Gold v. California Highway Patrol

Background

Ari Gold sued the California Highway Patrol, Christopher Weaver, Kristin Cho, and officers whose identities were unknown to him. The complaint alleged battery, negligence, negligent hiring, training, and supervision, violation of the Bane Act, and unlawful search and excessive force under the Fourth Amendment. The fee motion concerned only service of the complaint on Officers Weaver and Cho.

Gold twice asked the officers to waive service. Defendants’ counsel stated that the officers would not waive service, asked that they be personally served, acknowledged that Defendants might have to pay the service expense, and later offered to forward an itemization of those expenses to the California Highway Patrol. Gold nevertheless filed a motion seeking service expenses and attorney fees.

Court’s Analysis

Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 4(d)(1) requires a person or entity subject to service to avoid unnecessary service expenses. Under Rule 4(d)(2), a defendant who fails without good cause to waive service must pay the expenses later incurred to complete service and the reasonable expenses, including attorney fees, of any motion required to collect those service expenses.

The parties agreed that Gold had sent a valid waiver request and that Officers Cho and Weaver failed to waive service without good cause. They also agreed that Defendants owed $697.95 for process-server costs. The court agreed and held that Defendants had to pay that amount.

The court denied attorney fees for preparing the fee motion because the motion was not required to collect the service expenses. Defendants’ counsel had repeatedly acknowledged that Defendants might owe the service costs and had offered to pay them if Gold provided an itemization. The court therefore concluded that Gold’s counsel could have sent the itemization instead of filing the motion.

The court granted attorney fees for time spent effecting service. Of the 8.90 hours requested, 6.70 hours were explicitly connected to preparing the fee motion and were excluded. The court found that only one service-related billing entry was clearly tied to completing service: a 0.20-hour service update. At the requested rate of $400 per hour, that resulted in an award of $80.

Disposition

Judge Lucy H. Koh granted in part and denied in part Gold’s motion for attorney fees and costs. The court ordered Defendants to pay $697.95 in service expenses and $80 in attorney fees for time required to complete service. The court denied attorney fees for time spent preparing the motion.