Wells Fargo Bank, National Association, as Trustee for Option One Mortgage Loan Trust 2007-2, Asset-Backed Certificates, Series 2007-2, v. David B. Moskoff and Daphne M.N. Fotiades

2021 DNH 164
CourtDistrict Court, D. New Hampshire
DecidedOctober 14, 2021
Docket17-cv-136-JL
StatusPublished
Cited by1 cases

This text of 2021 DNH 164 (Wells Fargo Bank, National Association, as Trustee for Option One Mortgage Loan Trust 2007-2, Asset-Backed Certificates, Series 2007-2, v. David B. Moskoff and Daphne M.N. Fotiades) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court, D. New Hampshire primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Wells Fargo Bank, National Association, as Trustee for Option One Mortgage Loan Trust 2007-2, Asset-Backed Certificates, Series 2007-2, v. David B. Moskoff and Daphne M.N. Fotiades, 2021 DNH 164 (D.N.H. 2021).

Opinion

UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT DISTRICT OF NEW HAMPSHIRE

Wells Fargo Bank, National Association, as Trustee for Option One Mortgage Loan Trust 2007-2, Asset-Backed Certificates, Series 2007-2,

v. Civil No. 1:17-cv-136-JL Opinion No. 2021 DNH 164

David B. Moskoff and Daphne M.N. Fotiades

MEMORANDUM ORDER

Following a jury trial and verdict in its favor, Plaintiff Wells Fargo moves for an award

of attorneys’ fees and costs in the amount of $333,038.84.1 It seeks its attorneys’ fees and costs

for prosecuting and trying this judicial foreclosure action under a fee-shifting provision in the

operative mortgage as well as Fed. R. Civ. P. 54(d)(2). Defendants David B. Moskoff and

Daphne M.N. Fotiades object to Wells Fargo’s fee and cost request, arguing that Wells Fargo is

not entitled to a fee award and disputing the amount of fees and costs requested. This court has

jurisdiction under 28 U.S.C. § 1332(a) (diversity) because the parties are citizens of different

states and the amount in controversy exceeds $75,000.

After consideration of the parties’ submissions, including careful review of the billing

records submitted by Wells Fargo, and hearing oral argument, the court grants Wells Fargo’s

motion but reduces the amount of requested fees and costs as detailed below. While the rates

proposed by Wells Fargo are reasonable, the number of hours and amount of certain costs

requested are excessive or unrecoverable.

1 See Motion for Attorney Fees and Costs (doc. no. 289). Background

Wells Fargo filed suit in April 2017.2 It sought a declaratory judgment confirming its

right to enforce the subject note and mortgage against Moskoff and Fotiades, a judicial

foreclosure order and decree of sale, and a judgment for the amount due on the note.3 The case

was hotly contested at every stage, and included over 300 filings (200 before trial), six

interlocutory appeals, repeated discovery disputes, and court-supervised discovery. After over

four years of litigation,4 Wells Fargo tried its three claims against Moskoff and Fotiades before a

jury, resulting in a verdict for Wells Fargo. Wells Fargo utilized two sets of lawyers in this

matter. In the first part of the case, from roughly April 2017 to November 2019, lawyers from

Korde and Associates in Massachusetts represented Wells Fargo. Then, from November 2019

through the trial in June 2021 and thereafter, lawyers from Locke Lord LLP’s Boston,

Massachusetts and Hartford, Connecticut offices represented the company.

Analysis

A. Entitlement to attorneys’ fees and costs

In a diversity action such as this one that raises state law claims, “state law governs the

award of fees.” GT Solar Inc. v. EMX Controls, Inc., No. 12-CV-253-JD, 2012 WL 6214405, at

2 See Amended Complaint (doc. no. 3). 3 Wells Fargo asserted additional claims against other defendants, but those claims were either resolved or voluntarily dismissed before trial. The focus of Wells Fargo’s suit was unquestionably its claims against Moskoff and Fotiades. 4 Some of the delay in trying this case was attributable to the COVID-19 pandemic and its effect on court operations and travel restrictions for out-of-state witnesses. Wells Fargo moved to continue the trial several times due to company-imposed travel restrictions resulting from the pandemic. See doc. nos. 263, 264, 265, 267, 269. The court denied Wells Fargo’s final motion to continue and scheduled the case for trial beginning on June 15, 2021.

