Ruehle et al v. Ocwen Loan Servicing LLC et al

Filing 157

ORDER granting in part and denying in part 151 Motion for Attorney Fees. Freedom Mortgage is awarded attorneys fees in the amount of $103,945.18. Signed by Honorable Scott L. Palk on 7/25/2019. (md)

IN THE UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT
FOR THE WESTERN DISTRICT OF OKLAHOMA
JEREMY D. RUEHLE and
BRITTANI Y. RUEHLE,

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Plaintiffs,
v.
OCWEN LOAN SERVICING, LLC,
FREEDOM MORTGAGE
CORPORATION. a/k/a
FREEDOM HOME MORTGAGE
CORPORATION, and
MORTGAGE INVESTORS
CORPORATION, INC.,
Defendants.
FREEDOM MORTGAGE
CORPORATION,

Case No. CIV-17-961-SLP

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Counter-plaintiff,
v.
JEREMY D. RUEHLE,
BRITTNI Y. RUEHLE, and
JOHN AND JANE DOE, as occupants
of the premises,
Counter-defendants.

ORDER
Before the Court is Defendant Freedom Mortgage Corporation’s Motion for
Attorney’s Fees [Doc. No. 151]. Plaintiffs did not file a response brief, and Freedom
Mortgage’s motion is at issue. The Court finds that Plaintiffs have confessed Freedom
Mortgage’s motion. See L. Cv. R. 7.1(g).

Still, the Court will evaluate Freedom Mortgage’s motion on its merits. Freedom
Mortgage is the prevailing party in this action, and Plaintiffs’ mortgage entitles Freedom
Mortgage to recover its reasonable attorneys’ fees from this action. See Becker v. Wells
Fargo Bank, NA, Inc., No. 2:10-CV-2799-TLN-KJN, 2014 WL 7409447, at *5 (E.D. Cal.
Dec. 30, 2014) (indicating that attorneys’ fees for RESPA and other claims such as those
asserted by Plaintiffs in this action were recoverable under the attorneys’ fees provision of
a mortgage similar to that at issue here), R & R adopted by 2015 WL 509662 (E.D. Cal.
Feb. 5, 2015); Farmers Ins. Co., Inc. v. Smith, 1998 OK CIV APP 28, ¶ 10, 957 P.2d 125,
128 (indicating that Oklahoma law allows recovery of attorneys’ fees pursuant to a
mortgage providing for the same).
The Court has reviewed the lodestar figure proposed by Freedom Mortgage, the
rates billed by Freedom Mortgage, and the amount of hours expended on this litigation by
Freedom Mortgage’s counsel, as well as the tasks performed by Freedom Mortgage’s
counsel as recorded in the contemporaneously-made records submitted to the Court. The
Court finds all of these aspects of Freedom Mortgage’s attorneys’ fees request to be
reasonable, except the Court finds that the rates charged by Freedom Mortgage’s out-ofstate counsel are higher than would be charged by similarly qualified attorneys (even those
at the top end of the range of billing rates for those with similar experience) in this district.
Accordingly, the Court imposes a 15% reduction on the lodestar amount for the hours billed
by Freedom Mortgage’s non-local counsel to account for the higher-than-normal-inOklahoma rates utilized by them and to bring their rates within the range of those charged
by similarly-experienced and similarly-qualified Oklahoma-based counsel. See Metz v.
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Merrill Lynch, Pierce, Fenner & Smith, Inc., 39 F.3d 1482, 1493 (10th Cir. 1994) (“A
district judge may turn to [his] own knowledge of prevailing market rates as well as other
indicia of a reasonable market rate.” (quotation marks and citation omitted)). The Court
finds the rate charged by Freedom Mortgage’s Oklahoma-based counsel to be reasonable,
and no adjustment to local counsel is necessary. The Court does not find any reason for
further adjustment of the attorneys’ fees to be awarded to Freedom Mortgage based on the
factors identified both in Johnson v. Georgia Highway Express, Inc., 488 F.2d 714, 71719 (5th Cir. 1974), abrogated in part by Blanchard v. Bergeron, 489 U.S. 87 (1989), and
in State ex rel. Burk v. City of Oklahoma City, 598 P.2d 659, 661 (Okla. 1979).
IT IS THEREFORE ORDERED that Freedom Mortgage’s Motion for Attorney’s
Fees [Doc. No. 151] is GRANTED IN PART and DENIED IN PART. Freedom Mortgage
is awarded attorneys’ fees in the amount of $103,945.18.
IT IS SO ORDERED this 25th day of July, 2019.

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