Innovative Sports Management, Inc. v. Nunez

Background

Innovative Sports Management, Inc. alleged that Fernando Vasquez Nunez, Humberto Vasquez, and Emelina’s Peruvian Restaurant violated its commercial exhibition rights by broadcasting the Peru v. Ecuador soccer match at Emelina’s Peruvian Restaurant in San Carlos, California, on February 1, 2022. The plaintiff alleged that the defendants intercepted and displayed the program, or instructed or allowed restaurant employees to do so, without authorization.

The plaintiff asserted claims under the Federal Communications Act, the Cable and Television Consumer Protection and Competition Act, California Business and Professions Code section 17200, and state-law conversion. After the defendants failed to respond, the clerk entered default. In an earlier order, the court granted in part and denied in part the plaintiff’s motion for default judgment. It awarded $1,650 under 47 U.S.C. § 553 against Emelina’s, with Nunez and Vasquez jointly and severally liable for that amount, and awarded $550 for conversion against Emelina’s. The total damages award from Emelina’s was $2,200.

Fee and Cost Request

The plaintiff moved for attorneys’ fees and costs under 47 U.S.C. § 553(c)(2)(C), which permits recovery of full costs, including reasonable attorneys’ fees, for a prevailing party. The plaintiff requested $5,240.40 in fees based on a reconstructed timesheet rather than contemporaneous time records. The request included 3.55 hours by a lead attorney at $600 per hour, six hours by a research attorney at $325 per hour, and 9.67 hours by an administrative assistant at $120 per hour.

The plaintiff also requested $1,359.74 in costs: $750 for investigative expenses, $88.04 for courier charges, $402 for the complaint filing fee, and $119.70 for service of process.

Court’s Analysis

The court applied the lodestar method, which generally calculates fees by multiplying the reasonable hours worked by a reasonable hourly rate. Although the court found the requested hourly rates reasonable, it declined to award fees for the administrative assistant’s work. Most of those entries concerned filings and docket review, which the court treated as clerical work that should be included in law-firm overhead rather than billed as legal fees. The court also identified unnecessary or duplicative billing entries.

The court separately reduced the lead attorney’s and research attorney’s billable amounts by 25 percent. It noted that the case did not present unusual challenges and that extensive research was unnecessary because the plaintiff’s counsel routinely handled similar cases. The resulting billable amount was $3,060. Because the time records had been reconstructed and were therefore less reliable and more susceptible to inflated time estimates, the court imposed another 25 percent reduction, resulting in a fee award of $2,295.

For costs, the court limited recovery to the $402 complaint filing fee and the $119.70 service-of-process charges. It did not award the investigative expense or courier charges. The resulting costs award was $521.70.

Disposition

Judge Corley granted in part and denied in part the plaintiff’s motion for attorneys’ fees and costs. The court awarded Innovative Sports Management, Inc. $2,295 in attorneys’ fees and $521.70 in costs, totaling $2,816.70. The order disposed of Docket No. 29.