Adams v. Teamsters Local 115

• Decision Date: 17 July 2007
• Docket Number: Civil Action No. 99-4910.
• Parties: Don ADAMS and Theresa Adams, Plaintiffs, v. TEAMSTERS LOCAL 115, Edward G. Rendell, and International Brotherhood of Teamsters, Defendants.
• Court: U.S. District Court — Eastern District of Pennsylvania

678 F.Supp.2d 314

Don ADAMS and Theresa Adams, Plaintiffs, v. TEAMSTERS LOCAL 115, Edward G. Rendell, and International Brotherhood of Teamsters, Defendants.

Civil Action No. 99-4910.

United States District Court, E.D. Pennsylvania.

July 17, 2007.

Joseph M. Adams, Law Offices of Joseph M. Adams, Esq., Chalfont, PA, Samuel C. Stretton, West Chester, PA, for Plaintiffs.

Don Adams, Cheltenham, PA, pro se.

Theresa Adams, Philadelphia, PA, pro se.

Susan Boyle, James F. Wallington, Baptiste and Wilder P.C., Washington, DC Karen A. Brancheau Jordan, Fern L. Kletter, Phila. District Atty's Office, Beth C. Grossman, District Attorney of Philadelphia, Jane Lovitch Istvan, City of Philadelphia, Law Dept., Thomas Herman Kohn, Markowitz & Richman, Brian J. McMonagle, McMonagle, Perri & McHugh, Gregory J. Vrato, City Of Philadelphia Law Department, Deputy City Solicitor, Denise S. Wolf, U.S. Attorney's Office, Emily Zimmerman, Philadelphia, PA, Peter D. Winebrake, The Winebrake Law Firm LLC, Dresher, PA, for Defendants.

MEMORANDUM AND ORDER

YOHN, J.

Plaintiffs Don and Theresa Adams brought a civil rights action along with supplemental state law claims arising out of plaintiffs' protest at a rally in support of former President William Jefferson Clinton. Currently before the court are motions for attorney fees and costs brought by defendants Teamsters Local 115 ("Local 115") and the International Brotherhood of Teamsters ("IBT") (collectively, "Teamsters"), as well as plaintiffs' appeal from the clerk of court's taxation of costs against plaintiffs in favor of the IBT, Local 115 and former Philadelphia Mayor Edward G. Rendell ("Mayor Rendell"). For the reasons stated herein, the Teamsters' motions for attorney fees will be denied and plaintiffs' appeal from the clerk of court's taxation of costs will be denied in part and granted in part.

I. Background

Plaintiff originally brought suit against defendants Philadelphia District Attorney Lynne Abraham; Mayor Rendell, Local 115, then Secretary-Treasurer of Local 115 John Morris, Morris's former Chief-of-Staff, Kenneth J. Woodring Jr., the IBT, and certain members of Local 115. On January 24, 2001, the Honorable Bruce W. Kauffman of this court dismissed the following claims from the first amended complaint: 1) Section 1983 claims for unlawful prosecution violating the Fourth Amendment (listed in the first amended complaint as Counts II and III); 2) Section 1985(2) and (3) claims (listed in the first amended complaint as Counts IV and V); and 3) a Section 1986 claim (listed in the first amended complaint as Count VI). Furthermore, the court dismissed pending counts against the following defendants: 1) Mayor Rendell (dismissing the defamation and false light/invasion of privacy claims) and 2) District Attorney Lynn Abraham (dismissing all claims). See Adams v. Teamsters Local 115, No. 99-4910, slip. op. (E.D.Pa. Jan. 23, 2001). As a result of this decision, on August 2, 2001, plaintiffs amended their complaint for a second time in an effort to clarify specific claims against Mayor Rendell and to remove counts and allegations that the court had dismissed. On August 6, 2003, after the case was reassigned to me, I granted summary judgment against plaintiffs on their § 1983 claim for violation of their First Amendment right of free speech, finding that there was insufficient evidence that Mayor Rendell made an agreement with the Teamsters to assault plaintiffs. See Adams v. Teamsters Local 115, 2003 WL 22005708, 2003 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 15477 (E.D.Pa. Aug. 6, 2003). Further, because summary judgment on the only remaining federal claim had been granted in favor of defendants, I dismissed without prejudice plaintiffs' supplemental state law claims pursuant to 28 U.S.C. § 1367. Id.

On September 18 and 19, 2003, Local 115 and the IBT, respectively, filed motions for attorney fees and costs pursuant to 42 U.S.C. § 1988. I initially denied the motions without prejudice to the IBT and Local 115 to reinstate the motions after disposition of plaintiffs' appeal to the Third Circuit. The Third Circuit affirmed the judgments of the district court on January 22, 2007, Adams v. Teamsters, 214 Fed. Appx. 167 (3d Cir.2007) (not precedential), and the motions were reinstated. Plaintiffs filed a supplemental memorandum of law in opposition to the motions; neither defendant responded or filed amended briefs concerning that memorandum.

The IBT, Local 115 and Mayor Rendell also filed bills of costs with the clerk of court, pursuant to Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 54(d). On May 14, 2007, the clerk of court entered costs against plaintiffs noting that plaintiffs had not filed requested objections. As allowed by Rule 54(d)(1) and Local Rule 54.1(b), plaintiffs objected to the taxation of costs. The Teamsters have filed a joint reply to which plaintiffs have responded.

