Brown v. Unified School District No. 501

878 F. Supp. 1430, 1995 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 2647, 1995 WL 103306
CourtDistrict Court, D. Kansas
DecidedFebruary 21, 1995
DocketNo. T-316
StatusPublished
Cited by9 cases

This text of 878 F. Supp. 1430 (Brown v. Unified School District No. 501) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court, D. Kansas primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Brown v. Unified School District No. 501, 878 F. Supp. 1430, 1995 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 2647, 1995 WL 103306 (D. Kan. 1995).

Opinion

MEMORANDUM AND ORDER

ROGERS, District Judge.

This case is now before the court upon plaintiffs’ motion and supplemental motion for attorneys’ fees and costs.

As defendant concedes, the controversy over plaintiffs’ motions is not whether plaintiffs recover their attorneys’ fees and costs, but how much should be recovered. A prevailing party in a case brought under federal civil rights law is entitled to recover his or her reasonable attorney’s fees. 42 U.S.C. § 1988; Hensley v. Eckerhart, 461 U.S. 424, 429, 103 S.Ct. 1933, 1937, 76 L.Ed.2d 40 (1983). It is undisputed that plaintiffs are a prevailing party in this action. See Texas Teachers Ass’n v. Garland School Dist., 489 U.S. 782, 791, 109 S.Ct. 1486, 1493, 103 L.Ed.2d 866 (1989) (a “prevailing party” must prevail “on any significant claim affording some of the relief sought.”).

To determine what fees and expenses are reasonable, the court must calculate the number of hours reasonably expended on this litigation multiplied by a reasonable hourly rate. Hensley v. Eckerhart, supra, 461 U.S. at 433, 103 S.Ct. at 1939. The court shall start by discussing what should be a reasonable hourly rate for plaintiffs’ attorneys in this matter.

1. Hourly rate

a) Local vs. nonlocal rate

Plaintiffs claim that they should recover fees for the time of their nonlocal counsel at rates of $125.00 to $300.00 an hour and fees for the time of their local counsel at the rate of $175.00 an hour. Plaintiffs also ask that the work of paralegals, law clerks or legal interns be compensated at a “nonlocal” rate of $85.00 an hour. Plaintiffs were substantially assisted in this case by four counsel from the New York headquarters of the American Civil Liberties Union, as well as paralegal personnel with the ACLU in New York.1 That these counsel and paralegal staff worked for a non-profit organization is of no consequence. “ ‘Reasonable fees’ under § 1988 are to be calculated according to the prevailing market rates in the relevant community, regardless of whether plaintiff is represented by private or non-profit eoun[1433]*1433sel.” Blum v. Stenson, 465 U.S. 886, 895, 104 S.Ct. 1541, 1547, 79 L.Ed.2d 891 (1984).

Many factors, such as skill, experience and reputation, may play a part in the decision of what is “the prevailing market rate in the relevant community.” Id. at 895 n. 11, 104 S.Ct. at 1547 n. 11. The burden is on the plaintiffs to show that the requested rates are “in line with those prevailing in the community for similar services by lawyers of reasonably comparable skill, experience, and reputation.” Id. at 895 n. 11, 104 S.Ct. at 1547 n. 11.

One question the court must decide is what is the “relevant community” for determining the market rate for counsel. In other words, should a local rate or a nonlocal rate of compensation apply? In a class action challenging prison conditions in the maximum security unit of a Colorado penitentiary, the Tenth Circuit stated: “Absent more unusual circumstances than we see in this case, the fee rates of the local area should be applied even when the lawyers seeking fees are from another area.” Ramos v. Lamm, 713 F.2d 546, 555 (10th Cir.1983). In other words, in that civil rights action, the Tenth Circuit determined that the “relevant community” was the location where the trial was conducted. See also, In re “Agent Orange” Product Liability Litigation, 818 F.2d 226, 232 (2d Cir.1987) (relevant community for fee determination is community where trial court sits). Noting the substantial volume of civil rights litigation filed nationwide, the Tenth Circuit further declared that prisoner rights cases were not so specialized that the “relevant community” should be expanded beyond Denver or any other metropolitan area. The court also commented that no different rule should apply to other areas of civil rights law. “Most other substantive areas of civil rights law have become sufficiently familiar that reasonably competent lawyers who do civil rights work should be able to function at both the trial and appellate level.” Id.; see also, Jane L. v. Bangerter, 828 F.Supp. 1544, 1551-52 (D.Utah 1993) (local area fee rates applied in abortion rights litigation).

Plaintiffs argue that a different rule should be applied to this case because local counsel were not willing or not able to perform the work or advance the money necessary for plaintiffs’ representation. Plaintiffs assert that this was an unpopular case which required a large number of hours and huge expenses. The ACLU advanced more than $200,000.00 during the course of the litigation. Most of this was advanced before plaintiffs knew they would prevail, although a substantial amount was paid during the remedy phase of this litigation. Plaintiffs also urge the court to consider the impact of the decision in West Virginia University Hospitals v. Casey, 499 U.S. 83, 111 S.Ct. 1138, 113 L.Ed.2d 68 (1991). There, the Court held that expert witness costs normally cannot be recovered under § 1988. Plaintiffs argue that this decision increases the reluctance of counsel to take cases like the instant case. Finally, plaintiffs contend that the dearth of class action civil rights eases filed by the local bar proves that local attorneys are adverse to bringing school desegregation cases.

The court rejects these arguments. The court believes attorneys’ fees should be awarded on the basis of local rates in this case.

The court firmly believes the local bar was competent to tackle whatever factual and legal difficulties this case presented. In fact, local attorneys have represented plaintiffs, since the beginning of the case. Local attorneys alone have represented defendant. In the court’s opinion, the difficulty of this case has not stemmed from its factual complexity (the school district is relatively small and its history is straightforward), but from the ambiguity of school desegregation law and, perhaps, the “closeness” of the facts. The facts were not at issue in this case as much as the conclusions tc be drawn from the facts. Plaintiffs’ lead nonlocal counsel during the trial and appeal stages (Christopher A. Hansen) did not have any previous experience in school desegregation cases before he entered his appearance in this case. Mr. Hansen undoubtedly had helpful experience in factually complex civil rights litigation. But, there were many other attorneys in this community who had sufficient experience in cases of comparable complexity to conduct this litigation, although they too did not have direct experience in school desegregation [1434]*1434cases. Therefore, Mr. Hansen’s overall experience, and that of his colleagues,2 does not by itself warrant reimbursing plaintiffs for their hours at a nonlocal rate, since local attorneys were available with sufficient expertise to conduct this litigation. See Beard v.

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Bluebook (online)
878 F. Supp. 1430, 1995 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 2647, 1995 WL 103306, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/brown-v-unified-school-district-no-501-ksd-1995.