Westmoreland v. TWC Administration LLC

Filing 113

ORDER: Defendant shall submit further information as stated in Order within 10 days regarding 100 MOTION for Attorney Fees. Supplemental Documents due 11/4/2019. Signed by District Judge Max O. Cogburn, Jr on 10/25/2019. (tmg)

UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT
WESTERN DISTRICT OF NORTH CAROLINA
STATESVILLE DIVISION
5:16-cv-24-MOC-DSC
GLENDA WESTMORELEAND,

)
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Plaintiff,
)
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vs.
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TWC ADMINISTRATION LLC,
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d/b/a TIME WARNER CABLE,
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)
Defendant.
)
___________________________________ )

ORDER

THIS MATTER is before the Court on Defendant’s Motion for Attorney Fees and
Costs, based on fees incurred in defending Plaintiff’s race discrimination claim brought under
Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964. (Doc. No. 100).
The Court has carefully reviewed the affidavits and billing time sheets attached to
Defendant’s motion. To determine the appropriate amount of attorney's fees, this Court is tasked
with determining the lodestar amount. The lodestar amount is the number of hours reasonably
expended on the litigation multiplied by a reasonable rate. Hensley v. Eckerhart, 461 U.S. 424,
433 (1983).
Here, Defendant has provided the billing sheets showing hours worked in this matter by
attorneys Pirtle, Wood, and Douglas, and paralegal Burn. The supporting materials and billing
sheets in this case, however, do not include totals for hours worked by each of attorneys Pirtle,
Wood, and Douglas, and paralegal Burn, nor do they break down the number of hours worked by
each of these persons specifically on the race discrimination claim, nor do they, alternatively,
provide a percentage of the total number of hours that is attributable to each person in defending

Plaintiff’s race discrimination claim. The supporting materials merely assert that various
percentages of various total amounts billed to Defendant were attributable to the defense of the
race discrimination claim. Before proceeding, the Court needs more information from
Defendant. In other words, the Court is unable, with the information before it, to calculate the
lodestar amount—that is, the number of hours reasonably expended on the litigation multiplied
by a reasonable rate.1
Defendant shall, therefore, within ten days, submit to the Court further information
showing the total number of hours that Defendant contends were spent by each of the attorneys
Pirtle, Wood, and Douglas, and paralegal Burn, in defending against Plaintiff’s race
discrimination claim. Defendant may certainly submit that only a certain percentage of those
hours were spent in defending the race discrimination claim, but the Court needs more
information from Defendant in order to calculate the lodestar amount and determine whether the
requested fees are reasonable.
IT IS SO ORDERED.
Signed: October 25, 2019

If Defendant’s position is that the Court is not required to calculate reasonable attorney fees
according to the lodestar amount, Defendant shall submit supporting caselaw.
1