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Manor Country Club v. Flaa5/18/2005
Bell, C. J. Raker Wilner Cathell Harrell Battaglia Eldridge, John C. (Retired, Specially Assigned), JJ.
Bell, C.J. dissents
After some twelve years of extensive litigation, the appeal now before us seeks to determine the correct approach to be applied in calculating attorney's fees where the award of such fees is permitted and there existed, at the time this case was initiated and an award was made, a provision of the Montgomery County Code that delineated criteria to be applied to a determination of the discretionary award of attorney's fees to a prevailing party in a discrimination suit.
Betty Flaa, respondent, ("Mrs. Flaa") filed a complaint with the Montgomery County Office of Human Rights ("MCOHR"), which, at that time, was known as the Montgomery County Human Relations Commission, and prevailed in a substantial way on some aspects of her discrimination claim against Manor Country Club, petitioner, ("Manor"). The subsequent award of attorney's fees by a two-person Public Accommodations Panel of the Montgomery County Human Relations Commission ("Panel") in favor of Mrs. Flaa has been the subject of two petitions for judicial review by the Circuit Court for Montgomery County. In the second of these petitions, the Panel had awarded Mrs. Flaa $22,440.00 in attorney's fees, an award which the hearing court affirmed. Mrs. Flaa then appealed to the Court of Special Appeals, which reversed the trial court and remanded the case to the Panel to recalculate the award. Manor then filed a petition for writ of certiorari which we granted on December 17, 2004. Manor Country Club v. Flaa, 384 Md. 448, 863 A.2d 997 (2004).
Manor's petition for writ of certiorari presented the following questions for our review:
1. "When a county agency exercises its discretion to award attorney's fees, as specifically allowed by a county statute, is that agency required to determine reasonable attorney's fees according to a strict application of the lodestar approach, or is it required to determine reasonable attorney's fees in accordance with the dictates of the statute that provides it with the authority to award attorney's fees?"
1. "Did the Court of Special Appeals err by refusing to apply an abuse of discretion standard to review the [Public Accommodations] Panel [of the Montgomery County Human Relations Commission's] attorney's fee award where the record shows that the Panel reviewed, in detail, each factor required by the Montgomery County Code in making a fee award and, thereby, determined an award of reasonable hours times reasonable rate?" [Alterations added.] [Emphasis added.]
We hold that, when attorney's fees are permitted by statute or ordinance, the lodestar approach to the calculation of reasonable attorney's fees is generally the correct approach, except in instances where other criteria for the calculation of such fees are provided, as in the present case, in the fee-shifting statute. As we further explain hereafter, we address the second question only insofar as is necessary in our treatment of the first-and consistent-question presented, given the discrepancy between the second question presented by Manor in its petition for writ of certiorari and in its brief
I. Facts and Procedural History
The longevity of this case has generated an extensive set of facts. The issue before this Court, however, is limited to the proper procedure for awarding attorney's fees under the circumstances of the present case. In similarly recognizing this focus, the Court of Special Appeals, in its reported decision, Flaa v. Manor Country Club, 158 Md.App. 483, 857 A.2d 604 (2004), confined its factual recitation of the under
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