Admiral Metals Servicenter Co. v. Micromatic Products Co.

25 Mass. L. Rptr. 489
CourtMassachusetts Superior Court
DecidedMarch 26, 2009
DocketNo. 014740C
StatusPublished
Cited by1 cases

This text of 25 Mass. L. Rptr. 489 (Admiral Metals Servicenter Co. v. Micromatic Products Co.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Massachusetts Superior Court primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Admiral Metals Servicenter Co. v. Micromatic Products Co., 25 Mass. L. Rptr. 489 (Mass. Ct. App. 2009).

Opinion

Lauriat, Peter M., J.

The plaintiff, Admiral Metals Servicenter Co., Inc. (“Admiral”), commenced this collection action against the defendants, Micromatic Products Co, Inc., d/b/a Precision Swiss Screw (“Micromatic”), Michael P. Contos (“Contos”), Archimedes Really Trust (“Archimedes”), Pristine of Ward Hill, Inc. (“Pristine”), and MPC Realty LLC (“MPC”) (collectively “the Defendants”), seeking monies allegedly owed for goods Admiral sold and delivered to Micromatic. In January 2003 this court allowed the Defendants’ motion for summary judgment on Admiral’s claims of breach of contract, quantum me-ruit, fraud, fraudulent conveyance, piercing the corporate veil, violation of G.L.c. 93A, and violations of G.L.c. 156B, §§61 and 62. Micromatic filed and Admi[490]*490ral accepted a Rule 68 Offer of Judgment in March 2003. Thereafter, in July 2003, Contos filed a Motion for Sanctions against Admiral and its counsel of record Cameron C. Pease, Esq. (“Pease”), under G.L.c. 231, §6F, and Mass.R.Civ.P. 11(a), respectively.

After a hearing, this court concluded that Admiral knew that Contos was not personally liable for Micromatic’s debt and consequently acted with ill will and insincerity in advancing a frivolous claim against Contos; and that Pease’s commencement and subsequent prosecution of this action against Contos were not the product of a genuine professional judgment or based on reasonable inquiry and an absence of bad faith. In a decision dated September 30, 2008, this court issued findings of facts and rulings of law allowing Contos’s motion against Admiral, awarding attorneys fees and costs pursuant to G.L.c. 231, §6F, and against Pease, awarding Rule 11 sanctions in the form of attorneys fees and costs. This court further concluded that the amount which Contos is due would be divided evenly between Admiral and Pease given that Contos is entitled to attorneys fees and costs from both Admiral and Pease.

In affidavits submitted at the time of his motion under G.L.c. 231, §6F and Mass.R.Civ.P. 11(a), Contos alleged he was entitled to $30,365.25 in attorneys fees and $195.50 in costs for the work of his attorneys Michael Feinman (“Feinman”) and Andrew Caffrey, Jr. (“Caffrey”). At the court’s direction, Con tos submitted updated affidavits, and now seeks a total of $37,194.25 in attorneys fees and $195.50 in costs. Admiral and Pease (collectively, “Admiral”) dispute these amounts, and ask this court to subtract (1) the costs and certain fees, including those fees that arose out of the G.L.c. 231, §6F, and Mass.R.Civ.P. 11(a) motion, (2) the costs and fees that accrued during Contos’s bankruptcy, and (3) the fees that represent the time Feinman testified as a witness for Contos.

For the following reasons, the court finds that Contos is entitled to $26,461.05 in attorneys fees and no costs.

DISCUSSION

I. Attorneys Fees Arising from Motion for Sanctions

Admiral’s primary argument in opposing the reasonableness of Contos’s request for attorneys fees and costs is that Contos is not entitled to those fees and costs incurred as a result of his motion under G.L.c. 231, §6F, and Mass.R.Civ.P. 11 (a). Admiral is incorrect in contending that the court is without authority to award attorneys fees and costs incurred in seeking those amounts, although it is correct in pointing out that neither G.L.c. 231, §6F, nor Mass.R.Civ.P. 11(a) contains express language to that effect. In making its argument, Admiral unsuccessfully attempts to distinguish Stratos v. Department of Pub. Welfare, 387 Mass. 312 (1982), while at the same time it criticizes the Justices of this court for their reliance on this case.1

As the close reading, below, demonstrates, Stratos is not distinguishable from this case. First, the prevailing party’s right to attorneys fees in both cases arises from a statute — 42 U.S.C. §1988 in Stratos and G.L.c. 231, §6F, and Rule 11(a) here. E.g., Waldman v. American Honda Motor Co., Inc., 413 Mass. 320, 323 (1992) (“When the Legislature determines that actual, reasonable costs, as distinguished from statutory costs, are to be shifted from the losing party to the prevailing party, it enacts an explicit statute.” (citing G.L.c. 231, §6F)). Moreover, neither G.L.c. 231, §6F,2 Mass.R.Civ.P. 11(a),3 nor 42 U.S.C. §1988 expressly provides for an award of attorneys fees and costs incurred in the course of seeking those amounts.4 The factual difference upon which Admiral bases its argument is superficial and not central to the proposition upon which this court has relied in other cases.

After the agency defendant denied him the funds for which he had applied, the plaintiff in Stratos filed a complaint with the Superior Court under G.L.c. 30A, §14, seeking reversal of the defendant’s decision, and under 42 U.S.C. §1983, challenging the regulation on which the defendant had based its decision. Id. at 313, 314. The court reversed the agency’s decision and ordered it to pay the plaintiff the funds he had requested. Id. at 314. The parties then submitted to the court “affidavits and memoranda on the question of fees” under 42 U.S.C. §1988. Id. at 314-15.

The plaintiff based his fee request on “(e)leven hours and forty-five minutes . . . spent on the merits of the case, and seventeen hours, twenty-five minutes [spent] on the question of fees.” Id. at 315 (emphasis added). The court reduced this total of twenty-nine hours, ten minutes, “finding that [the plaintiffs] counsel reasonably spent a total of twenty-five hours preparing and presenting the case.” Id. The court also reduced the hourly rate. Id. On that point, the Supreme Judicial Court “remand[ed[ the case so that [the court] [could] determine and award a reasonable fee . . .” Id. at 324; see id. at 322-23 (“in applying the . . . guidelines [to calculating fees], fair market rates for time reasonably spent should be the basic measure of reasonable fees, and should govern unless there are special reasons to depart from them”). The Court did not disturb the total hours the lower court had set, however, thereby affirming that court’s decision to award the plaintiff attorneys fees and costs for work performed “on the question of fees.” Id. at 315.

On appeal, the plaintiff also asked that the Court award him the fees he incurred in the appeal. Id. at 325. It is on two sentences that arise in this context that Admiral relies for its argument that Stratos is distinguishable from the present case. In fact, Contos relies on these sentences as well for his converse argument that Stratos applies to this case. In the first sentence, the Court held that, “as a general rule, time spent in establishing and defending a fee, or objecting to an unduly small award, should be included in the [491]*491final calculation of the award.” Id. The second half of that sentence — "objecting to an unduly small reward" — refers to fees arising out of an appeal and applied to the issue before the Court. Id.

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Bluebook (online)
25 Mass. L. Rptr. 489, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/admiral-metals-servicenter-co-v-micromatic-products-co-masssuperct-2009.