S.J. v. New York City Department of Education

Background

S.J., individually and on behalf of K.H., brought the action under the fee-shifting provisions of the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act. K.H. is a child with a disability under that statute. S.J. had prevailed in an administrative proceeding in which an impartial hearing officer found that the New York City Department of Education denied K.H. a free appropriate public education for the 2016–17 and 2017–18 school years. The hearing officer awarded relief that included compensatory physical therapy and academic tutoring, an assessment and behavior intervention plan, an adaptive physical education evaluation, and a meeting to review K.H.’s updated evaluations and education program.

S.J. later demanded attorneys’ fees from the Department of Education and ultimately filed this federal action. S.J. moved for summary judgment, requesting $72,210.77 in attorneys’ fees, costs, and pre-judgment interest for the administrative proceeding and the federal litigation. The Department of Education did not dispute that S.J. was a prevailing party entitled to seek fees under the Act; the dispute concerned the reasonable amount of the award.

Report and Recommendation

Magistrate Judge Stewart D. Aaron recommended granting in part S.J.’s motion and awarding $31,094.76 in attorneys’ fees and costs. S.J. objected to the recommended hourly rates, reductions in billed hours, denial of pre-judgment interest, reductions in copying costs, denial of compensation for attorney time spent serving process, and omission of post-judgment interest.

Court’s Analysis

The court reviewed the portions of the recommendation that were specifically challenged from the beginning and reviewed the remaining portions for clear error. It upheld hourly rates of $360 for Michael Cuddy and Andrew Cuddy and $200 for Benjamin Kopp. The court concluded that the administrative proceeding was uncontested, lasted less than two hours, and involved relatively straightforward issues, making the requested rates of $500 for Michael Cuddy and Andrew Cuddy and $350 for Kopp excessive.

The court found that the Department of Education had not unreasonably delayed the resolution of the action. It nevertheless ruled that removing six-tenths of an hour billed by Michael Cuddy was unwarranted because the time entry for receiving additional educational records was not shown to be redundant or excessive. The court therefore added $216 to the award. It upheld a 50 percent reduction in the hours billed for the federal fee litigation, concluding that a competent attorney should not have needed more time than the reduced amount to litigate the fee petition.

The court upheld the denial of pre-judgment interest, concluding that S.J. had not adequately supported a legal basis for awarding it and was adequately compensated by the modified award. It also upheld the reduction of photocopying costs to ten cents per page and the denial of reimbursement for attorney time spent serving process. The court granted S.J.’s request for post-judgment interest, explaining that such interest is mandatory on civil awards from the date judgment is entered.

Disposition

Judge Lorna G. Schofield adopted the magistrate judge’s report and recommendation as modified. The court awarded S.J. $30,728.00 in attorneys’ fees and $582.76 in costs, for a total of $31,310.76, plus post-judgment interest calculated at the applicable statutory rate. The court also allowed S.J. to submit a final invoice for fees associated with preparing objections, to be reviewed in light of the fact that the objections to the original and amended recommendations were substantively the same. The Clerk of Court was directed to close the specified docket entry.