Opinion
CIVIL ACTION NO. 01-1661
February 11, 2004
MEMORANDUM AND ORDER
In response to this court's order of December 16, 2003, plaintiff filed a brief which was not responsive, as pointed out by defendants, to that order in that a bill for filing the motion for sanctions and brief in support thereof was not attached. To plaintiffs credit, it immediately responded to defendants' reply by submitting an itemized bill to the court.
In pertinent part, that itemized bill indicates that 51.70 hours of work were spent on the aforesaid brief primarily by JL Swichar. 8.7 hours were spent by AJ Lawrow in pulling trial exhibits, pulling exhibits for the brief and finish assembling exhibits for the brief. SM Richman spent 3.1 hours to review the draft brief and revise it. JL Swichar thus spent almost 40 hours in the preparation of this brief including 4 ½ hours of strategy sessions with SM Richman. The $9,762.00 bill for this work seems somewhat excessive in light of the history of this case at the time this brief was prepared. In any event, the sanction the court had in mind in this case developed from what the court felt was incomplete disclosure on the part of defendants, although the court acknowledged it was difficult to determine who exactly was correct. Clearly, some of the discovery produced by defendants on the eve of trial should have been produced in response to earlier discovery. On the other hand, plaintiff should have been able to brief its argument in support of sanctions over a shorter period of time. Reasonable expenses, I conclude, are $1,500.00 and direct defendants to pay that sum to plaintiff.
IT IS SO ORDERED.