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Manor Country Club v. Flaa5/18/2005
e hearing examiner had done, although in lesser amounts, the panel awarded the respondent monetary damages and attorney's fees. Rather than the maximum damages of $1,000 recommended by the hearing examiner, the panel awarded the petitioner $750.00 in damages, and significantly reduced the $120,481 in attorney's fees recommended, awarding the petitioner only $3,000.
The Circuit Court for Montgomery County having reversed the attorney's fee award, noting that it was arrived at without regard to the factors enumerated in Montgomery County Code, § 27-7(k)(1) (1987) and without refuting the findings supporting his fee recommendation, made by the hearing examiner, and remanded the case for a redetermination of the award, the panel issued its Order and Opinion Awarding Attorney's Fees. In its Opinion, the panel addressed each of the § 27-7 (k) (1) factors, concluding, in the Order, to award attorney's fees of $22,440, " ased on our Lodestar analysis of all of the factors that we are required to base this ruling upon." That amount was calculated on the basis of 132 hours multiplied by the average firm billing rate, $170 per hour, of the petitioner's counsel. In considering, as it was instructed to do, the degree of success the outcome represented for the petitioner, the panel observed:
"We found some of [the respondent's] major theories and alleged causes of action brought in this case to be without merit and therefore declined to follow the recommendations of the Hearing Examiner on those issues of law. Moreover, in awarding the monetary damages that we did, this Panel was well aware of the fact that there was one (and only one) proven instance of `discrimination.' We felt compelled by the statute to award injunctive relief, regardless of whether we believed that there were systemic wrongs to be righted. As discussed above, only the argument and decision in favor of finding for the jurisdiction of the Commission was a major victory for [the respondent]."
Accordingly, not believing the degree of success the respondent enjoyed to have been significant, the panel declined to adjust the attorney's fees upward. Earlier, when addressing the time and labor factor, the panel had commented, tellingly:
"We cannot fathom how any person, dealing with the facts alleged, could have decided that it was worth $250,000 or so to litigate these issues. We believe that an attorney has a responsibility to dissuade clients or potential clients from launching costly litigation, knowing that the other party will incur enormous defense costs, where the cost/benefit ratio of that litigation is low. In this case particularly, damages were capped under the statute. Rather, it is our decision on this issue that any reasonable client would not have been willing to spend more than $25,000 to pursue claims of the type made in this proceeding."[Alterations Added]
I have not the slightest doubt that the panel erred in its determination of the attorney's fees in this case and that, as the Court of Special Appeals held, the Circuit Court erred in affirming that award. As the Circuit Court on initial review noted, although the respondent did not prevail on her claims of hostile environment and disparate impact, she prevailed on a matter of first impression in Maryland, her claim that Manor Country Club was a place of public accommodation, and on her claim of sex discrimination. Moreover, whatever might have been the motivation of the panel in awarding it, the respondent obtained the injunctive relief she sought, which relief benefitted, in any event, not just the respondent, but all women using any of the petitioner's "facilities, services and activities."
Furthermore, this discriminat
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