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

Background

The court had previously adopted, with modifications, a report and recommendation and 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 at the applicable statutory rate. S.J. then submitted a request for an additional $2,934.00 for attorney work connected with preparing objections to the report and recommendation.

Parties’ Positions

The New York City Department of Education objected to the additional request, arguing that the compensation should be substantially reduced or denied entirely. The court explained that fees may be awarded for hours that are not excessive, duplicative, or unnecessary. It also relied on its earlier decision to reduce by 50% the attorney hours billed for the federal litigation.

Ruling

The court found that the requested fees for preparing objections were excessive in light of the history of the fee litigation and that the time spent was unnecessarily high. It applied the same 50% reduction to the requested hours. It also excluded 0.3 hours each billed by Andrew Cuddy and Benjamin Kopp on January 13, 2021, for work concerning a potential appeal.

The court calculated the additional award as follows:

- Andrew Cuddy: 0.8 compensable hours at $360 per hour, totaling $288.00. - Benjamin Kopp: 5.25 compensable hours at $200 per hour, totaling $1,050.00. - Shobna Cuddy: 0.4 hours at $125 per hour, totaling $50.00.

The court therefore modified the earlier award to include an additional $1,388.00 in attorneys’ fees. The resulting award was $32,116.00 in attorneys’ fees and $582.76 in costs, for a total of $32,698.76 plus post-judgment interest. The Clerk of Court was directed to enter judgment in favor of S.J.