|
|
|
Court Awards Attorney Fees under Americans with Disabilities Act
(October 2011) By Lydia S. Hu, Associate
For more information, contact Paul
Farquharson.
Shane Feldman, et al. v. Pro Football, Inc., et al., Civil Action No. 8:06-cv-2266AW, Sept. Term 2009 | View pdf
The Honorable Alexander Williams, Jr., United States
District Court for the District of Maryland, awarded attorney’s fees to
Plaintiff under the Americans with Disabilities Act. The underlying case
involved claims brought by deaf and hard of hearing fans who regularly attended
Redskins games at FedEx Field. The claims sought equal access to the aural
information broadcast over the stadium bowl public address system at FedEx
Field. Plaintiffs prevailed in the underlying matter on a summary judgment
motion. Shortly after the claim was filed, Defendants captioned most of the
content. At the summary judgment hearing, Defendants argued that the case should
be dismissed as moot because the stadium was at that point providing most of the
content in caption. Instead, the Court granted summary judgment in favor of
Plaintiffs, ordering that the lyrics to music played over the stadium’s public
address system will be captioned as well.
Plaintiff requested attorney’s fees prior to appeal. After
the Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals affirmed the District Court grant of summary
judgment in favor of Plaintiffs, Plaintiffs again moved for attorney’s fees
authorized by the Americans with Disabilities Act, 42 U.S.C. §12205 and in
accordance with Local Rule 109.2. Defendants did not contest the hourly rate as
being unreasonable, but requested the Court to reduce the amount of fee recovery
to twenty-five (25%) percent of the attorney’s fees. Defendants argued that
Plaintiffs had very limited degree of success in this action because Defendants
voluntarily provided the sought after accommodation within six (6) weeks of the
date the case was filed.
The Court rejected Defendants’ position. Plaintiffs
were forced to pursue the case to judgment despite Defendants’ accommodation
because Defendants were free to stop providing caption at any time absent of
a declaratory judgment. Also, Defendants maintained throughout the duration
of the lawsuit that the American with Disabilities Act did not require them
to provide deaf and hard of hearing fans with auxiliary services.
Accordingly, the Court granted Plaintiffs’ request for
attorney’s fees in full.
|
|
|
Top
