Opinion
No. 3D99-1656.
Opinion filed March 1, 2000.
Appeal from the Circuit Court for Dade County, Thomas S. Wilson, Jr., Judge, L.T. No. 93-20658.
Parenti, Falk, Waas, Hernandez Cortina and Gail Leverett Parenti, for appellant.
Ress, Mintz Truppman; Lauri Waldman Ross and Teresa L. Girten, for appellee.
Before SCHWARTZ, C.J., and GODERICH and RAMIREZ, JJ.
Although we find no abuse of discretion in the determinations of the time appropriately expended by the plaintiff's attorney and his hourly rate, we conclude that there is no basis for the 2.0 multiplier applied by the trial court. See Standard Guar. Ins. Co. v. Quanstrom, 555 So.2d 828 (Fla. 1990); Gonzalez v. Veloso, 731 So.2d 63 (Fla. 3d DCA 1999); Simmons v. Royal Floral Distributors, Inc., 724 So.2d 99 (Fla. 4th DCA 1998); Askowitz v. Susan Feuer Interior Design, Inc., 563 So.2d 752 (Fla. 3d DCA 1990), review denied, 576 So.2d 292 (Fla. 1991).
Accordingly, the cause is remanded with directions to make an award of one-half of the present judgment for attorney's fees.
GODERICH and RAMIREZ, JJ., concur.
I believe that the trial court grossly over assessed the amount of hours reasonably required in the conduct of the action, see Miller v. First American Bank and Trust, 607 So.2d 483 (Fla. 4th DCA 1992), and would therefore also reverse that conclusion.