Eason v. Bridgewater & Associates, Inc.

108 F. Supp. 3d 1358, 2015 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 75316, 2015 WL 3617080
CourtDistrict Court, N.D. Georgia
DecidedJune 9, 2015
DocketCivil Action No. 1:11-cv-02772-TCB
StatusPublished
Cited by3 cases

This text of 108 F. Supp. 3d 1358 (Eason v. Bridgewater & Associates, Inc.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court, N.D. Georgia primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Eason v. Bridgewater & Associates, Inc., 108 F. Supp. 3d 1358, 2015 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 75316, 2015 WL 3617080 (N.D. Ga. 2015).

Opinion

ORDER AND JUDGMENT

TIMOTHY C. BATTEN, SR., District Judge.

This case is before the Court on Plaintiffs’ motion for award of attorney’s fees and expenses [159].

I. Background

On August 19, 2011, named plaintiffs Alva W. (“Chip”) Eason and Ronald Reed filed the complaint in this case. On March 17, 2015, following a six-day trial, the jury returned a verdict in favor of Plaintiffs, finding that Plaintiffs were not properly compensated for overtime work while employed by Defendants BridgeWater & Associates, Inc. and/or BridgeWater Title, LLC. Among other things, the jury found each of the individual Defendants, Donna L. Johnson1 and Lisa M. Schultz, individually hable as an “employer” of Plaintiffs under the Fair Labor Standards Act (“FLSA”), and the jury found that Plaintiffs are owed total compensatory damages in the amount of $257,551.27, representing $164,852.10 in damages for overtime work performed for BridgeWater & Associates and $92,699.17 in damages for overtime work performed for BridgeWater Title.

Plaintiffs subsequently filed a motion for liquidated damages and an emergency motion for entry of judgment against Defendants. In their response to Plaintiffs’ emergency motion, Defendants raised certain objections to the language in the verdict form. On April 7, the Court granted Plaintiffs’ motion for liquidated damages and overruled Defendants’ objections to the verdict form.

On April 14, Plaintiffs filed the instant motion, along with a bill of costs and supporting documentation.

II. Discussion

In addition to damages, prevailing plaintiffs in an FLSA action are entitled to “a reasonable attorney’s fee to be paid by the defendant, and costs of the action.” 29 U.S.C. § 216(b). It is undisputed that Plaintiffs are the prevailing parties in this action and are therefore entitled to an award of attorney’s fees and expenses. See Kreager v. Solomon & Flanagan, P.A., 775 F.2d 1541, 1542 (11th Cir.1985) (indicating that under Section 216(b), an award of fees to prevailing plaintiffs is mandatory). In their motion, Plaintiffs request attorney’s fees in the amount of $231,534.64 and costs and other expenses in the amount of $22,185.86, representing fees and expenses incurred through April 8, 2015.2 Defendants raise three argu-[1362]*1362mente in opposition to Plaintiffs’ motion: (1) that the verdict lacks sufficient definiteness to enter a judgment for attorney’s fees against Schultz; (2) that Plaintiffs’ counsel should have indicated their actual billing rates for 2011 to 2015 instead of simply using 2014 rates for all hours; and (3) that Plaintiffs request fees for duplica-tive services. The Court will first address Defendants’ challenge to the entry of a judgment for attorney’s fees against Schultz and then address the reasonableness of Plaintiffs’ attorney’s fees and Defendants’ opposition to the amount of fees.

A. Schultz’s Liability for Attorney’s Fees

First, Defendants once again challenge the sufficiency of the verdict form, asserting that “the verdict does not provide for any monetary judgment against Defendant Lisa M. Schultz.” [162] at 2. Therefore, according to Defendants, “the verdict lacks sufficient definiteness to enter a judgment amount for attorney’s fees against Schultz.” Id. The Court has already addressed, and rejected, similar arguments in its order granting Plaintiffs’ motion for liquidated damages, see [155] at 4-8, and the Court remains persuaded that the verdict form sufficiently supports a monetary judgment against Schultz.

The jury was instructed that to succeed on their claims against Schultz, among other things, Plaintiffs were required to prove by a- preponderance of the evidence that Schultz qualified as an employer subject to individual liability under the FLSA. In instructions agreed upon by the parties, the Court explained what it means to be an “employer” under the FLSA, and the jury was specifically instructed that the determination of whether Schultz was an “employer” of Plaintiffs was to be based on whether she exercised control over significant aspects of the day-to-day functions of BridgeWater & Associates and/or Bridge-Water Title. As the Court previously stated, by finding that Schultz was “an employer of Plaintiffs, subject to individual liability” under the FLSA, “[t]he jury plainly found that Schultz was an ‘employer’ of Plaintiffs such that she is jointly and severally liable for damages attributable to the unpaid overtime that Plaintiffs worked while employed by BridgeWater Title and/or Bridgewater & Associates.” [155] at 5.

Defendants have offered no alternative explanation of the jury’s finding, nor have they explained what sort of finding, in their view, would have been sufficient to support a monetary judgment against Schultz. For the reasons outlined in this Order and the Court’s prior order granting liquidated damages, the Court determines that Schultz is jointly and severally liable with BridgeWater Title and BridgeWater & Associates for the attorney’s fees and expenses awarded to Plaintiffs in this case.

B. Reasonableness of Fees

The Court now turns to the reasonableness of the fees requested by Plaintiffs. “The most useful starting point for determining the amount of a reasonable fee is the number of hours reasonably expended on the litigation multiplied by a reasonable hourly rate.” Hensley v. Eckerhart, 461 U.S. 424, 433, 103 S.Ct. 1933, 76 L.Ed.2d 40 (1983). The product of these two numbers is commonly referred to as the “lodestar.” Pennsylvania v. Del. Valley Citizens’ Council for Clean Air, 478 U.S. 546, 563, 106 S.Ct. 3088, 92 L.Ed.2d 439 (1986). The Court will begin by discussing the number of hours expended by Plaintiffs’ counsel.

The fee applicant must “maintain[ ] records to show the time spent on the different claims, and set[] out with sufficient particularity the general subject matter of the time expenditures so that the district court can assess the time claimed for each activity.” Laube v. Allen, 506 [1363]*1363F.Supp.2d 969, 976 (M.D.Ala.2007) (citing Am. Civil Liberties Union of Ga. v. Barnes, 168 F.3d 423, 427 (11th Cir.1999)). To determine a reasonable number of hours, the Court must examine whether the fee applicant exercised “billing judgment.” Hensley, 461 U.S. at 434, 103 S.Ct. 1933. In exercising such judgment, “[cjounsel for the prevailing party should make a good faith effort to exclude from a fee request hours that are excessive, redundant, or otherwise unnecessary.” Id. “[A] court may reduce excessive, redundant or otherwise unnecessary hours in the exercise of billing judgment.” Perkins v. Mobile Hous. Bd., 847 F.2d 735, 738 (11th Cir.1988); see also Lee v. Krystal Co.,

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Bluebook (online)
108 F. Supp. 3d 1358, 2015 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 75316, 2015 WL 3617080, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/eason-v-bridgewater-associates-inc-gand-2015.