Plaintiffs raise a multitude of arguments in opposition to the award of attorney fees and the taxation of costs in favor of defendants. In the discussion that follows, I will set forth the standards applicable to the award of attorney fees and costs, respectively, and address each of plaintiffs' contentions.¹

II. Attorney Fees

A. Legal Standards for § 1988 Attorney Fee Awards

Section 1988 states: "In any action or proceeding to enforce a provision of sections. . . 1983, 1985, and 1986 of this title. . . the court, in its discretion, may allow the prevailing party, . . . a reasonable attorney's fee as part of the costs . . . ." 42 U.S.C. § 1988. In Public Interest Research Group v. Windall, the Third Circuit noted that "courts have broadly defined `prevailing party' for purposes of triggering the application of a fee shifting statute." 51 F.3d 1179, 1185 (3d Cir.1995). The court went on to specify, citing the Supreme Court's decision in Hensley v. Eckerhart, 461 U.S. 424, 433, 103 S.Ct. 1933, 76 L.Ed.2d 40 (1983), that: "A typical formulation is that plaintiffs may be considered `prevailing parties' for attorneys' fees purposes if they succeed on any significant issue in litigation which achieves some of the benefit the parties sought in bringing suit." Pub. Interest Research Group, 51 F.3d at 1185 (internal quotation omitted); see also id. ("The test. . . to determine prevailing party status is whether plaintiff achieved some of the benefit sought by the party bringing suit.") (citing Metro. Pittsburgh Crusade for Voters v. City of Pittsburgh, 964 F.2d 244, 250 (3d Cir.1992)). In the context of the same standard under Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 54(d), the Third Circuit held in a not precedential opinion: "Where a defendant successfully defends against a plaintiff's substantial claims and judgment is entered accordingly, the defendant is generally considered the prevailing party." Tyler v. O'Neill, 112 Fed.Appx. 158, 161 (3d Cir.2004) (not precedential) (citing Russian River Watershed Prot. Comm. v. City of Santa Rosa, 142 F.3d 1136, 1144 (9th Cir.1998)); see also Beam v. Downey, 151 Fed.Appx. 142, 144 (3d Cir.2005) (not precedential) (determining that defendants were prevailing parties, defined as "one that `succeeded on any significant issue in litigation which achieves some of the benefits the parties sought in bringing suit,'" where "they succeeded in having each claim dismissed" (quoting Hensley, 461 U.S. at 433, 103 S.Ct. 1933)).

As described, a prevailing party may either be a plaintiff or a defendant; however, the standard for awarding attorney fees to prevailing defendants is more stringent than the standard for prevailing plaintiffs. Christiansburg Garment Co. v. EEOC, 434 U.S. 412, 421, 98 S.Ct. 694, 54 L.Ed.2d 648 (1978). In Christiansburg, the Supreme Court recognized that different justifications govern the award of attorney fees to plaintiffs and defendants. Id. at 418-20, 98 S.Ct. 694.² Specifically, "the plaintiff is the chosen instrument of Congress to vindicate a policy that Congress considered of the highest priority,. . . and when a district court awards counsel fees to a prevailing plaintiff, it is awarding them against a violator of federal law." Id. at 418-19, 98 S.Ct. 694 (quotations omitted). In assessing attorney fees against a plaintiff, Congress was endeavoring "to protect defendants from burdensome litigation having no legal or factual basis." Id. at 420, 98 S.Ct. 694. Thus, whereas "a prevailing plaintiff . . . `should ordinarily recover an attorney's fee unless special circumstances would render such an award unjust," a prevailing defendant is not entitled to attorney fees "unless a court finds that the plaintiff's claim was frivolous, unreasonable, or groundless, or that the plaintiff continued to litigate after it clearly became so." Id. at 416-17, 422, 98 S.Ct. 694. "Nevertheless, it is not necessary that the prevailing defendant establish that the plaintiff had subjective bad faith in bringing the action in order to recover attorney's fees. Rather, the relevant standard is objective." Barnes Found. v. Twp. of Lower Merion, 242 F.3d 151, 158 (3d Cir.2001) (citing Hughes v. Rowe, 449 U.S. 5, 14, 101 S.Ct. 173, 66 L.Ed.2d 163 (1980)). However, the Third Circuit resolved, "It is clear from Christiansburg that attorney's fees to a prevailing defendant are not routine, but are to be only sparingly awarded." Quiroga v. Hasbro, Inc., 934 F.2d 497, 503 (3d Cir. 1991); see also EEOC v. L.B. Foster Co., 123 F.3d 746, 751 (3d Cir.1997); Kutska v. Cal. State College, 564 F.2d 108, 110-11 (3d Cir.1977) (noting that courts should be cautious in awarding fees against plaintiffs for fear of chilling effective enforcement of undecided issues). The Supreme Court has specifically cautioned that it "is important that a district court resist the understandable temptation to engage in post hoc reasoning by concluding that, because a plaintiff did not ultimately prevail, his action must have been unreasonable or without foundation." Christiansburg, 434 U.S. at 421-22, 98 S.Ct. 694; see also, Hughes, 449...