Erickson Productions Inc v. Kraig R Kast

District Court, N.D. California·Decided August 31, 2021·No. 4:13-cv-05472·Unknown

Opinion

ERICKSON PRODUCTIONS INC, et al., Case No. 13-cv-05472-DMR

Plaintiffs, ORDER ON PLAINTIFFS' MOTION v. FOR AN AWARD OF ATTORNEYS' FEES AND COSTS KRAIG RUDINGER KAST, et al., Re: Dkt. No. 382 Defendants.

Plaintiffs Erickson Productions, Inc. (“Erickson Productions”) and Jim Erickson (together, “Erickson”) move pursuant to the Copyright Act, 17 U.S.C. § 505, for an award of attorneys’ fees and costs in this copyright infringement action. [Docket No. 382.] Pro se Defendant Kraig Kast opposes the motion. [Docket No. 388.] This matter is suitable for decision without a hearing. Civ. L.R. 7-1(b). For the following reasons, the motion is granted in part and denied in part. The court will determine the amount of attorneys’ fees and costs to which Erickson is entitled following supplemental briefing. Erickson filed suit against Kast in September 2013 alleging that Kast infringed Erickson’s copyrights in three photos. Following a three-day trial in April 2015, a jury found that Kast vicariously and contributorily infringed Erickson’s copyrights and did so willfully. It awarded Erickson the maximum in statutory damages, $150,000 per photo, for total damages of $450,000, and the Honorable Howard R. Lloyd entered judgment for that amount against Kast. [Docket No. 118 (Aug. 19, 2015 Judgment).] Erickson then moved for an award of attorneys’ fees and costs pursuant to 17 U.S.C. § 505. [Docket No. 108.] Kast appealed the judgment against him to the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit (the “first appeal,” Case No. 15-16801).1 [Docket No. 123.] Judge Lloyd issued several orders during the pendency of the appeal, three of which are relevant to this motion. First, in July 2016, the court denied Erickson’s motion for fees and costs without prejudice, finding that a fee award was “appropriate and will further the goals of the Copyright Act” but denying the motion on the ground that Erickson had not presented sufficient evidence supporting the reasonableness of the claimed hourly rates. [Docket No. 174 at 5-6.] Following supplemental submissions by the parties, the court issued a second order in August 2017 granting in part and denying in part the motion for fees and costs and awarded Erickson $182,961.00 in attorneys’ fees and $3,225.58 in costs. [Docket No. 242.] Additionally, in October 2017, the court granted in part Erickson’s motion to amend the judgment to add judgment debtors. [Docket No. 243.] The court issued an amended judgment on October 18, 2017 that added the following judgment debtors to the judgment: Warren Craig Rudinger; Kraig Kast, Trustee of the Black Oak Trust (a/k/a Kraig Kast, Trustee of The Black Oak Trust, dated March 11, 1995); Atherton Trust; Atherton & Associates; Atherton Insurance Services; The Atherton Company; Atherton Investment Advisors; and CB Real Estate Wealth management. [Docket No. 246 (Oct. 18, 2017 Am. Judgment).] The amended judgment was for $636,186.58 plus post-judgment interest from August 19, 2015, which represented $450,000 in damages awarded by the jury, $182,961.00 in attorneys’ fees, and $3,225.58 in costs. Id. Kast appealed the court’s order granting in part the motion to amend the judgment (the “second appeal,” Case No. 17-17157).2 [Docket No. 247.] With respect to the first appeal, the Ninth Circuit affirmed the judgment in part, reversed the judgment in part, and remanded on the issue of willfulness. Erickson Prods., Inc. v. Kast (“Erickson I”), 921 F.3d 822 (9th Cir. 2019). In relevant part, the Ninth Circuit held that the district court erred in including a negligence standard in the jury’s willfulness instruction, because “[n]egligence is a less culpable mental state than actual knowledge, willful blindness, or recklessness, the three mental states that properly support a finding of willfulness.” Id. at 833 (citations omitted). The Ninth Circuit further determined that “[t]he erroneous willfulness instruction was likely prejudicial to Kast” and “remand[ed] the issue of willfulness to the district court on the existing record.” Id. at 833, 834. It observed that “[w]hile the evidence may have established that Kast was negligent, it is much less clear that it established recklessness, willful blindness, or actual knowledge,” and that “[i]f the jury had been properly instructed, it might well have refused to find Kast willful on this record.” Id. at 834-45. However, it “disagree[d] with Kast’s claim that ‘the record permits only one resolution of the factual issue’ of willfulness and decline[ed] his invitation to enter judgment in his favor.” Id. at 835 (internal citation omitted). At the conclusion of its opinion, the court ordered “[e]ach party to bear its own costs.” Id. at 836. As to the second appeal, the Ninth Circuit affirmed the court’s October 2017 order granting in part Erickson’s motion to amend the judgment in a separate memorandum disposition. Erickson Prods., Inc. v. Kast (“Erickson II”), 769 Fed. Appx. 482 (9th Cir. 2019). The court subsequently awarded attorneys’ fees on appeal to Erickson for the second appeal and referred the determination of the amount of fees to the Appellate Commissioner. [Docket No. 384-4 (Kleinman Decl., Feb. 26, 2021) ¶ 10, Ex. 4 (Ninth Circuit Fees Order).] On October 3, 2019, the Appellate Commissioner awarded Erickson $13,955 in attorneys’ fees. Id. Following Judge Lloyd’s retirement, the matter was reassigned to the undersigned upon remand. [Docket No. 351.] The parties submitted cross-briefing regarding the issues of willful infringement and the amount of statutory damages that should be awarded if the evidence did not support a finding of willfulness. On February 12, 2021, the court ruled that the evidence supported a finding of willfulness and awarded Erickson $450,000 in statutory damages, representing $150,000 per photo. Erickson Prods. Inc v. Kast (“Erickson III”), No. 13-CV-05472- DMR, 2021 WL 528769, at *1 (N.D. Cal. Feb. 12, 2021) (Order re: Willfulness and Damages Following Remand). The court entered judgment in Erickson’s favor against Kast for that amount the same day. [Docket No. 381.] Erickson now seeks attorneys’ fees and costs pursuant to 17 U.S.C. § 505 for work performed on: 1) the appeal in Erickson I; 2) the proceedings on remand in Erickson III regarding the issue of willfulness; and 3) post-judgment collection efforts. Mot. 4-10. He also asks the court to amend the February 12, 2021 judgment to include the awards of attorneys’ fees and costs and to include the judgment debtors listed in the October 18, 2017 Amended Judgment. The Copyright Act provides that in any civil action for infringement, “the court in its discretion may allow the recovery of full costs by or against any party other than the United States,” including “a reasonable attorney’s fee to the prevailing party as part of the costs.” 17 U.S.C. § 505. Section 505 “grants courts wide latitude” to award attorneys’ fees in a copyright case “based on the totality of the circumstances.” Kirtsaeng v. John Wiley & Sons, Inc., 136 S. Ct. 1979, 1985 (2016). “Courts may consider (but [are] not limited to) five factors in making an attorneys’ fees determination . . . (1) the degree of success obtained, (2) frivolousness, (3) motivation, (4) [objective] reasonableness of [the] losing party’s legal and factual arguments, and (5) the need to advance considerations of compensation and deterrence.” Tresona Multimedia, LLC v. Burbank High Sch. Vocal Music Ass’n,

Erickson Productions Inc v. Kraig R Kast, (N.D. Cal. 2021).

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