Hill v. Robinson et al

Filing 34

ORDER re: 29 Affidavit filed by Vince Sauter, J. Grayson Robinson, Arapahoe County, Board of County Commissioners. The amount of $480.00 is hereby awarded to Defendants and against Plaintiff and his counsel. The total amount of the sanction shall be remitted by certified funds payable in full to the Arapahoe County Attorney's Office on or before 4/16/2012. By Magistrate Judge Kathleen M. Tafoya on 3/16/2012. (jjpsl, )

IN THE UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT
FOR THE DISTRICT OF COLORADO
Magistrate Judge Kathleen M. Tafoya
Civil Action No. 11–cv–00835–PAB–KMT

DARIUS HILL,
Plaintiff,
v.
UNNAMED ARAPAHOE COUNTY DETENTION OFFICERS, Individually and Severally,
ARAPAHOE COUNTY SHERIFF J. GRAYSON ROBINSON,
ARAPAHOE COUNTY CAPTAIN VINCE SAUTER, and
THE BOARD OF COUNTY COMMISSIONERS OF THE COUNTY OF ARAPAHOE,
Defendants.

ORDER

This matter is before the court on the Affidavit in Support of Attorney Fees and Costs
(Doc. No. 29 [Caswall Affidavit]) detailing the costs and attorney’s fees claimed as a result of
the Court’s Order on February 1, 2012. (See Doc. No. 27.)
Background
On January 6, 2012, the defendants filed a motion to compel Plaintiff’s responses to
written interrogatories. (Doc. Nos. 24.) This court granted the motion to compel and, pursuant
to Fed. R. Civ. P. 37(a)(5), awarded Defendants costs and attorney fees incurred in pursuing the
motion to compel. The court also ordered the defendants to file an affidavit providing an
accounting of their attorney’s fees and expenses related to filing of the motion to compel.

Though the court gave Plaintiff a deadline to file a response to the defendants’ accounting,
Plaintiff did not file a response or other objection.
Analysis
Defendants request attorney fees in the amount of $480.00 for the time expended in
preparing the motion to compel. In Robinson v. City of Edmond, 160 F.3d 1275 (10th Cir. 1998),
the Tenth Circuit reviewed the approach to be used in calculating an award of attorney’s fees,
stating
To determine the reasonableness of a fee request, a court must begin by calculating the
so-called “lodestar amount” of a fee, and a claimant is entitled to the presumption that
this lodestar amount reflects a “reasonable” fee. The lodestar calculation is the product
of a number of attorney hours “reasonably expended” and a “reasonable hourly rate.”
Id. at 1281. The analysis has two components: first, whether the hours billed “were ‘necessary’
under the circumstances,” id.; and second, whether the hourly rate charged “is the prevailing
market rate in the relevant community.” Guides, Ltd. v. Yarmouth Group Property Mgmt., Inc.,
295 F.3d 1065, 1078 (10th Cir. 2002).
Defendants’ attorney, Edward M. Caswall, spent 1.6 hours in preparing the motion to
compel. (Caswall Aff., ¶ 3.) This court finds that the total number of hours claimed in
connection with the motion to compel are reasonable and were necessary under the
circumstances. Similarly, this court concludes that the hourly rate, $300.00 per hour, charged by
Mr. Caswall is reasonable and comes within the prevailing rate in the Denver, Colorado, area for
attorneys of similar experience. Therefore, it is

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ORDERED that the amount of $480.00 is hereby awarded to Defendants and against
Plaintiff and his counsel. The total amount of the sanction shall be remitted by certified funds
payable in full to the Arapahoe County Attorney’s Office on or before April 16, 2012.
Dated this 16th day of March, 2012.

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