Decisions of Interest

Appellate attorney's fees are awardable to a prevailing party even if she loses on her cross-appeal. Cush-Crawford v. Adchem Corp., 2002 WL 31777890 (E.D.N.Y. 12/12/2002) (Spatt, J.) Plaintiff here was considered a prevailing party for purposes of attorneys' fees after a jury awarded her $100,000 in punitive damages on her sexual harassment claim, but nothing in actual damages. The district court denied defendant's motion for a judgment as a matter of law on the punitive damages award, and also denied plaintiff's motion for a new trial. After both sides appealed, the Second Circuit affirmed the district court's decisions in their entirety. A few months later, plaintiff filed an application for her appellate attorneys' fees.

In a case of first impression, Judge Spatt of the Eastern District ruled that a Title VII plaintiff has a 'reasonable time' to make an application for attorneys' fees rather than the 14-day limit set forth by Rule 14 of the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure. Moreover, although plaintiff was not successful on her cross-appeal, she was still a prevailing party for purposes of appellate attorneys' fees because the Second Circuit affirmed the $100,000 punitive damages award. Finally, in utilizing the lodestar method to calculate the fees, the court found a partner's billable rate of $350 per hour to be excessive and reduced the rate to $250 per hour. The court also reduced the total appellate attorneys' fee award by 10% for plaintiff's unsuccessful attempt at the cross-appeal.