Opinion
No. 01 C 1032
December 28, 2001
MEMORANDUM OPINION AND ORDER
Plaintiffs, in this consumer action, sued GMAC and their dealer, Yamm Chevrolet. It was filed as a class action. OMAC settled early in the case. The suit against the dealer involved numerous claims for substantially the same relief, which lead to extensive briefing of a motion to dismiss (which largely failed). GMAC the dealer settled for return of a down-payment of $531 and reasonable attorneys' fees.
Plaintiffs claim $15,003.75 in attorneys' fees, $14,253.75 for 63.35 hours expended by Dmitry N. Feofanov and $775 for 2.5 hours expended by Sharmila Roy. They set Feofanov's rate at $225 per hour and Roy's at $300 per hour. Yemm Chevrolet contends that the hourly rates are excessive, that plaintiffs should not be compensated for 2.7 hours spent on class allegations, that 13.9 hours for five status calls are excessive, that it should not be required to compensate plaintiffs for 5.5 hours spent exclusively on claims against GMAC, that 6.9 hours spent amending the complaint are excessive, that plaintiffs should not be compensated for 14 hours spent responding to the motion to dismiss because the claims were duplicitous, and the fees should be reduced due to plaintiffs' very modest success. Thereafter defendant finally furnished the time records of its own attorneys, which disclosed that those attorneys spent 80.8 hours on the case, but charged only $100 per hour. Finally, plaintiffs referred the court to a recent opinion by Judge Darrah awarding $225 per hour to Feofanov.
We think, as did Judge Darrah, that $225 per hour for Feofanov is a reasonable market rate. We award the same rate for Roy's time, partly because the $300 per hour rate is insufficiently supported and partly because we are unsure what she did during the 2.5 hours, although defendant does not question that aspect. We think, also, as did Judge Darrah, that the court time is excessive. An attorney would not have a paying client for long in a case of this limited exposure if he charged $225 per hour for an average of 2.8 hours at each status call, almost all of it expended in travel to and from Naperville. We think one hour per status call is reasonable. Like Judge Darrah, we do not think the limited time sent on class allegations, soon abandoned, should be deducted. They were, at least originally, part of the case. Like Judge Darrah, we think the time spent on amending the complaint is excessive. The $225 rate is in large part based upon counsel's experience in this field, with similar cases in the past. We scale that back to three hours. We do not believe plaintiffs are entitled to recover from the dealer for the time spent on the GMAC claims. Perhaps an inability to collect fees from GMAC raises questions about the economic feasibility of prosecuting such claims, but that is not a reason for transferring the burden to the dealer. We think the time spent responding to the motion to dismiss is compensable. Plaintiffs alleged too many claims, but defendant did not need to launch its largely unsuccessful attack upon them since it was highly improbable that no claims would survive. It gained virtually nothing by the attempt, and plaintiffs had to respond. Finally, the recovery was indeed modest, but that was always likely, and, if defendant chose not to settle early, plaintiffs had to prosecute the litigation.
We award attorneys' fees in the amount of $10,698.75.