2 *1 (D.N.H. Dec. 10, 2012) (DiClerico, J.) (citing In re Volkswagen & Audi Warranty Extension

Litig., 692 F.3d 4, 15 (1st Cir. 2012)). Under New Hampshire law, a request for attorneys’ fees

“must be grounded upon statutory authorization, a court rule, an agreement between the parties,

or an established exception to the rule that each party is responsible for paying his or her own

counsel fees.” In the Matter of Hampers & Hampers, 154 N.H. 275, 289 (2006) (quotation

omitted). An agreement between the parties that shifts attorneys’ fees is interpreted by “giving

the language used by the parties its reasonable meaning.” Turner v. Shared Towers VA, LLC,

167 N.H. 196, 207 (2014).

Wells Fargo grounds its request for attorneys’ fees on its mortgage with the Defendants.

The Defendants ignore the attorneys’ fees provision in the mortgage and instead argue that the

Federal Declaratory Judgment Act does not provide Wells Fargo with a right to collect its

attorneys’ fees in this action.5 The court agrees with Wells Fargo that the parties’ mortgage

provides it with the right to collect attorneys’ fees and costs from the Defendants.

Here, the jury found the following: (1) both Moskoff and Fotiades signed the mortgage

and breached their obligations under the mortgage; (2) Moskoff signed the operative note and

breached his obligations thereunder; and (3) Wells Fargo was the holder of the note and

mortgagee of the mortgage. The Defendants are therefore in default under the terms of the

mortgage. In the event of a default under the mortgage, Wells Fargo may pursue “any other

remedies or take any other actions permitted by applicable law” to collect amounts owed, and in

pursuing these remedies, Wells Fargo “will collect all expenses incurred . . . including, but not

5 While the Defendants are correct that the Declaratory Judgment Act does not contain a fee shifting provision, Wells Fargo is not basing its fee request on this statute. The Defendants’ argument also loses sight of the fact that Wells Fargo tried and prevailed on its other claims for judicial foreclosure, decree of sale, and judgment on the note, and those claims entitle it to some award of attorneys’ fees and costs.

3 limited to, reasonable attorneys’ fees and costs of title evidence.”6 Thus, the plain and

reasonable meaning of the mortgage provides Wells Fargo with the ability to recover from the

Defendants its “reasonable attorneys’ fees and costs of title evidence” incurred in pursuing this

judicial foreclosure action. And under Fed. R. Civ. P. 54(d)(1), Wells Fargo, as the prevailing

party, is also entitled to its costs.

B. Amount of fee award

New Hampshire uses “eight guiding factors . . . in determining whether an attorney’s fee

is reasonable.” Town of Barrington v. Townsend, 164 N.H. 241, 250 (2012) (quoting Funtown

USA, Inc. v. Town of Conway, 129 N.H. 352, 356 (1987)). They are “the amount involved, the

nature, novelty, and difficulty of the litigation, the attorney’s standing and the skill employed, the

time devoted, the customary fees in the area, the extent to which the attorney prevailed, and the

benefit thereby bestowed on his clients.” Id.

In this court, the “calculation of shifted attorneys’ fees generally requires courts to follow

the familiar lodestar approach.” Cent. Pension Fund of the Int’l Union of Operating Eng’rs &

Participating Emp’rs v. Ray Haluch Gravel Co., 745 F.3d 1, 5 (1st Cir. 2014) (citing Perdue v.

Kenny A. ex rel. Winn, 559 U.S.

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