American Booksellers Ass'n, Inc. v. Hudnut

650 F. Supp. 324
CourtDistrict Court, S.D. Indiana
DecidedSeptember 16, 1986
DocketIP 84-791-C
StatusPublished
Cited by7 cases

This text of 650 F. Supp. 324 (American Booksellers Ass'n, Inc. v. Hudnut) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court, S.D. Indiana primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
American Booksellers Ass'n, Inc. v. Hudnut, 650 F. Supp. 324 (S.D. Ind. 1986).

Opinion

ENTRY

BARKER, District Judge.

This matter comes before the court on the motions of three plaintiffs’ counsel for an award of attorney fees, pursuant to 42 U.S.C. § 1988, following judgment in plaintiffs’ favor in the above-captioned case. Before the court are the motions and supplemental motions of Finley, Kumble, Wagner, Heine, Underberg, Manley & Casey (“Finley Kumble”), counsel for American Booksellers Association, Inc. (“American *326 Booksellers”), Richard Kammen, counsel for plaintiff Video Shack, Inc., and Brown, Weston & Sarno (“Brown Weston”), counsel for intervenor-plaintiffs I.S.S.I. Theatre, Inc. and 4266 West 38th Street Corporation (“intervenors” or “intervenor-plaintiffs”). It is hereby ordered and adjudged that counsel for the plaintiffs are entitled to the following as reasonable fees and expenses: counsel for plaintiff American Booksellers Association, Inc., eighty-seven thousand, three hundred sixteen dollars and sixteen cents ($87,316.16); and counsel for plaintiff Video Shack, Inc., seven thousand, eight hundred sixty-two dollars and two cents ($7,862.02). The court makes no award on the petition of the intervenor-plaintiffs. The computations and reasons therefor are set out in the attached Memorandum.

MEMORANDUM

A. Recovery of Fees Generally:

The well-established “American Rule” is, of course, that a prevailing party is not ordinarily entitled to recover attorney fees from the loser. See Pennsylvania v. Delaware Valley Citizens’ Council, — U.S. -, 106 S.Ct. 3088, 92 L.Ed.2d 439 (1986) (citing Aleyska Pipeline Service Co. v. Wilderness Society, 421 U.S. 240, 95 S.Ct. 1612, 44 L.Ed.2d 141 (1975)). One of the primary exceptions to this rule is where Congress has expressly authorized courts to require one party to pay attorney fees to the other. Id.

Congress has so authorized the award of “reasonable” attorney fees for prevailing parties in civil rights actions brought under 42 U.S.C. § 1983. While Congress, pursuant to 42 U.S.C. § 1988, granted courts the discretion to make such awards, the Supreme Court has held that the court’s discretion to deny fee awards should be exercised only when special circumstances would render such an award unjust. New York Gaslight v. Carey, 447 U.S. 54, 100 S.Ct. 2024, 64 L.Ed.2d 723 (1980); Newman v. Piggie Park Enterprises, 390 U.S. 400, 88 S.Ct. 964, 19 L.Ed.2d 1263 (1968) (per curium).

Against this backdrop, it is clear that most of the disputes regarding awards of attorney fees to prevailing plaintiffs in section 1983 actions have centered on what constitutes a “reasonable” fee. In making a fee award, a court should begin by determining the “lodestar” figure: the number of hours reasonably expended multiplied by a reasonable hourly rate. See, e.g., Hensley v. Eckerhart, 461 U.S. 424, 103 S.Ct. 1933, 76 L.Ed.2d 40 (1983); Lynch v. City of Milwaukee, 747 F.2d 423 (7th Cir.1984). The second step in the formulation, generally stated, is to adjust the lodestar figure upward or downward (by using “multipliers”) to take into account certain other factors when the situation so warrants. See Lynch, 747 F.2d at 426. Both of these steps are more fully explored below in the context of the fee petitions at issue here.

Petitioners are the prevailing plaintiffs in this action which was commenced on May 1, 1984, against the mayor and City of Indianapolis (“City”), challenging the constitutionality of an “anti-pornography” ordinance passed by the Indianapolis City-County Council. On November 19, 1984, this court granted the plaintiffs’ motion for summary judgment, declaring the ordinance to be unconstitutional, void, and of no effect. American Booksellers Ass’n, Inc. v. Hudnut, 598 F.Supp. 1316 (S.D.Ind. 1984). That decision was subsequently affirmed by the Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals, 771 F.2d 323 (1985), and by the United States Supreme Court, 106 S.Ct. 1172, reh’g denied, — U.S. -, 106 S.Ct. 1664, 90 L.Ed.2d 206 (1986). In granting summary judgment, the court included an order assessing costs and reasonable attorney fees against the defendants. Now before the court are the motions of plaintiffs, American Booksellers and Video Shack, requesting the fixing of the amount of the fee award. Also before the court is the motion of intervenor-plaintiffs, I.S.S.I. and West 38th Street Corporation, seeking an award and fixing the amount of attorney fees. Petitioners seek attorney fees and expenses incurred in the prosecution of those proceedings as well as for their efforts relating to their requests for fees. *327 Because each request presents somewhat different issues, each will be dealt with separately.

B. Request for Finley Kumble:

Finley Kumble, counsel for American Booksellers, requests an award for fees and expenses totalling one hundred three thousand, nine hundred twenty dollars ($103,-920.00). 1 Because Finley Kumble has not requested the use of a multiplier to enhance the lodestar figure, this court will determine, based on all the evidence before it, the reasonableness of the hours expended and the rate charged by Finley Kumble.

1. Reasonableness of Rate:

The City’s primary objection to the request of Finley Kumble challenges the hourly rate applied by Finley Kumble. Finley Kumble, a New York City law firm, requests $225.00 per hour for the partner who handled this case (Mr. Bamberger), $195.00 per hour for an attorney who is “of counsel” to the firm (Ms. Siegel), $105.00-$115.00 per hour for the associate lawyers (Mr. Burger, Mr. Mitchell, and Mr. Mandel), $150.00 per hour for Mr. Joseph, 2 $80.00 per hour for a summer law clerk (Ms. Macropoulos), and $65.00 per hour for “managing clerks” (Ms. Brown, Mr. Adago, and Ms. Aiken). Finley Kumble makes these various hourly claims, asserting that the rates reflect the usual and ordinary fees charged in New York City for the work performed by them in this ease.

The City contends that plaintiffs are not entitled to remuneration at New York rates because those rates are not the “prevailing market rates in the relevant community.” Blum v. Stenson, 465 U.S. 886, 895, 104 S.Ct.

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Bluebook (online)
650 F. Supp. 324, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/american-booksellers-assn-inc-v-hudnut-insd-1986.