Douglas v. Anthem Productions, LLC

Background

Carlton Douglas, later joined by opt-in plaintiffs Atonyio Brown and Doreen Rodriguez, sued Anthem Productions, LLC; Advanced Audio Technologies, LLC; Evaggelos Poulos; Joseph Lodi; and Jason Ojeda. The plaintiffs alleged violations of the Fair Labor Standards Act, New York Labor Law, and related New York wage regulations.

The court had approved notice to members of a Fair Labor Standards Act collective action, and two people joined the case. Discovery ended on December 31, 2019. On January 7, 2019, all defendants except Jason Ojeda made a $16,000 offer of judgment, excluding attorneys’ fees. The plaintiffs accepted that offer on January 20, 2020. The plaintiffs separately submitted a settlement with Ojeda for $2,000, including $666.65 allocated to attorneys’ fees. Judgment had been entered as to some defendants, and the plaintiffs then moved for attorneys’ fees and expenses.

Fee entitlement and calculation

The court determined that the plaintiffs were the prevailing party on their Fair Labor Standards Act and New York Labor Law claims and therefore were entitled to reasonable attorneys’ fees under the applicable fee-shifting statutes.

The court used the lodestar method, which generally multiplies a reasonable hourly rate by the reasonable number of hours worked. The court reduced the requested hourly rates and approved the following rates: $375 per hour for Michael J. Borrelli, $325 for Alexander Coleman, $295 for Jeffrey Maguire, $250 for Dong Phuong v. Nguyen, and $200 for Danielle E. Meitus. The court approved a $75-per-hour rate for the two paralegals, Luiggi Tapia and Pablo E. Martinez.

The plaintiffs originally recorded 208.5 hours but removed 118.3 hours from their request, leaving 90.2 hours and a requested fee of $24,300.50. The court found that the remaining hours were still excessive in light of the case’s limited discovery, the relatively straightforward work, and the substantial similarities between the complaint and earlier work by counsel. Rather than review every billing entry separately, the court applied a 15 percent reduction, resulting in 76.67 compensable hours and $20,250.69 in attorneys’ fees.

Costs and defendants’ arguments

The plaintiffs requested $4,547.34 in costs, including filing fees, private mediation fees, legal research, service fees, translation fees, travel, printing, copying, and postage. The court found these expenses recoverable and noted that defendants made no specific objection to them.

Defendants argued that the fee award should not exceed the $16,000 recovery, and that fees should be limited to a percentage of the settlement. The court rejected those arguments. It explained that the reasonable-paying-client analysis applied to hourly rates, not to a cap on the total fee, and that a percentage-of-the-fund approach did not apply because the fees were awarded under fee-shifting statutes rather than deducted from a common settlement fund. The court also rejected the argument that the award was impermissibly disproportionate to the plaintiffs’ recovery.

Disposition

Judge Gorenstein granted in part the plaintiffs’ motion for attorneys’ fees and costs. The plaintiffs were awarded $20,250.69 in attorneys’ fees and $4,547.34 in costs, for a total award of $24,798.03.