Roth v. Coleman

Summary

The Tenth Circuit affirmed an award of attorney’s fees and costs imposed on attorney Robert J. Mulhern under 28 U.S.C. § 1927 in connection with a civil rights action. The court held that the Durango Defendants had not waived their request for fees and that the district court acted within its discretion by considering subsequently submitted time records and reducing the award for insufficiently informative entries.

Holdings

1. The Durango Defendants did not waive their request for attorney fees and costs merely because they initially failed to submit detailed time records; the district court had discretion on remand to reject the waiver argument and permit a corrected submission.
2. The district court did not abuse its discretion by crediting an affidavit stating that the time entries were contemporaneously recorded and by using the records to calculate fees and allowable costs, subject to a ten-percent reduction for non-informative entries.

Questions Presented

1. Whether the Durango Defendants waived their right to attorney fees and costs by failing to submit detailed time records with their original sanctions motion.
2. Whether the district court abused its discretion by relying on subsequently submitted, allegedly non-contemporaneous billing records to calculate attorney fees and costs.

Disposition

affirmed