Rice v. Sunrise Express, Inc.

• Citation: 237 F.Supp.2d 962
• Decision Date: 13 November 2002
• Docket Number: No. 1:96-CV-0447.,1:96-CV-0447.
• Parties: Sandra L. RICE Plaintiff v. SUNRISE EXPRESS, INC., Defendant.
• Court: U.S. District Court — Northern District of Indiana

237 F.Supp.2d 962

Sandra L. RICE Plaintiff v. SUNRISE EXPRESS, INC., Defendant.

No. 1:96-CV-0447.

United States District Court, N.D. Indiana, Fort Wayne Division.

November 13, 2002.

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Kathryn A. Brogan, Rothberg Logan & Warsco LLP, Fort Wayne, IN, Patrick L. Proctor, Fort Wayne, IN, for plaintiff.

Steven L. Jackson, Baker and Daniels, Fort Wayne, IN, Joseph J. Vogan, Perrin Rynders, Varnum Riddering Schnmidt and Howlett, Grand Rapids, MI, for defendants.

C. Erik Chickedantz, Hawk Haynie Gallmeyer and Chickedantz, Fort Wayne, IN, for mediator.

MEMORANDUM OF DECISION AND ORDER

WILLIAM C. LEE, Chief Judge.

Two separate juries have concluded that Plaintiff, Sandra Rice, was laid off from her employer, Sunrise Express, in violation of the Family Medical Leave Act of 1993 ("FMLA"). To get to this point, this action, which should have been a run-of-the-mill employment dispute, has taken over six years and in excess of 250 docket entries to resolve. The case was initially tried to a jury (who found in Plaintiff's favor), appealed to the Seventh Circuit¹ (who reversed the outcome of the first trial based upon an erroneous jury instruction), and further appealed to the Supreme Court² (who denied Certiorari). On July 31, 2001, this court conducted a second trial wherein a jury again concluded in Plaintiff's favor and awarded her $720.00 in lost wages. All of this legal wrangling has occurred in a factually straightforward case where the total damages sought by the Plaintiff were less than $12,000.

On July 17, 2002, the court resolved all of the post-trial motions and the undersigned directed the Clerk to enter judgment on the second jury's verdict in Plaintiff's favor and against Defendant, Sunrise USA, Inc. ("Sunrise"). The Plaintiff also recovered liquidated damages. The judgment reads as follows:

IT IS ORDERED AND ADJUDGED that Judgment is entered on the verdict of August 2, 2001 in favor of the Plaintiff, Sandra L. Rice, in the amount of $720.00 plus statutory interest. This amount shall be doubled as liquidated damages under 29 U.S.C. § 2617(a)(1)(A)(iii). Costs shall be taxed against the Defendant.

The parties were further ordered to supplement the record regarding the appropriate amount of prejudgment interest due and owing the Plaintiff and the Plaintiff was instructed to file her petition for reasonable attorney's fees and costs mindful that "a court may decrease the amount of fees that might otherwise be awarded `in order to account for the plaintiff's limited success.'" Memorandum of Decision and Order, July 17, 2002, at 17(quoting McDonnell v. Miller Oil Co., Inc., 134 F.3d 638, 641 (4th Cir.1998)). The court was optimistic that after receiving the court's order and the Judgment, that the parties would finally end this drawn-out affair without further court intervention. This did not happen and the court has now had to sort through more than a dozen additional filings all related to the issues of prejudgment interest, costs, and attorney's fees.

On August 2, 2002, Sunrise filed its "Motion to Alter and/or Amend Judgment" wherein it requests that the Court indicate "that the Judgment is not intended to resolve the issue of whether the Plaintiff has recovered a `judgment' for purposes of 29 U.S.C. § 2617(a)(3), nor is it intended to preclude Defendant from seeking an award of costs or a reduction/apportionment of costs based on the fact that Defendant is a `partially prevailing' party." (Docket # 215, pp. 1-2). Both parties have also filed their respective bills of cost, supplements regarding the amount of prejudgment interest owed to Plaintiff, and Plaintiff has submitted her request for reasonable attorney fees. It is to all of these filings that the court now turns its attention.

For the following reasons, Defendants' Motion to Alter and/or Amend the Judgment will be GRANTED and an amended judgment will be entered as discussed herein.

DISCUSSION

Defendant's Motion to Alter and/or Amend Judgment

Pursuant to Fed.R.Civ.P. 59(c), defendant has moved to alter and/or amend this court's July 18, 2002 judgment to (1) clarify that Sunrise is a partially prevailing party on the issue of damages since the jury implicitly found that Plaintiff failed to mitigate her damages; and (2) definitively determine the amount of interest and costs Plaintiff is entitled as a prevailing party on the issue of liability. As part of the first issue, Sunrise argues that any costs awarded to the Plaintiff must be offset by Sunrise's costs since it is a partially prevailing party. Sunrise also argues that the court should offset from Plaintiff's jury award the amount of costs awarded to it by the Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals. With respect to the second issue, Sunrise contends that until the amount of interest and costs is definitively determined, Plaintiff has not recovered a "judgment."

