Moralez v. Monterey Plaza Hotel Limited Partnership

Background

Francisca Moralez filed a disability-access lawsuit seeking accessibility improvements at facilities in the Cannery Row area of Monterey, California. The claims included alleged violations of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973, California’s Unruh Act, and other California statutes. The City of Monterey was the only defendant implicated in the fee motion.

Moralez and the City participated in mediations and settlement conferences. They filed a consent decree on January 29, 2025, and judgment was entered against the City on January 31, 2025. The consent decree requires the City to make approximately $1.5 million in accessibility improvements. The parties did not dispute that Moralez was the prevailing party and entitled to reasonable attorneys’ fees and costs.

Moralez’s counsel initially requested $1,227,530 and later increased the request to $1,249,454 to include work on the fee motion. The request covered attorneys Timothy Thimesch and Gene Farber.

Hourly Rates

The attorneys requested hourly rates of $1,000. The City argued that no more than $450 per hour should be approved. The court found that counsel’s declarations did not adequately establish a prevailing $1,000 rate for disability-access cases in the Northern District of California. The court instead considered prior rate decisions showing a typical range of $350 to $495 for attorneys with about 20 or more years of experience. Accounting for inflation, it approved a rate of $535 per hour for both attorneys.

Hours and Billing Records

The court used counsel’s most recent billing submission, which reported 745.64 hours of merits work. It reduced travel time by half, resulting in a 46.93-hour reduction. The court did not reduce the time billed for discovery or for researching and preparing an unfiled summary-judgment motion.

Because Moralez’s claims against different defendants involved different properties and responsibilities, the court found that the shared work had to be allocated among defendants. Counsel had allocated 50% of the joint hours to the City, but the court reduced the City’s share to 10%. After the travel and allocation adjustments, the court applied an additional 10% reduction because the billing records contained unexplained inconsistencies and errors. The court calculated 385.94 compensable merits hours.

Lodestar and Multiplier

The court calculated the lodestar—the number of compensable hours multiplied by a reasonable hourly rate—as follows:

- Thimesch: 336.46 hours at $535 per hour, totaling $180,007.81. - Farber: 49.48 hours at $535 per hour, totaling $26,470.46. - Total merits fees: $206,478.27.

Moralez’s counsel requested a 1.5 multiplier, which would have increased the lodestar. The court denied that request. It found that the issues were not shown to be sufficiently novel or difficult to justify an enhancement, that counsel’s skill was already reflected in the approved hourly rate, that the time commitment did not prevent other work, and that the contingency risk was already reflected in the rates.

Fees for Preparing the Fee Motion

Counsel requested $56,960 for preparing the attorneys’ fee motion. Because the court awarded $206,478.27, or about 18% of the requested merits fees, it found the fee-motion request excessive. The court applied a 50% reduction and awarded $28,480 for this work.

Expenses and Costs

Counsel requested $37,734 in expenses and costs. The court rejected the City’s argument that these amounts were waived because Moralez did not file a separate bill of costs, finding that the consent decree allowed expenses and costs to be requested through the fee motion.

The court denied reimbursement for $7,975 in fees paid to John O’Connor as a fee expert because his declarations did not meaningfully assist the court in determining reasonable hourly rates. The court also reduced counsel’s allocation of shared expenses to the City from 50% to 10%. After these reductions, it awarded $6,222.12 in litigation expenses and costs.

Disposition

The court granted in part and denied in part Moralez’s motion for attorneys’ fees, expenses, and costs. It ordered the Defendant to pay $234,958.27 in attorneys’ fees and $6,222.12 in litigation expenses and costs within 30 days of the order’s filing.