States Resources Corp. v. Nature's Way Dairy LLC et al

Filing 52

ORDER granting 51 plaintiff's Postjudgment Motion for Attorney Fees. The Court awards plaintiff the amount of $3,256.00 in attorney's fees against defendants Nature's Way Dairy, LLC and George T. Cook. By Judge Philip A. Brimmer on 11/17/11.(mnfsl, )

IN THE UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT
FOR THE DISTRICT OF COLORADO
Judge Philip A. Brimmer

Civil Action No. 10-cv-00576-PAB-KMT
STATES RESOURCES CORP., an Iowa corporation,
Plaintiff,
v.
NATURE’S WAY DAIRY LLC, a Colorado Limited Liability Company, and
GEORGE T. COOK, also known as George Trent Cook,
Defendants.

ORDER

This matter is before the Court on plaintiff’s Postjudgment Motion for Attorneys
Fees [Docket No. 51].
In this case, plaintiff sought to enforce a promissory note against defendant
Nature’s Way Dairy, LLC (“Nature’s Way”) and a guaranty of that note by defendant
George T. Cook (“Cook”). The Clerk of the Court entered default pursuant to Rule
55(a) against Cook on July 30, 2010, see Docket No. 17, and Nature’s Way on
February 4, 2011, see Docket No. 41. Plaintiff filed then filed a motion for entry of
default judgment pursuant to Rule 55(b) against Nature’s Way and Cook. See Docket
No. 44. The Court granted in part and denied in part that motion [Docket No. 47] and
entered judgment [Docket No. 48] in favor of plaintiff and against defendants Nature’s
Way and Cook for unpaid indebtedness consisting of principal in the amount of
$183,948.83, and interest in the amount of $26,147.39 as of January 12, 2011 and

interest after January 12, 2011 at the rate of 9.25% per annum, being $47.26463 per
day. The Court also granted plaintiff leave to file the present post-judgment motion for
attorney’s fees.
By the terms of the promissory note, defendants agreed to pay the expenses
incurred by plaintiff to collect the debt owed under the note, including reasonable
attorney’s fees. See Docket No. 1-1 at 3, ¶ 15. Plaintiff seeks an award of attorney’s
fees in the amount of $3,256.00. Plaintiff asserts that its counsel has charged a
reasonable rate for time reasonably expended in seeking default judgment against
Nature’s Way and Cook. See United States ex rel. Maxwell v. Kerr-McGee Oil & Gas
Corp., No. 04-cv-01224-MSK-CBS, - - - F. Supp. 2d - - - -, 2011 WL 2174413, at *2 (D.
Colo. June 2, 2011) (“The ‘lodestar’ — the reasonable number of hours spent
multiplied by a reasonable hourly rate — is the ‘presumptively reasonable’ attorneys’
fee.”) (quoting Homeward Bound, Inc. v. Hissom Mem’l Ctr., 963 F.2d 1352, 1355 (10th
Cir. 1992)). The Court finds that plaintiff has demonstrated that it has charged a
reasonable rate. See Docket No. 51 at 2, ¶ 5.
Plaintiff seeks to recover for 15.5 hours of work. The Court concludes, upon
review of plaintiff’s billing records and in light of plaintiff’s representation that it reduced
the request to account for unrelated or duplicate efforts, that this constitutes a
reasonable amount of time for prosecuting this action against these two defendants.
Therefore, it is
ORDERED that plaintiff’s Postjudgment Motion for Attorneys Fees [Docket No.
51] is GRANTED. The Court awards plaintiff the amount of $3,256.00 in attorney’s fees

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against defendants Nature’s Way Dairy, LLC and George T. Cook.

DATED November 17, 2011.
BY THE COURT:

s/Philip A. Brimmer
PHILIP A. BRIMMER
United States District Judge

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