Board of Trustees of the Laborers Health and Welfare Trust Fund for Northern California v. Munoz

Opinion

1 UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT 2 NORTHERN DISTRICT OF CALIFORNIA 3 4 BOARD OF TRUSTEES OF THE Case No. 22-cv-07696-JD LABORERS HEALTH AND WELFARE 5 TRUST FUND FOR NORTHERN CALIFORNIA, et al., ORDER RE ATTORNEY'S FEES 6 Plaintiffs, 7 v. 8 ARTURO SOLORZANO MUNOZ, ? Defendant. 10 11 In the default judgment order, the Court concluded that plaintiff Board of Trustees was || entitled to recover its reasonable attorney’s fees and costs pursuant to 29 U.S.C. § 1132(g)(1) but

< 13 || had not justified an hourly billing rate of $350. See Dkt. No. 22 at 5 (discussing Welch v.

v 14 || Metropolitan Life Insurance Company, 480 F.3d 942 (9th Cir. 2007)). The Board’s supplemental

15 || statement, Dkt. No. 23, cited fee awards by other courts in this District of $350 per hour for A 16 || plaintiffs counsel, Ronald Richman, in similar cases. See id. (citing, e.g., Bd. of Trustees of

= 17 || Laborers Health & Welfare Tr. Fund for N. California v. Norcal Excavating, Inc., No. 23-cv- 2 18 01994-TSH, 2023 WL 8482751, at *9 (N.D. Cal. Nov. 6, 2023), report and recommendation 19 adopted, No. 23-cv-01994-JST, 2023 WL 8482865 (N.D. Cal. Dec. 7, 2023)). The Court is not 20 || entirely persuaded that this enough to justify the requested hourly rate, but will accept it for 21 || present purposes in light of the circumstances of this case. Judgment will be entered separately in 22 || favor of the Board in the amount of $5,643.45. 23 IT IS SO ORDERED. 24 Dated: April 9, 2024 25 26 JAMES#PPONATO 27 United ftates District Judge 28