, pursuant to Civil Code section 1717 and Code of Civil Procedure section 1033.5, subdivision (a)(10)(A), as prevailing parties. Plaintiff contends the trial court abused its discretion in two respects in awarding the fees: First, plaintiff maintains the court’s determination of reasonable hours relied upon inadequate documentation that failed to show the reasonableness of the hours and the specific tasks performed by defense counsel. Second, plaintiff asserts the court abused its discretion in calculating the reasonable rate, as it did not inquire into the actual hourly rate charged or whether that actual rate was reasonable under the lodestar formula. We shall affirm the award.

1 BACKGROUND Plaintiff sued defendants for legal malpractice and breach of fiduciary duty in defendants’ representation of plaintiff in a construction defect case over the course of seven years. Following numerous hearings and motions in limine to resolve legal issues in the action, a jury was empanelled, opening statements were given and plaintiff’s first witness was called. The court then granted defendants’ pending nonsuit motion. Following the judgment in their favor, defendants sought their attorney fees as the prevailing parties in the malpractice action, pursuant to the attorney-client fee agreement with plaintiff and Civil Code section 1717. Defendants sought a total of $843,245.27 for the combined 2,324.5 hours of attorney and paralegal time spent on the case from its inception, through discovery, numerous pretrial motions, trial, and post-judgment work. In support of the requested fee, the law firm Murphy, Pearson, Bradley & Feeney, which had represented defendants in the malpractice action, filed declarations from three attorneys who performed the majority of the work (1,949 total hours): named shareholder John H. Feeney and associates Adam M. Koss, and Arthur J. Harris. Each of the declarations set forth the attorney’s qualifications and experience, described the stages or motions in the litigation in which he had been primarily engaged, and summarized his hours billed to defendants within several specific litigation categories, including the total hours spent in: “Fact investigation and general conferences and correspondence”; “Development of case analysis and strategy”; “Legal research”; “Expert and/or consultant work”; “Status reports to client and carrier”; “Draft pleadings and papers, and other case assessment and development”; “Settlement discussions and mediation”; “Written and document discovery”; “Party, percipient and expert depositions”; “Trial preparation and support, including witnesses and exhibit preparation and examinations”; “Trial motions and submissions”; “Court appearances, including trial”; and “Attorneys’ fee motion.” These totals were also submitted for each of the three primary attorneys in the form of time bar graphs for each category of work performed. In addition, Feeney’s declaration set forth the hours billed by associate attorney David J. Gibson, as well as by each of four paralegals who assisted on the case. This

2 declaration also described the qualifications and experience of Gibson and each of the paralegals, as well as a brief description of the work each performed.1 As to the “reasonable rate” of pay, Feeney stated in his declaration that based on his more than 20 years of civil litigation experience, it was his understanding that the prevailing rate or market rate in the San Francisco Bay Area for the services performed by associates Koss and Harris, who were admitted to the state a bar of California in December 2006, was approximately $300 per hour; for Gibson, who was admitted in December 2010, was approximately $250 per hour; and for paralegals Miranda, Tetlow, Hill and Ota was approximately $150 per hour. Defendants also relied upon the Laffey Matrix, attached as exhibits to the motion. As described by defendants, the Laffey Matrix “is an official source of attorney rates based in the District of Columbia area, which can be adjusted to the San Francisco Bay Area by using the Locality Pay Tables.” Application of the same formula used by Chief Judge Walker in In re HPL Technologies, Inc. Securities Litigation (N.D. Cal. 2005) 366 F. Supp.2d 912, 922, fn. 1 (HPL Technologies) provided an approximately 9 percent upward rate over rates in the District of Columbia. Feeney declared that the Laffey Matrix hourly rate, adjusted for the San Francisco Bay Area of $517.75 for an attorney with 20-plus years of experience, such as he, represented “a reasonable rate for competent trial counsel of his education and experience, as well as the complexity and specialization of these particular proceedings and the claims alleged therein.” He further

1 Feeney declared that attorney Gibson worked and billed 49.6 hours assisting in file and document management, including document discovery and trial preparation; certified paralegal Miranda worked and billed 200.4 hours performing tasks consisting of managing the document flow of the litigation, including the review, analysis and organization of documents and testimony and assisting in trial preparation; certified paralegal Tetlow worked and billed 15.4 hours performing tasks consisting of mainly support on the fee motion; certified paralegal Hill worked and billed 42.2 hours of trial support, including exhibit preparation and presentation and authorized paralegal Ota worked and billed 67.9 hours performing tasks consisting of managing the document flow of the litigation, including the review, analysis and organization of documents and testimony and assisting in trial preparation. ~(AF AA 14-15)~

3 opined that the Laffey Matrix hourly adjusted rate of $299.75 for attorneys Koss, Harris, and Gibson represented a reasonable rate for competent representation by attorneys of their education and experience, as well as the complexity of the particular proceedings.2 So, too, did the Laffey Matrix hourly adjusted rate of $147.15 for the four paralegals working on the case represent a reasonable rate. Feeney further stated he had personally reviewed the attorney fee billings in the matter and that in finalizing the time entries he had from time to time eliminated time entries incurred because in his “billing judgment, the actual time expended was greater than it should have been or for other reasons.” Plaintiff opposed the fee motion on the grounds the amount sought was unreasonable. It contended the hourly rate requested was significantly higher than the rate actually billed the clients and that the lodestar formula applied had historically been reserved for contingency fee cases and not to a conventional hourly fee case such as the instant attorney malpractice case. Further, plaintiff argued that the declarations were inadequate to document the hours expended and that defendants failed to provide enough specificity about the fees incurred for the court to properly assess their reasonableness. Specifically, plaintiff claimed defense counsel had not disclosed their actual hourly rates and had not provided either redacted billing statements or a comparable itemized summary of the expenses incurred.

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A137610Syers Properties v. Rankin, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/a137610syers-properties-v-rankin-calctapp-2014.