Weiss v. York Hospital

590 F. Supp. 283, 1984 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 24802
CourtDistrict Court, M.D. Pennsylvania
DecidedJuly 26, 1984
DocketCiv. No. 80-0134
StatusPublished

This text of 590 F. Supp. 283 (Weiss v. York Hospital) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court, M.D. Pennsylvania primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Weiss v. York Hospital, 590 F. Supp. 283, 1984 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 24802 (M.D. Pa. 1984).

Opinion

OPINION

MUIR, District Judge.

I. Introduction.

On June 14, 1984, counsel for Plaintiff Weiss filed a motion for an award of counsel fees pursuant to a settlement agreement entered by the parties and approved by this Court on June 8, 1984. Pursuant to that agreement, the Defendants do not contest Plaintiff’s counsels’ request for an award of counsel fees totalling $99,950.00. The Defendants have, however, contested Plaintiff’s counsels’ right to reimbursement for certain expenses. Although Plaintiff’s counsels’ motion for counsel fees and expenses was, for the most part, uncontested, the parties nevertheless requested that the Court approve as reasonable the counsel fees and expenses requested by Plaintiff’s counsel. Consequently, a hearing on the motion was held on July 16, 1984. The following are the Court’s findings of fact and conclusions of law on the motion for fees and expenses.

II. Findings of Fact.

1. On June 7, 1984, Plaintiff, with the consent of all parties, filed a motion for an Order approving as fair and reasonable an agreement of settlement entered into between the parties on June 8, 1984 and for an Order directing the parties to comply with that agreement as an Order of the Court.

2. Thereafter the Court approved the settlement and entered it as its Order.

3. Paragraph 8 of the Settlement Agreement provides in pertinent part:

8. The respondents shall pay the firm of Levin and Fishbein and Lewis H. Markowitz an attorneys’ fee for services performed between December 14, 1983 and the date this Agreement becomes effective, and shall reimburse the out-of-pocket expenditures incurred in connection with the contempt motion in those amounts determined by the Court, after a hearing, to be reasonable; provided, however, that such amounts shall not exceed those set forth in the Addendum to this Agreement...

[284]*2844. The Addendum to the Agreement provides that the maximum fee to be paid pursuant to paragraph 8 is $99,950.00 and that the maximum to be paid for reimbursement of expenses under paragraph 8 is $8,500.00.

5. Plaintiffs counsel have filed a motion for an award of fees and expenses allowable under paragraph 8 of the Settlement Agreement and the Confidential Addendum thereto.

6. The following attorneys for Plaintiff performed the following number of hours of legal services between December 14, 1983 and June 6, 1984 in connection with the prosecution and settlement of plaintiffs Motion for the Entry of Civil Contempt Sanctions:

Arnold Levin 165.25 hours

Michael D. Fishbein 569.50 hours

Lewis H. Markowitz 108.10 hours

Marc G. Tarlow 5.30 hours

Total 848.15 hours

7. After Plaintiffs counsel had completed their initial factual research and legal evaluation of the events occurring with respect to Dr. Weiss’s application for staff privileges between July 12, 1982 and December 14, 1983, they approached counsel for defendants and requested as required by the Rules of Court of this District his concurrence or non-concurrence in a Motion for the Entry of Civil and Criminal Contempt Sanctions. Counsel refused to concur. Defendants forthwith moved in the United States Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit for a stay which would prevent Plaintiff from proceeding with any action based on any alleged contempt of the Court’s September 30, 1982 injunction. Plaintiff’s counsel prepared an Answer and Memorandum in Opposition to Defendants’ Motion. The Answer outlined in detail each of the acts by Defendants which Plaintiff alleged was in contempt of the Court’s September 30, 1982 injunction. Defendants filed a reply and Plaintiff filed a Sur-Reply. The Court of Appeals denied Defendants’ Motion.

8. Thereafter, Plaintiff’s counsel prepared a Motion for the Entry of Civil and Criminal Contempt Sanctions and a memorandum of law in support thereof which were filed on January 16, 1984. The Respondents filed a response to the Motion and Plaintiff’s counsel thereafter prepared a memorandum of law in reply which was filed with the Court.

9. Simultaneously with the filing of the motion for the entry of civil and criminal contempt sanctions, Plaintiff filed and served notices to take the depositions of a number of witnesses and requests for the production of documents. When the Court on January 16, 1984 scheduled trial of the contempt action on its February list, the deposition schedule was revised.

10. On the day before the depositions were scheduled to commence, defendants served Objections to the request for production of documents contained in the Notice of Depositions and moved for protective orders precluding the taking of the depositions. Thereafter, Plaintiff’s counsel prepared and filed a detailed response to the defendants’ motion for a protective order and a memorandum of law in opposition thereto. In addition, Plaintiff’s counsel filed a motion to overrule Defendants’ objections and to compel the production of documents. Defendants filed answering papers and Plaintiff’s counsel prepared a reply.

11. Respondents filed a second motion for a protective order with regard to other depositions which had been scheduled by Plaintiff and filed objections to the request for production of documents contained in the notices to take their depositions. Again, Plaintiff’s counsel was constrained to prepare a response to the motion for a protective order and an independent motion to compel the production of documents.

12. Respondents also prepared and filed a number of non-discovery motions including a motion requesting a jury trial, a motion requesting trial of the contempt proceedings in Harrisburg, a motion under the Speedy Trial Act, a motion to quash service of process, and a motion to dismiss [285]*285the medical staff as a party. Although the United States Attorney formally answered some of these motions, Plaintiffs counsel reviewed and researched each question and responded to the motion for trial in Harrisburg and the motion to dismiss the medical staff.

13. After these motions were resolved, Plaintiff’s counsel was finally able to begin conducting discovery on March 19, 1984. In the one month period following that date, Plaintiff’s counsel reviewed the Hospital’s production of the staff files maintained with regard to each applicant who applied for staff privileges since September 30, 1982, created a statistical compilation from those files which was reflected in the Proposed Findings of Fact and Conclusions of Law submitted by Plaintiff to the Court, and conducted or participated in lengthy depositions of eleven individuals: Dr. Gary Ardison, Dr. Galen Kistler, Dr. Philip Laucks, Dr. Kenneth Heaps, Dr. Jack Kline, Dr. Arthur Crovatto, Dr. Merle Bacastow, Dr. Malcolm D. Weiss, Dr. Martin Lasky, Mr. Dennis Heinle and Dr. Alfred DeAngelo. Each of these depositions was conducted in York, Pennsylvania.

14. Based upon this extensive pretrial discovery, Plaintiff’s counsel prepared in excess of 50 pages of detailed proposed findings of fact.

15. Plaintiff’s counsel prepared for and attended the first portion of the contempt trial which took place between April 30, 1984 and May 3, 1984.

16. After the contempt trial was adjourned, because of a conflict with a trip to Russia which had been prepaid by lead defense counsel, Plaintiff’s counsel completed their preparations for the balance of the trial.

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Bluebook (online)
590 F. Supp. 283, 1984 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 24802, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/weiss-v-york-hospital-pamd-1984.