Schmidt, al v. Rundell
- Vince Chhabria
- 3:23-cv-01527
- U.S. District Court · Northern District of California
- 1
In Schmidt v. Rundell, Judge Chhabria denied plaintiffs’ fee motion but allowed a renewed motion within 14 days.
The plaintiffs’ request for attorneys’ fees was denied, but they were permitted to file a renewed motion within 14 days.
What happened
In Eric Schmidt, et al. v. Derek Rundell, et al., the plaintiffs requested $125,887.50 for 148 hours of work. Nearly 100 hours involved an unopposed petition to confirm an arbitration award.
The court denied the motion because the time and fees were unreasonable, noting that the nearly 100 hours alone represented $84,273.75 in discounted fees. The court allowed the plaintiffs to file a renewed fee motion within 14 days.
Judge Vince Chhabria warned that a renewed motion that is unreasonable on its face will be denied with prejudice.
The detailed version
- Schmidt, al v. Rundell · No. 3:23-cv-01527
- Vince Chhabria
- Aug. 2, 2023
Background
The plaintiffs moved for an award of attorneys’ fees totaling $125,887.50 for 148 hours of work. Almost 100 of those hours—representing $84,273.75 in discounted fees—were spent on an unopposed petition to confirm an arbitration award.
Reasoning
The court found that spending nearly 100 hours on the unopposed petition was unreasonable. It cited several other Northern District of California decisions addressing unreasonable fee requests. The opinion does not provide additional details about the underlying dispute or the arbitration award.
Ruling
The court denied the motion for attorneys’ fees. Although the court said it was tempted to deny the motion with prejudice because the request was far outside a reasonable range, it gave the plaintiffs one more opportunity to submit a renewed motion. That renewed motion was due within 14 days of the order. The court stated that if the renewed motion was unreasonable on its face, it would be denied with prejudice.
Read the full 1-page opinion on CourtListener, the free public archive maintained by the Free Law Project.