Farnam Street Financial Inc v. Nabati Foods, Inc

Background

Farnam Street Financial, Inc. sued Nabati Foods, Inc. for breach of contract. Nabati did not respond or appear despite receiving notice and multiple opportunities to participate. The court previously granted Farnam’s motion for default judgment and awarded $852,850.19 in damages arising from Nabati’s breach. That earlier order also required Nabati to pay Farnam’s reasonable attorneys’ fees and litigation costs.

Farnam moved under Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 54 for $12,027.50 in attorneys’ fees and $1,380.20 in costs. Nabati did not respond to the fee motion.

Analysis

The court explained that fee requests are generally evaluated using the “lodestar” method: reasonable hours multiplied by a reasonable hourly rate. The party seeking fees must provide evidence supporting both the requested rates and the hours worked.

The court concluded that the requested fees were somewhat overstated. First, it questioned applying the requested hourly rates—including a reduced rate of $465 per hour for some work—to a simple and apparently uncontested case involving basic filings and letters. The record did not show that those rates were common for an unopposed default-judgment motion in a case of this kind.

Second, the court found that some billed hours resulted from inadequate initial proof of service. The original proof did not adequately show that service had been made on someone authorized to accept it or that the service complied with United States and Canadian law. Although the court recognized that litigating against a Canadian entity could require additional work, it found that at least several hundred dollars were spent addressing information that could have been included in the original affidavit.

Rather than recalculate every billing entry, the court used an estimate intended to achieve “rough justice” and determined that $10,000 in fees was reasonable. The court found the full requested costs of $1,380.20 recoverable and reasonable.

Ruling

Judge Katherine Menendez granted in part Farnam’s motion for attorneys’ fees and costs. The court awarded Farnam $10,000 in legal fees and $1,380.20 in costs. It also stated, consistent with the earlier order, that Farnam was entitled to default judgment against Nabati for $852,850.19 in damages arising from Nabati’s breach of the Lease Agreement and Schedule 1R. The order directed Nabati to pay the fees and costs and directed that judgment be entered accordingly.