United States District Court, D. Arizona
ORDER
David
G. Campbell United States District Judge.
Plaintiff
J & J Sports Productions has filed a motion for an award
of attorneys' fees and costs. Doc. 18. No. response has
been filed. The Court will grant the motion in part.
Plaintiff
obtains licenses to distribute pay-per-view programming to
bars and restaurants. Plaintiff claims that on September 17,
2016, Defendants intercepted a pay-per-view boxing match and
displayed it to the public at Taco Mich, a Mexican restaurant
and bar operated by Defendants. Plaintiff brought this civil
action seeking statutory damages for violations of the
Communications Act of 1934 and the Cable and Television
Consumer Protection and Competition Act of 1992, 47 U.S.C.
§§ 553 and 605 et seq. Doc. 1.
Defendants
failed to answer or otherwise respond to the complaint. Docs.
12. Plaintiff was awarded default judgment in the amount of
$30, 000.00. Docs. 17.
Under
the Communications Act, the Court “shall direct the
recovery of full costs, including awarding reasonable
attorneys' fees to an aggrieved party who
prevails.” 47 U.S.C. § 605(e)(3)(B)(iii). Pursuant
to Local Rule of Civil Procedure 54.2, a party seeking to
recover attorneys' fees must file a motion that includes
a discussion of the eligibility and entitlement to fees and
the reasonableness of the requested award. LRCiv 54.2(c). The
supporting memorandum should include a consultation
statement, the fee agreement, an itemized statement of fees,
and an affidavit of moving counsel. LRCiv 54.2(d).
With
respect to costs, Local Rule 54.1 directs prevailing party to
“include a memorandum of the costs and necessary
disbursements, so itemized that the nature of each can be
readily understood, and, where available, documentation of
requested costs in all categories must be attached.”
LRCiv 54.1(a).
I.
Attorneys' Fees.
Plaintiff
seeks a fee award in the amount of $3, 130 for 14.5 billable
hours. Docs. 18 at 3, 18-4 at 10. The request includes
$805.00 in fees for the work of an administrative assistant.
Doc. 18-4 at 7-10. Although this individual occasionally
engaged in substantive legal work under a lawyer's
supervision, most of the work is secretarial in nature.
Secretarial or clerical work is not properly included in an
award of attorneys' fees. See J & J Sports
Prods., Inc. v. Mosqueda, CV-12-00523-PHX-DGC, 2013 WL
5336848, at *3 (D. Ariz. Sept. 24, 2013) (citing Schrum
v. Burlington N. Santa Fe Ry. Co., No. CIV 04-0619-RCB,
2008 WL 2278137, at *12 (D. Ariz. May 30, 2008)). The Court
is particularly reluctant to award fees for all of this work,
as many of the itemized time entries appear to be a
lawyer's review or duplication of the administrator's
tasks. The Court has noted this same issue in ruling on
Plaintiff's motions for attorneys' fees in other
cases. See Mosqueda, 2013 WL 5336848, at *3; J
& J Sports Prods, Inc. v. Macia, No.
CV-13-00921-PHX-DGC, 2014 WL 3747608, at *1 (D. Ariz. July
30, 2014).
The
Court will reduce the requested fee award by the amount
sought for time spent by the administrative assistant on
secretarial tasks. The Court, in its discretion, will award
attorneys' fees of $2, 900.00.[1]
II.
Costs.
A
prevailing party is entitled to “the recovery of full
costs” under the Communications Act. 47 U.S.C. §
605(e)(3)(B)(iii). Plaintiff seeks an award of costs in the
amount of $1, 330.71 for filing fees, service of process
fees, courier charges, and investigative costs. Docs. 18 at
3, 18-4 at 10-11.
The
statute has been interpreted as including investigative
costs. See Kingvision Pay-Per-View Ltd. v. Autar,
426 F.Supp.2d 59, 67 (E.D.N.Y. 2006). Although the Court has
the power to direct the recovery of such costs, it is not
required to do so. Id. (citing Int'l
Cablevision, Inc. v. Noel, 982 F.Supp. 904, 918
(W.D.N.Y. 1997)). Rather, “[i]n order to recover
investigative costs a plaintiff must make a showing similar
to that required to recover attorneys' fees, ” and
the movant “must document (1) the amount of time
necessary for the investigation; (2) how much the
investigators charged per hour; and (3) why the investigators
are qualified to demand the requested rate.”
Id. (internal citations and quotation marks
omitted).
Plaintiff
has submitted a $650 invoice from the investigator, but
provides no explanation or supporting documentation for the
reasonableness of this charge. Doc. 18-4 at 15. Plaintiff
fails to describe the investigator's qualifications or
identify her hourly rate. It is worth noting that the
investigator spent less than a half hour in Defendants'
establishment on the night in question. Doc. 16-4 at 2. The
Court will not award costs for these investigative services.
Nor
will the Court award costs for the $151.71 in courier
charges. Doc. 18-4 at 10-11. Plaintiff provides no ...