Seaman v. National Collegiate Student Loan Trust 2007-2

Background

The Trust Defendants asked the court to require the plaintiffs to reimburse their expert witness, Roger Saylor, for reasonable time and expenses connected with his February 28, 2025 deposition. The request sought $8,099.05: 16 hours at $500 per hour, consisting of eight hours preparing for the deposition and eight hours testifying, plus $99.95 in local travel expenses.

The parties’ arguments

The plaintiffs opposed the request on three grounds. First, they argued that reimbursement should wait because they had filed a motion under Daubert v. Merrell Dow Pharmaceuticals asking the court to exclude Saylor’s testimony. Second, they argued that the Trust Defendants had not met and conferred with plaintiffs’ counsel before filing the motion. Third, they challenged the amount of the bill, including Saylor’s hourly rate.

Court’s analysis

The court concluded that the pending Daubert motion did not eliminate or postpone the plaintiffs’ obligation under Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 26(b)(4) to pay an identified expert a reasonable fee for time spent responding to discovery. The court also found that the Trust Defendants had not violated the court’s meet-and-confer requirement. Instead, the court concluded that the plaintiffs had not responded promptly and in good faith to the defendants’ reimbursement requests.

The court agreed with the plaintiffs that the requested $500 hourly rate was excessive. It declined to reduce the rate merely because Saylor lives in North Carolina or because he had not worked in securitization for nearly 20 years. The defendants had retained him to testify about how the student loans at issue were securitized two decades earlier. Because neither side provided evidence of the reasonable rate for an expert with Saylor’s qualifications, the court set the rate at $375 per hour, using a blended rate the court had previously approved for plaintiffs’ attorneys in a discovery-sanctions award. The court rejected the plaintiffs’ remaining objections.

Disposition

Judge Barbara Moses ordered the plaintiffs, within 30 days, to reimburse the Trust Defendants $6,099.95. The award covered eight hours of preparation and eight hours of deposition testimony at $375 per hour, plus $99.95 in local travel expenses. The Trust Defendants’ letter-motion was granted to that extent, and the Clerk of Court was directed to close the motion.