Amit P. Mehta, United States District Judge.
Plaintiffs Service Employees International Union National Industry Pension Fund ("the Pension Fund"), a multiemployer pension plan, and its Trustees (collectively, "Plaintiffs") brought an action against Defendants Castle Hill Healthcare Providers, LLC and Alaris Health LLC (collectively, "Defendants") under the Employee Retirement Income Security Act ("ERISA"), 29 U.S.C. § 1001 et seq. Plaintiffs alleged that Defendants breached their obligations under the parties' collective bargaining agreements by failing to produce remittance reports and make contribution payments, as well as violated the Pension Protection Act of 2006 ("PPA"), Pub. L. No. 109-280, 120 Stat. 780 (2006), by failing to pay surcharges and supplemental contributions for those years in which the Pension Fund was in "critical status." See Compl., ECF No. 1, at 5-8. Plaintiffs sought various forms of relief, including: (1) a declaration that Defendants were delinquent in remitting owed contributions to the Pension Fund; (2) a judgment requiring Defendants to pay delinquent contributions, interest, liquidated damages, surcharges owed under the PPA, and attorney's fees and costs; and (3) a permanent injunction requiring Defendants to timely file remittance reports and pay all owed contributions as they become due. See id. at 9-12.
The court granted Plaintiffs' Motion for Summary Judgment and ordered Defendants to disclose particular remittance reports and Plaintiffs, following receipt of those reports, to submit supplemental briefing on the final damages award sought. See Mem. Op. & Order, ECF No. 27, at 15-16. The court subsequently entered a final judgment against Defendants for $38,872.82 for all delinquent contributions, interest, liquidated damages, PPA surcharges and fees owed, plus additional pre- and post-judgment interest. See Order & Final J., ECF No. 32, at 2. The court retained jurisdiction to award attorney's fees and costs. Id. at 3.
Now before the court is Plaintiffs' Motion for Attorneys' Fees and Costs. After thorough review of the evidence submitted, the court grants Plaintiffs' Motion in part and denies it in part.
Plaintiffs seek $31,070.50 in attorney's fees for 162.4 hours of work performed between February 28, 2014, and April 12, 2016, as well as $501.20 in court costs, for a total award of $31,571.70. See Pls.' Mot. for Att'ys' Fees & Costs, ECF No. 36 [hereinafter Pls.' Mot.], at 3; Pl.'s Mot., Ex. 1B, ECF No. 36-1, at 30-31. Defendants do not dispute that Plaintiffs are entitled to attorney's fees and costs under ERISA, but they do contest whether the amount of fees Plaintiffs seek is "reasonable." See 29 U.S.C. § 1132(g).
To calculate reasonable attorney's fees, the court multiplies a reasonable
The only issue before the court is whether Plaintiffs' counsel expended an unreasonable number of hours in this litigation.
To the extent Defendants argue that the number of hours expended is excessive and the billing entries are duplicative, those arguments are unpersuasive. Plaintiffs' counsel, including all non-lawyer timekeepers, billed a total of 162.4 hours for the entirety of this matter, which roughly equates to 40 hours per week over four weeks. This litigation took more than two years to complete. During that time, Plaintiffs' counsel, among other things, drafted a complaint, moved for entry of default judgment after Defendants failed to timely answer, filed a motion for summary judgment, prepared a supplement to their motion for summary judgment at the court's direction, and wrote reply briefs in support of the motions and supplement. Each pleading was supported by client affidavits, supporting evidence, or both. Thus, securing a favorable final judgment in this matter took Plaintiffs' counsel substantial time and effort.
Defendants challenge the total hours billed as excessive, citing in particular the 83.7 hours spent to draft the summary judgment motion and reply and the 25.9 hours spent to draft the summary judgment supplement and reply. Defs.' Opp'n at 4-5. The court finds neither sum to be unreasonable. The summary judgment motion and reply brief were both substantive pleadings, which, taken together, consisted of 25 pages of legal argument, a 12-page statement of facts, three declarations, and other supporting evidence. The supplement consisted of 15 pages of legal argument, two more declarations, and additional evidence. The court finds the total time that Plaintiffs' counsel expended to research, draft, and assemble those pleadings was reasonable. Nor can Plaintiffs' counsel be accused of trying to run up fees by relying on higher-billing partners to do the lion's share of the work. To the contrary, the primary timekeeper in this litigation was a young associate, see Pl.'s Mot. at 2 (stating that associate with over two years' experience billed 87.2 of the total 162.4 hours), whose limited years of experience likely caused him to take slightly longer — but at a lower hourly rate — to research, draft, revise, and finalize the key pleadings in this case.
The only "evidence" Defendants submit to support their contention of excessive billing is an affidavit from their own counsel. But defense counsel's statements are not evidence; they are legal arguments, which Defendants ultimately transcribed into their opposition brief without further elaboration. Compare Defs.' Opp'n, Ex. 1, ECF No. 37-1, ¶¶ 19-21, with Defs.' Opp'n at 4-5. Similarly, although Defendants charge that Plaintiffs' counsel's billing entries are duplicative, they identify no allegedly
Lastly, Defendants dispute whether they should be required to pay for time Plaintiffs' counsel spent correcting a filing error. See Defs.' Opp'n at 5. The court agrees that the amount charged for the correction is improper. Prior to ruling on Plaintiffs' Motion for Summary Judgment, the court alerted Plaintiffs of the need to refile an exhibit to their Complaint — 18 pages of summary payroll charts containing Social Security Numbers — with redactions, as required under Local Rule 5.4(f). See LCvR 5.4(f); Minute Order, November 3, 2015. The billing entries reflect that counsel spent 2.4 hours, in total, reviewing the court's Order and the Local Rules, consulting one another, making the necessary redactions, telephoning the Clerk's Office, and refiling the exhibit. See Billing Entries at 15.
In light of the foregoing, the court grants Plaintiffs' Motion for Attorneys' Fees and Costs in part and denies it in part. The court hereby awards Plaintiffs $31,226.70 in attorney's fees and costs.
This is a final, appealable Order.