First Lutheran Church v. St. Paul, City of, The

Background

First Lutheran Church challenged Resolution 18-145, which limited how Listening House could operate a day shelter and community center from space in the church’s basement. The church argued that the resolution violated the First Amendment and the Religious Land Use and Institutionalized Persons Act, a federal law protecting religious land use and institutionalized persons.

The City required First Lutheran and Listening House to obtain a Determination of Similar Use and imposed conditions based on the zoning code’s “home occupation” standards. The City’s Planning Commission later added eleven conditions, resulting in fourteen conditions that became Resolution 18-145, with minor modifications.

First Lutheran sought a preliminary injunction to prevent enforcement of the resolution. The court granted that request in part, prohibiting enforcement of two conditions. The court later denied the City’s motion to dismiss nearly in its entirety, dismissing only a substantive due process claim.

The parties eventually negotiated a settlement in January 2019. The settlement did not adopt First Lutheran’s later position opposing the Determination of Similar Use, which remained in effect. The parties did not resolve attorney fees and submitted that issue to the court.

Fee analysis

The City did not oppose the fee request in its entirety but argued that First Lutheran should not recover its full request of nearly $400,000. The City challenged work performed after July 2018 as unnecessary because settlement may have been possible earlier. It also challenged fees for an interim fee petition that First Lutheran prepared but never filed.

The court explained that a party that succeeds on a significant issue may qualify for attorney fees under 42 U.S.C. § 1988(b), but the amount must be reasonable. The court used the standard “lodestar” approach, which generally multiplies reasonable hours by a reasonable hourly rate, and considered whether the hours were excessive, redundant, vague, clerical, or otherwise unnecessary.

The court found that most work from August 1, 2018, through November 14, 2018—the date discovery was stayed—was focused on an unsuccessful new complaint and unnecessary discovery. First Lutheran sought $56,173.40 for that period, and the court denied recovery of the entire amount.

The court also reduced the award by $2,061.00 for vague or clerical billing entries. In addition, it reduced the award by $13,676.00 for work on the unfiled interim fee petition, finding that awarding both those fees and fees for the current fee petition would be redundant.

Disposition

The court reduced First Lutheran’s claimed fees by a total of $71,910.40 and awarded $324,578.96. The order states that First Lutheran’s motion for attorney fees was GRANTED with the modifications as described in this Order.