Wells v. City of Chicago

925 F. Supp. 2d 1036, 2013 WL 622942, 2013 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 22740
CourtDistrict Court, N.D. Illinois
DecidedFebruary 20, 2013
DocketCase No. 09 C 1198
StatusPublished
Cited by14 cases

This text of 925 F. Supp. 2d 1036 (Wells v. City of Chicago) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court, N.D. Illinois primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Wells v. City of Chicago, 925 F. Supp. 2d 1036, 2013 WL 622942, 2013 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 22740 (N.D. Ill. 2013).

Opinion

MEMORANDUM OPINION AND ORDER

MATTHEW F. KENNELLY, District Judge.

Ann Darlene Wells (plaintiff), as representative of the estate of Donald L. Wells (Wells), sued the City of Chicago and a number of Chicago police officers and employees under 42 U.S.C. § 1983 for claims arising from his arrest, confinement, and death. In April 2012, a jury returned a verdict for plaintiff against the City and four of the defendant officers on plaintiffs unlawful detention claim. The jury awarded plaintiff $1 million in compensatory damages against all of the defendants found liable and a total of $150,500 in punitive damages against the four officers. The jury found for all defendants on plaintiffs claim relating to denial of medical care.

On September 16, 2012, following consideration of defendants’ motions for judgment as a matter of law or for a new trial, the Court entered judgment as a matter of law in favor of the City on plaintiffs Monell claim concerning unlawful detention, finding the evidence insufficient to support that claim. The Court also vacated the punitive damage awards against the four officers, finding the evidence insufficient to support punitive damages. This left plaintiffs compensatory damage award of $1,000,000. The Court concluded that the award was excessive and ordered a remittitur, stating that it would grant a new trial on the issue of compensatory damages unless plaintiff accepted a reduced award of $250,000. See Wells v. City of Chicago, 896 F.Supp.2d 725 (N.D.Ill.2012). [1039]*1039Plaintiff accepted the reduced award. The City then filed a statement that it would indemnify the four officers for the amount of the award. See docket entry 415 (Oct. 2, 2012). No appeal was filed following entry of the Court’s revised judgment.

Plaintiff has petitioned for an award of attorney’s fees and expenses pursuant to 42 U.S.C. § 1988. She requests attorney’s fees of $4,037,367.85 and $475,119.80 in expenses. Plaintiff has also petitioned for costs pursuant to 28 U.S.C. § 1920. It is unclear to the Court the extent to which the costs that plaintiff seeks in her petition for costs overlap with the expenses sought in her fee petition.1 In addition, the defendants who prevailed at trial have petitioned for costs pursuant to section 1920.

Plaintiffs fee petition and the original briefs supporting and opposing it were filed before the Court issued its September 16 decision on the post-trial motions. At the Court’s request, the parties made supplemental submissions after the issuance of that decision.

Plaintiffs fee petition

The starting point for determination of a reasonable attorney’s fee in a section 1983 case is the number of hours reasonably expended on the litigation, multiplied by a reasonable hourly rate. See Hensley v. Eckerhart, 461 U.S. 424, 433, 103 S.Ct. 1933, 76 L.Ed.2d 40 (1983). The fee applicant bears the burden of showing the reasonableness of the time requested as well as the hourly rates. Id. at 437, 103 S.Ct. 1933.

The figure derived from multiplying the hours reasonably expended by a reasonable hourly rate is referred to as the “lodestar.” A court can adjust the lodestar based on twelve factors described in Hensley. Id. at 434 n. 9, 103 S.Ct. 1933. The twelve factors are:

(1) the time and labor required; (2) the novelty and difficulty of the questions; (3) the skill requisite to perform the legal service properly; (4) the preclusion of employment by the attorney due to acceptance of the case; (5) the customary fee; (6) whether the fee is fixed or contingent; (7) time limitations imposed by the client or the circumstances; (8) the amount involved and the results obtained; (9) the experience, reputation, and ability of the attorneys; (10) the “undesirability” of the case; (11) the nature and length of the professional relationship with the client; and (12) awards in similar cases.

Id. at 430 n. 3, 103 S.Ct. 1933. “However, ‘many of these factors usually are subsumed within the initial calculation of hours reasonably expended at a reasonable hourly rate.’ ” Anderson v. AB Painting and Sandblasting Inc., 578 F.3d 542, 544 (7th Cir.2009) (quoting Hensley, 461 U.S. at 434 n. 9,103 S.Ct. 1933).

1. Hourly rates

Three law firms were involved in representing plaintiff: Howard & Howard; Statman, Harris & Eyrich; and Robert Robertson. None of the attorneys has an established hourly rate that he or she charges to paying clients. Rather, all of them typically handle cases on a contingent fee basis, as they did in this case.

Plaintiff seeks hourly rates ranging from $242 to $499 for the twelve Howard attorneys; from $210 to $545 for the seven Statman attorneys; and $499 for Robert[1040]*1040son. Defendants argue that these proposed rates are excessive. They contend that plaintiff has not supported a rate of more than $325 for any attorney, and they propose rates of $150 to $325.

A reasonable hourly rate is “one that is derived from the market rate for the services rendered.” Pickett v. Sheridan Health Care Ctr., 664 F.3d 632, 640 (7th Cir.2011) (internal quotation marks omitted). The focus, as defendants argue, is “the prevailing market rate for lawyers engaged in the type of litigation in which the fee is being sought.” Cooper v. Casey, 97 F.3d 914, 920 (7th Cir.1996) (emphasis in original). See also Spegon v. Catholic Bishop of Chicago, 175 F.3d 544, 555 (7th Cir.1999).

If the attorney has an actual billing rate that he or she typically charges and obtains for similar litigation, that is presumptively his hourly rate. Pickett, 664 F.3d at 640. In some situations, however, the attorney does not have an established market rate, for example, because he or she typically uses contingent fee arrangements or relies on statutory fee awards. When (as here) that is the case, a court should rely on the “next best evidence” of the attorney’s market rate, namely “evidence of rates similarly experienced attorneys in the community charge paying clients for similar work and evidence of fee awards the attorney has received in similar cases.” Id. (internal quotation marks omitted).

“The fee applicant bears the burden of ‘producing] satisfactory evidence — in addition to the attorney’s own affidavits— that the requested rates are in line with those prevailing in the community.’ ” Id. (quoting Blum v. Stenson, 465 U.S. 886, 895 n. 11, 104 S.Ct. 1541, 79 L.Ed.2d 891 (1984)).

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
925 F. Supp. 2d 1036, 2013 WL 622942, 2013 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 22740, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/wells-v-city-of-chicago-ilnd-2013.