Erickson Productions Inc v. Kraig R Kast

Background

Erickson Productions, Inc. and Jim Erickson sued over copyright infringement involving three photographs. A jury found that Kast vicariously and contributorily infringed the copyrights willfully and awarded $450,000 in statutory damages. After later proceedings and an appeal, the court reaffirmed the $450,000 award on remand.

Erickson then sought additional attorneys’ fees and costs under section 505 of the Copyright Act for three categories of work: the first appeal, proceedings on remand concerning willfulness, and post-judgment collection efforts. In an August 31, 2021 order, the court granted the request in part and denied it in part. It allowed fees and costs for the remand proceedings and collection efforts but denied fees for the first appeal. Because the earlier evidence did not adequately separate compensable from noncompensable work, the court ordered Erickson to resubmit the supporting records.

Kast, who was proceeding without a lawyer, responded to the supplemental submission. The court found that he reargued the overall fee request but did not specifically challenge the categorization of the time records.

Attorneys’ Fees

The court used the lodestar method, which calculates a fee by multiplying reasonably expended hours by a reasonable hourly rate. It found the requested hourly rates for attorneys Nathaniel A. Kleinman, Kevin McCulloch, Lynda Chung, Gary Torrell, and Jacqueline Yu, and paralegal Lesly Ayala, reasonable.

For work on the remand proceedings concerning willfulness, Erickson requested $39,204. The court found the supporting time records detailed and the hours reasonable, and awarded the full $39,204.

For post-judgment enforcement and collection, the court considered a request described in one portion of the opinion as $114,662. It found the hours reasonable except for 1.2 hours billed by Kleinman and 0.5 hours billed by McCulloch for efforts to collect a separate judgment against Only Websites. Because the record did not show that Kast was liable for that separate judgment, the court deducted $635 and awarded $114,027 for post-judgment enforcement and collection.

The total supplemental attorneys’ fee award was $153,231.

Costs

Erickson requested $1,442.16 from costs previously awarded, plus $197 for photocopying and $310 for a pro hac vice application fee. The court found these costs taxable under the federal costs statute and awarded $1,949.16 in costs.

Disposition

The court awarded Erickson $153,231 in additional attorneys’ fees and $1,949.16 in costs under the Copyright Act. These amounts were added to the $182,961 in attorneys’ fees previously awarded by Judge Howard R. Lloyd, producing a total attorneys’ fee award of $336,192 and total costs of $1,949.16. The court ordered that an amended judgment be issued.