Beginning first with the latter argument, Fed.R.Civ.P. 54 defines a "judgment" as "any order from which an appeal lies." Likewise, Fed.R.Civ.P. 58 provides that the entry of judgment "shall not be delayed, nor the time for appeal extended, in order to tax costs or award fees..." Here, the Court entered judgment on the jury's verdict and awarded statutory interest as well as liquidated damages. Defendant is correct, however, that a court that has decided to award prejudgment interest has not entered an appealable final judgment until that amount has been calculated. Pace Communications, Inc. v. Moonlight Design, Inc., 31 F.3d 587, 591 (7th Cir.1994). In this case, the court ordered the parties to supplement the record with the amount of prejudgment interest due the plaintiff with the intent of modifying the judgment once that amount was established. The parties have filed their supplementary calculations and thus, the amended judgment which shall be issued pursuant to this Order will remedy any complaint that a final judgment under Fed. R.Civ.P. 54 and 58 has not been entered. This said, the only remaining issues are the taxation of costs and the award of fees, both of which are separately appealable from the merits judgment,³ see White v. New Hampshire Dept. of Employment Security, 455 U.S. 445, 451-452, 102 S.Ct. 1162, 71 L.Ed.2d 325 (1982) (motion for attorney's fees does not seek alteration of the judgment, but only what is due because of judgment and so is completely collateral to merits) and Buchanan v. Stanships, Inc., 485 U.S. 265, 268-269, 108 S.Ct. 1130, 99 L.Ed.2d 289 (1988) (motion for costs is wholly collateral to merits judgment).

Defendant also separately argues that Plaintiff does not have a "judgment" for purposes of an attorney's fee award under the FMLA because Sunrise's judgment for appellate costs (and any costs this court decided to award to Defendant as a partially prevailing party) should be offset against Plaintiff's merits judgment. Since this amount, Sunrise argues, exceeds the amount awarded to Plaintiff on the merits, it is Sunrise, not Plaintiff, that has recovered a "judgment" for purposes of awarding attorney's fees.

Sunrise's argument on this point is much ado about nothing. As this court has made clear above, the determination of costs occurs at the conclusion of a case and is an entirely separate act from a judgment on the merits. Thus, to the extent this court determines that an offset of costs is appropriate, such an offset is appropriate against the cost award ordered for the Plaintiff, not against the judgment on the merits. See Charles A. Wright, Arthur R. Miller, & Mary Kay Kane, Federal Practice and Procedure, Civil 3d § 2667 ("[W]hen defendant is successful on appeal, and the appellate court awards costs of the appeal, defendant is entitled to execute on that costs judgment and it should not be set off against the judgment on the merits obtained by plaintiff."). Thus, Sunrise's judgment for appellate costs does not impact the validity of Plaintiff's judgment for the purpose of awarding her attorney's fees under the FMLA.

Furthermore, it is clear that Plaintiff is entitled to her reasonable attorney's fees. The fee-shifting provision of the FMLA reads as follows:

The court in such an action in which a violation of FMLA is established shall, in addition to any judgment awarded to the Plaintiff, allow a reasonable attorneys' fee, reasonable expert witness fees, and other costs of the action to be paid by the Defendant.

29 U.S.C. § 2617(a)(3). The plain language of the fee-shifting provision of the FMLA requires the award of attorneys' fees in cases where a violation of the FMLA is established. Here, the jury clearly found that the Defendant violated the FMLA and this court will be entering a modified judgment on that verdict. As a result, the FMLA expressly requires the defendant to pay reasonable fees as determined by the Court.

Finally, Defendant contends that it is a partially prevailing party entitled to costs because the jury failed to award Rice the full amount of the damages she sought. Fed.R.Civ.P. 54(d) provides that "costs other than attorneys' fees shall be allowed as of course to the prevailing party unless the court otherwise directs..." "As used in Rule 54(d), `prevailing party' means a party who has obtained some relief in an action, even if that party has not sustained all of his or her claims." First Commodity Traders, Inc. v. Heinold Commodities, Inc., 766 F.2d 1007, 1014 (7th Cir.1985) (citing Holcomb v. United States, 78 F.R.D. 527, 529 (E.D.Wis.1978)); Barnett v. City of Chicago, 1999 WL 138813, *1 (N.D.Ill.) ("For the purposes of Rule 54(d), a `prevailing party' is the party who prevails as to the substantial part of the litigation")(citing Northbrook Excess and Surplus Ins. Co. v. Procter & Gamble Co., 924 F.2d 633, 641 (7th Cir.1991)). However, under Rule 54(d)(1), it is generally acknowledged that the judgment winner is the prevailing party. See 10 Moore's Federal Practice, § 54.101[...