Board of Trustees of the Laborers Health and Welfare Trust Fund for Northern California v. Munoz

United States District Court for the Northern District of California

Board of Trustees of the Laborers Health and Welfare Trust Fund for Northern California v. Munoz

Trial Court Opinion

1 UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT 2 NORTHERN DISTRICT OF CALIFORNIA 3 4 BOARD OF TRUSTEES OF THE Case No. 22-cv-07696-JD LABORERS HEALTH AND WELFARE 5 TRUST FUND FOR NORTHERN CALIFORNIA, et al., ORDER RE ATTORNEY'S FEES 6 Plaintiffs, 7 v. 8 ARTURO SOLORZANO MUNOZ, ? Defendant. 10 11 In the default judgment order, the Court concluded that plaintiff Board of Trustees was || entitled to recover its reasonable attorney’s fees and costs pursuant to

29 U.S.C. § 1132

(g)(1) but

< 13 || had not justified an hourly billing rate of $350. See Dkt. No. 22 at 5 (discussing Welch v.

v 14 || Metropolitan Life Insurance Company,

480 F.3d 942

(9th Cir. 2007)). The Board’s supplemental

15 || statement, Dkt. No. 23, cited fee awards by other courts in this District of $350 per hour for A 16 || plaintiffs counsel, Ronald Richman, in similar cases. See

id.

(citing, e.g., Bd. of Trustees of

= 17 || Laborers Health & Welfare Tr. Fund for N. California v. Norcal Excavating, Inc., No. 23-cv- 2 18 01994-TSH,

2023 WL 8482751

, at *9 (N.D. Cal. Nov. 6, 2023), report and recommendation 19 adopted, No. 23-cv-01994-JST,

2023 WL 8482865

(N.D. Cal. Dec. 7, 2023)). The Court is not 20 || entirely persuaded that this enough to justify the requested hourly rate, but will accept it for 21 || present purposes in light of the circumstances of this case. Judgment will be entered separately in 22 || favor of the Board in the amount of $5,643.45. 23 IT IS SO ORDERED. 24 Dated: April 9, 2024 25 26 JAMES#PPONATO 27 United ftates District Judge 28

Reference

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