Casmento, Jr. v. Volmar Construction, Inc.

Background

Clifford Casmento, Jr. sued Volmar Construction, Inc., Efstathia Marinakis, and John Volandes. His amended complaint asserted retaliation claims under New York Labor Law, the New York State Human Rights Law, and the New York City Human Rights Law. It also asserted claims under the state and city human-rights laws based on alleged discrimination and failure to accommodate his visual disability.

After a five-day trial, the jury returned defense verdicts on the retaliation claims and found that the individual defendants had not failed to accommodate Casmento’s disability. The jury found for Casmento against Volmar on his state and city claims that Volmar failed to accommodate his disability. It awarded $300,000 in punitive damages but no compensatory or nominal damages. The court later denied Volmar’s motion for judgment as a matter of law.

Fee Request

Casmento sought $426,540 in attorneys’ fees and $35,572.06 in costs. The court applied the lodestar method, which calculates fees by multiplying reasonable hourly rates by the reasonable hours worked. It reduced the requested hourly rates for several attorneys, approving rates of $500 per hour for Wesley Mullen, $300 per hour for Vincent FitzPatrick and Michael Weinstock, $150 per hour for John Nguyen’s work after law-school graduation, $100 per hour for Nguyen’s law-clerk work, and $100 per hour for each paralegal.

The court found that some time entries were vague, combined multiple tasks, or sought compensation for excessive or unnecessary work. It reduced the hours across the board by 10% for those problems. The court also found that the successful failure-to-accommodate claims were based on different facts and legal theories from the unsuccessful retaliation claims. Because the billing records did not separate the work on those claims, and because Casmento achieved limited success, the court reduced the remaining hours by an additional 75%.

The court awarded $82,903.50 in attorneys’ fees. It concluded that the requested expert fees were not tied to the successful failure-to-accommodate claims and awarded nothing for those fees. It reduced the other requested costs by 75%, resulting in a costs award of $6,568.02.

Judgment and Disposition

Casmento also requested entry of judgment under Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 58, with post-judgment interest beginning on the date of judgment. Because that request was unopposed, the court granted it.

The court concluded that Casmento’s motion for attorneys’ fees, costs, and entry of judgment was granted in part and denied in part. It awarded $82,903.50 in attorneys’ fees and $6,568.02 in costs against Volmar Construction, Inc. Judge Lewis J. Liman directed the Clerk of Court to close the fee-motion docket entry.