US Football League v. National Football League

• Decision Date: 19 January 1989
• Docket Number: No. 84 Civ. 7484 (PKL).,84 Civ. 7484 (PKL).
• Citation: 704 F. Supp. 474
• Parties: UNITED STATES FOOTBALL LEAGUE, et al., Plaintiffs, v. NATIONAL FOOTBALL LEAGUE, et al., Defendants.
• Court: U.S. District Court — Southern District of New York

704 F. Supp. 474

UNITED STATES FOOTBALL LEAGUE, et al., Plaintiffs, v. NATIONAL FOOTBALL LEAGUE, et al., Defendants.

No. 84 Civ. 7484 (PKL).

United States District Court, S.D. New York.

January 19, 1989.

COPYRIGHT MATERIAL OMITTED

Myerson & Kuhn, New York City (Harvey D. Myerson, Mark E. Segall, of counsel), for plaintiffs.

Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom, New York City (Frank Rothman, Shepard Goldfein, Seth B. Schafler, of counsel), Davis Polk & Wardell, New York City (Robert B. Fiske, of counsel), Covington & Burling, Washington, D.C., for defendants.

OPINION AND ORDER

(Opinion No. 18)

LEISURE, District Judge.

This action was tried over ten weeks in the summer months of 1986. The United States Football League and certain of its member clubs (collectively the "USFL") brought suit against the National Football League, its commissioner and certain of its member clubs (collectively the "NFL") for violations of Sections 1 and 2 of the Sherman Anti-Trust Act, 15 U.S.C. §§ 1 and 2, and of the common law.

At the conclusion of the trial, the jury rendered a series of general verdicts, and answered numerous special interrogatories. Those findings were not disturbed by this Court upon post-trial motions. U.S. Football League v. National Football League, 644 F.Supp. 1040 (S.D.N.Y.1986). The Second Circuit affirmed. U.S. Football League v. National Football League, 842 F.2d 1335 (2d Cir.1988). The USFL makes the present application for attorneys' fees.

After trial, the jury found the NFL liable on the USFL's first claim of actual monopolization, concluding that the NFL had willfully acquired or maintained monopoly power in a relevant market consisting of major league professional football in the United States. The jury also found that the NFL's unlawful monopolization of a relevant market had caused injury to plaintiffs' business or property. Despite these findings, the jury chose to award only nominal damages of $1.00 as a result of the NFL's unlawful conduct. See, generally, USFL, 644 F.Supp. at 1042; USFL, 842 F.2d at 1377.

Plaintiffs were not as successful on their remaining claims. The jury found that the NFL had not violated Section 2 by attempting or conspiring to monopolize. Additionally, although the jury found that one or more of the defendants had participated in a contract, combination or conspiracy to exclude competition within major league football, that combination was found not to be an unreasonable restraint of trade in violation of Section 1 of the Sherman Act. Also, the NFL's television contracts were not found to be an unreasonable restraint of trade violative of Section 1, nor did the jury accept the plaintiffs' "essential facilities" claim. USFL, 644 F.Supp. at 1042.

The issues presented by this petition basically fall into three categories: 1) the adequacy of the documentation of the fees; 2) whether the USFL should receive attorneys' fees at all; and 3) the proper amount of those fees. Additionally, the NFL contests the costs application of the USFL.

1. DOCUMENTATION OF THE FEES SOUGHT.

The NFL challenges the fee petition because the documentation of the hours spent is alleged to be inadequate. The original computer printouts, which are the contemporaneous records, are submitted as Exhibit A, attached to the Affidavit of Mark E. Segall, Esq., sworn to on August 17, 1988 ("Segall Affidavit"). Those records had previously been re-typed into a more legible form, and attached as Exhibit C to the Affidavit of Harvey D. Myerson, Esq., sworn to on May 2, 1988 ("Myerson Affidavit").¹ The initial submission of the re-typed computer records satisfied the requirement that "contemporaneous" time records be submitted. Lenihan v. City of New York, 640 F.Supp. 822, 824 (S.D.N.Y. 1986). "Reconstructed" records, of course, would not be sufficient. Comparison of the re-typed records with the original computer runs subsequently submitted to the Court and opposing counsel indicates, however, that the re-typed printouts are not impermissibly reconstructed. The re-typed format served its purpose, which was to be helpful in this Court's review of the fee application.

The NFL has picked out certain discrepancies between the re-typed records and the original computer runs. It argues that these discrepancies should invalidate any fee award. These claims warrant little discussion; the discrepancies that do exist are few, minor, and in any event largely justified. It is worth noting that the USFL submitted the original computer time printouts, as an exhibit, to the Court for analysis; the NFL would have made its comparative challenges without providing the Court a complete record to review.

The NFL complains of isolated instances of alleged deletion of overspecific language, see, Exhibit D, attached to Affidavit of Seth B. Schafler, Esq., sworn to on July 14, 1988 ("Schafler Affidavit"), and inclusion of descriptive language, see, Exhibit E, attached to Schafler Affidavit, in the retyped time sheets. The few instances of inclusion were based on personal knowledge of the attorneys involved. Segall Affidavit ¶ 25. The Court finds that these minor discrepancies in the re-typed time sheets, especially when compared to the full original computer runs submitted to the Court, do not render any part of the fee application invalid.

