Fair Housing Justice Center, Inc. v. Goldfarb Properties, Inc.

Background

Fair Housing Justice Center, Inc. (FHJC) sued Pelican Management, Inc., Fordham One Company, LLC, and Cedar Two Company, LLC, challenging policies that required prospective renters to earn at least 43 times their total monthly rent. FHJC asserted disability-discrimination claims under the Fair Housing Act and the New York City Human Rights Law, as well as a source-of-income-discrimination claim under the New York City Human Rights Law.

After a bench trial, the Court found for FHJC on all three claims. It also found against the defendants on their counterclaim seeking a declaration that their 2019 policy was lawful, holding that the policy was unlawful as to its requirements for applicants with partial rental subsidies. The Court awarded FHJC $240,540 in compensatory damages, $750,000 in punitive damages, and injunctive relief. The Second Circuit later affirmed that decision.

FHJC moved for attorney fees and costs as the prevailing party. It sought $1,535,711 in fees and $46,575.61 in costs, for a total of $1,582,286.61. The defendants did not dispute that FHJC was the prevailing party or challenge the hourly rates for several of FHJC’s attorneys, but they objected to other rates, billing entries, and categories of work.

Court’s Analysis

The Court used the lodestar method, which generally calculates a fee award by multiplying reasonable hours by reasonable hourly rates. The Court also emphasized that district courts may use reasonable estimates and percentage reductions rather than audit every billing entry individually.

Hourly rates. The Court rejected the objection to associate Michelle Yankson’s $550 hourly rate. It found her experience comparable to that of another associate whose $550 rate the defendants did not challenge. The Court did, however, find that $200 per hour was a reasonable rate for paralegal work, rather than the $225 rate requested by FHJC.

Work involving Alfred Spooner. Spooner was originally a plaintiff, but his claims were dismissed with prejudice under a settlement and release. The release covered claims for fees and costs related to his efforts to rent an apartment. The Court therefore declined to award fees for work performed solely on Spooner’s behalf. Because the record did not show precisely how much earlier work was exclusively for Spooner, the Court applied a 15% reduction to FHJC’s pre-settlement fees, excluding work on Spooner’s settlement itself.

Unsuccessful motion to dismiss the counterclaim. The Court declined to deduct the $61,195 attributed to FHJC’s motion to dismiss the defendants’ counterclaim. Although the motion was denied, the Court found no indication that FHJC pursued it unreasonably or that the work was undeserving of compensation. The fact that a prevailing party did not win every motion does not automatically make the related work noncompensable.

Alleged case mismanagement. The Court rejected proposed deductions for preparing FHJC’s first amended complaint and preparing trial witness Kiana Glanton. The record did not show that the amended complaint involved inefficient, duplicative, or unnecessary work. The Court also disagreed that Glanton’s testimony added no value to the case.

Overall success. The Court declined to reduce the award based on FHJC’s degree of success. FHJC prevailed on all three claims and obtained the damages and injunctive relief it requested. The Court also noted that a fee award in a civil-rights case does not have to be proportional to the monetary damages recovered.

Billing entries. The Court found that some entries were vague but concluded that the 15% across-the-board reduction adequately accounted for them. It declined to reduce the award based on entries billing 0.1 hours, finding that the number and nature of those entries were not inherently unreasonable. For entries identified as entirely clerical, the Court required compensation at the $200 paralegal rate. It did not reduce the rates for entries identified as only partly clerical.

The Court also concluded that the 15% reduction adequately accounted for any potentially unrelated work identified in the defendants’ supplemental objections.

Disposition

The Court ordered the following adjustments to FHJC’s fee and cost request:

- Paralegal time must be billed at $200 per hour. - Entries identified as entirely clerical must be compensated at $200 per hour. - A 15% reduction must be applied to the total fee award to account for pre-settlement work performed solely on Spooner’s behalf, unreasonably vague entries, and work unrelated to the litigation.

The Court made no additional deductions for Yankson’s work, FHJC’s motion to dismiss the counterclaim, work on the first amended complaint, work involving Glanton, FHJC’s overall success, 0.1-hour entries, or entries identified as partly clerical. FHJC was directed to submit an amended fee application by April 7, 2025. The Court directed the Clerk to terminate the fee motion. The opinion does not state the final fee-and-cost amount after these adjustments.