Tuesday, September 23, 1997
Appeals court orders judge to reconsider attorneys'
fees
By ANTHONY WILSON
Staff Writer
A federal appeals court has ordered U.S. District Judge Sam
Cummings to reconsider attorneys' fees for League of United Latin
American Citizens' lawyers who sued the Roscoe schools in a voting
rights case.
In a ruling issued last week, the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of
Appeals returned the matter to the Lubbock judge, saying Cummings
must justify reducing the hours billed and the lawyers' hourly
rates, calculate paralegals' fees into the award, and compensate
one attorney who had agreed to forego fees.
In July 1996, Cummings awarded three lawyers for LULAC only
$5,251 of the $58,976 they had sought for blocking a school trustee
election.
At the time, Cummings blasted the billings as "grossly
excessive" for a case that required a single one-hour hearing.
Roscoe's attorney, Chuck Jones of Sweetwater, accused LULAC's
attorneys of padding their bills after they lost a larger case
in which they claimed the school system's at-large elections discriminated
against Hispanic voters.
LULAC lead attorney Rolando Rios of San Antonio did not return
a phone call Monday.
Jones lamented the higher court's decision.
"The amount they requested was ridiculous to begin with,"
he said. "Now we're spending more money litigating what they
ought to get paid than we spent litigating the case.
"I hate spending more money that ought to be spent on
kids' education," Jones added.
While the three-judge panel noted district judges have "broad
discretion" in awarding attorneys' fees, it ruled Cummings
erred in the following ways:
<s^box Cummings whittled Rios' billed hours from 52 to 20
and Judith Sanders-Castro's from 45 to 10, citing the case's simplicity.
The appeals court said Cummings must analyze whether each hour
was reasonably expended rather than cutting "across the board."
<s^box Cummings reduced the lawyers' hourly rates from $250
to a "reasonable" $125.
But the court cited him for relying on his own experience in
the legal market, noting the record cites no evidence of a reasonable
rate less than $150 per hour.
<s^box Cummings refused separate awards for paralegal and
law clerk's costs.
Though that's allowed, the appellate judges said those costs
should be reflected in the attorneys' hourly rates.
<s^box Cummings declined to award fees to attorney Jose
Garza, who had agreed to forego fees if Jones returned payments
from the Roscoe schools. Jones quickly agreed to do so.
But Jones on Monday said he was never given direction how to
return the approximately $4,000 in fees he collected.
Though Garza agreed to an "open-ended offer," the
appeals court ruled there is no "binding agreement"
without Jones' participation and ordered Cummings to calculate
reasonable fees for the San Antonio attorney. Garza claimed 77
hours of work.
The court also ordered Cummings to consider fees for LULAC's
appeal.
Jones continues to represent the district for free.
The case in question concerned Roscoe's failure to gain federal
approval when it tinkered with its election system in 1995.
Jones and the LULAC lawyers argued the larger case before the
New Orleans-based appeals court over the summer. Jones voiced
confidence the court will uphold Cummings' findings in that lawsuit.
In May 1996, Cummings refused to alter Roscoe's at-large elections,
finding LULAC's claims of discrimination groundless.
Previously, most Texas school districts settled similar lawsuits
by adopting single-member districts or cumulative voting to avoid
the hefty costs of a court fight. But Roscoe's example has encouraged
more schools to fight LULAC's claims, Jones said.
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Abilene Reporter-News / Texnews / E.W. Scripps Publications
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