The documentation of the billed time is also challenged as impermissibly vague. The Second Circuit set out the required specificity in New York State Ass'n For Retarded Children, Inc. v. Carey, 711 F.2d 1136, 1148 (2d Cir.1983) (the records "should specify, for each attorney, the date, the hours expended, and the nature of the work done.") "It is not necessary to know the exact number of minutes spent nor the precise activity to which each hour was devoted nor the specific attainments of each attorney." City of Detroit v. Grinnell Corp., 495 F.2d 448, 473 (2d Cir.1974). See also, Williamsburg Fair Housing Comm. v. Ross-Rodney Housing Corp., 599 F.Supp. 509, 517 (S.D.N.Y.1984); Lindy Bros. Builders, Inc. v. American Radiator & Standard Sanitary Corp., 487 F.2d 161, 170 (3d Cir.1973).

The timekeeping practices of the USFL's counsel here are consistent with standards prevalent in the legal profession.² The NFL's claim that 50% of the entries are impermissibly vague is far overstated. The NFL assesses individual entries, and even individual parts of entries, as if they were isolated in a vacuum. Upon examination of the time sheets in context, given the Court's familiarity with the case and its "own assessment of what is appropriate for the scope and complexity of the particular litigation," Carey, 711 F.2d at 1146, most of the alleged vagueness evanesces.

There are, however, numerous entries that are, in fact, too vague under the Carey standard, even when taken in context. While not approaching the 50% figure asserted by the NFL, the Court cannot ascertain whether such entries are properly recoverable or not. Fees cannot, therefore, be properly awarded for those entries. Because of this vagueness, the ultimate fee award will be reduced by 10%. See, Orshan v. Macchiarola, 629 F.Supp. 1014 (E.D.N.Y.1986) (Court reduced fee award by 25% when faced with inadequately reconstructed records that did not distinguish compensable and noncompensable time.); Chrapliwy v. Uniroyal, 583 F.Supp. 40, 47 (N.D.Ind.1983) ("Ambiguities arising out of poor time records should be resolved against the applicant," and court reduced compensation for 50 hours of undocumented telephone calls by 10%.).

2. ENTITLEMENT TO FEES.

The USFL contends that actual entitlement to fees is not, in fact, an issue at all. An award of fees under section 4 of the Clayton Act is "mandatory for prevailing plaintiffs." Christiansburg Garment Co. v. EEOC, 434 U.S. 412, 415 n. 5, 98 S.Ct. 694, 697 n. 5, 54 L.Ed.2d 648 (1978). The Second Circuit has reversed a district court for refusing to award fees to a prevailing antitrust plaintiff, noting that "section 4 of the Clayton Act expressly requires such an award." Hydrolevel Corp. v. American Soc. of Mechanical Engineers, 635 F.2d 118, 130 (2d Cir.1980), aff'd, 456 U.S. 556, 102 S.Ct. 1935, 72 L.Ed. 2d 330 (1982). There are numerous cases where fees to prevailing antitrust plaintiffs are characterized as "mandatory." See, e.g., Home Placement Service, Inc. v. Providence Journal Co., 819 F.2d 1199, 1210 (1st Cir.1987); Baughman v. Cooper-Jarrett, Inc., 530 F.2d 529, 531 n. 2 (3d Cir.), cert. denied, 429 U.S. 825, 97 S.Ct. 78, 50 L.Ed.2d 87 (1976).

The NFL concedes, as it must, that a prevailing antitrust plaintiff is entitled to a mandatory award of attorneys' fees under section 4 of the Clayton Act. The NFL makes the only real argument left to make, namely, that the USFL, despite the jury's finding on the monopolization claim, was not a "prevailing party."

The NFL thus asserts that the USFL's fee application should be denied in its entirety. The arguments that the USFL was not a "prevailing party" are essentially that: 1) the USFL lost a major portion of its case, and did not achieve all of the benefits it sought to achieve by the litigation; and 2) the USFL did not prove any damage with regard to the claim it prevailed upon.

A. Benefits of the Litigation.

A significant portion of the NFL's "benefits of the litigation" argument is based on language quoted in Hensley v. Eckerhart, 461 U.S. 424, 433, 103 S.Ct. 1933, 1939, 76 L.Ed.2d 40 (1983) ("A typical formulation is that `plaintiffs may be considered "prevailing parties" for attorney's fees purposes if they succeed on any significant issue in litigation which achieves some of the benefit the parties sought in bringing the suit.'") (quoting Nadeau v. Helgemoe, 581 F.2d 275, 278-279 (1st Cir. 1978)). The NFL thus contends that a certain minimum threshold level of "benefits" must be achieved before a party who establishes antitrust violations becomes a prevailing party under the antitrust laws.

Hensley, and all of the other...