Fooksman v. Abramson
- William Orrick
- 3:20-cv-07109
- U.S. District Court · Northern District of California
- 3
In Fooksman v. Abramson, Judge Orrick entered default judgment for breach of contract, awarding $3,187,028 in damages and $30,451.80 in attorney’s fees.
Eugene Fooksman received default judgment, damages, and attorney’s fees; Hunter Abramson and Cairn Capital Holdings, doing business as The Cairn Companies, LLC, were subject to the judgment.
What happened
In Fooksman v. Abramson, Eugene Fooksman asked the court to enter default judgment against Hunter Abramson and Cairn Capital Holdings, doing business as The Cairn Companies, LLC. The defendants had not responded, and the court reviewed the complaint, exhibits, motion, and magistrate judge’s recommendation.
The court adopted part of the recommendation and granted Fooksman’s motion on the breach-of-contract claim. It awarded Fooksman $3,187,028 in damages and entered judgment accordingly.
Judge William H. Orrick did not adopt the recommended attorney-fee amount. He reduced each lawyer’s negotiated, discounted hourly rate by 25 percent and awarded Fooksman $30,451.80 in attorney’s fees.
The detailed version
- Fooksman v. Abramson · No. 3:20-cv-07109
- William Orrick
- Mar. 31, 2021
Background
Eugene Fooksman moved for default judgment against Hunter Abramson and Cairn Capital Holdings, doing business as The Cairn Companies, LLC. The docket had recorded the defendants’ default. Magistrate Judge Thomas S. Hixson recommended granting the motion and awarding damages and attorney’s fees. No party objected before the objection deadline expired.
Default judgment and damages
A default judgment is a judgment entered when a party fails to respond or otherwise defend the case. After reviewing the complaint, exhibits, motion, and recommendation, the court adopted the recommendation in part concerning entry of default judgment and damages. The court granted Fooksman’s motion on the breach-of-contract claim and awarded $3,187,028 in damages. It ordered that judgment be entered.
Attorney’s fees
The court departed from the recommended attorney-fee award. It agreed that the hours worked by Fooksman’s lawyers were reasonable but disagreed with the recommendation’s roughly 50-percent reductions to their hourly rates. The court found that the case was a straightforward loan non-repayment contract case that quickly resulted in default judgment, and that the full billed rates were not justified by the case’s relative simplicity or prevailing rates in the district.
Three lawyers from Cooley LLP worked on the matter. After applying the 10-percent discount Fooksman received, the court reduced each lawyer’s rate by 25 percent. It set Amanda Main’s rate at $702 per hour, Alexander Galicki’s at $590 per hour, and Robert Eisenbach’s at $857 per hour. Applying those rates to the hours the magistrate judge found reasonable—16.6 hours for Main, 30.7 for Galicki, and 0.8 for Eisenbach—the court awarded $30,451.80 in attorney’s fees.
Disposition
Judge William H. Orrick adopted the report and recommendation in part, granted Fooksman’s motion for default judgment on the breach-of-contract claim, awarded $3,187,028 in damages, and awarded $30,451.80 in attorney’s fees after modifying the recommended fee calculation.
Read the full 3-page opinion on CourtListener, the free public archive maintained by the Free Law Project.