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Manor Country Club v. Flaa5/18/2005
law, by failing to consider, inter alia, her degree of success in prevailing on her discrimination claim and that the Panel had erroneously reached its award by applying a cost-benefit analysis. Following oral argument on June 17, 2003, the judge, ruling from the bench, affirmed the Panel's October 10, 2002, attorney's fees award.
In appealing to the intermediate appellate court, Mrs. Flaa emphasized anew the notion of the Panel's failure to apply the lodestar approach to the calculation of an award of attorney's fees, and this issue formed the sole basis of her appeal. She presented to the Court of Special Appeals a single matter of law issue for review:
"`Whether the Montgomery County Circuit Court committed an error of law by affirming the Public Accommodations Panel's Order and Opinion Awarding Attorney's Fees, in which the Panel failed to apply the lodestar method in its calculation of attorney's fees and costs.'"
Flaa, 158 Md.App. at 486, 857 A.2d at 606.
In a reported opinion issued September 8, 2004, the Court of Special Appeals vacated the Circuit Court's decision and directed the matter's remand to the Panel to "first determine the lodestar amount, and, if reductions are made, provide an explanation for the disallowed hours." Flaa, 158 Md.App. at 500, 857 A.2d at 615.
II. Discussion
A. Lodestar Examined
We begin by undertaking a brief overview of the much-discussed lodestar approach that, under appropriate circumstances, may be used to calculate attorney's fees, when the award of such fees is permitted generally by statute. In this Court's opinion in Friolo v. Frankel, 373 Md. 501, 819 A.2d 354 (2003), filed approximately three months prior to the time respondent sought review in the Court of Special Appeals, Judge Wilner examined at great length the evolution of the lodestar approach and noted the origin of this term. He explained:
"The term `lodestar' has an Anglo-Saxon origin-`lad,' a way or path, and `sterre,' a star. It thus was a guiding star. See Webster's Unabridged Dictionary at 1062. It later came to denote a `guiding ideal; a model for imitation.' Id. At some point, the term began to be applied to the method noted for determining reasonable attorneys' fees."
Friolo, 373 Md. at 504 n.1, 819 A.2d at 356 n.1. The lodestar approach, as applied in Maryland in Friolo, consists of the somewhat elementary formula articulated in Hensley v. Eckerhart, 461 U.S. 424, 103 S.Ct. 1933, 76 L.Ed.2d 40 (1983):
"The most useful starting point for determining the amount of a reasonable fee is the number of hours reasonably expended on the litigation multiplied by a reasonable hourly rate. This calculation provides an objective basis on which to make an initial estimate of the value of a lawyer's services. The party seeking an award of fees should submit evidence supporting the hours worked and rates claimed. Where the documentation of hours is inadequate, the district [trial] court may reduce the award accordingly."
Id. at 433, 103 S.Ct. at 1939 (alteration added) (emphasis added).
Respondent compares her status as a "successful civil rights complainant" to the situation present in Johnson v. Georgia Highway Express, Inc., 488 F.2d 714 (5th Cir. 1974), vacated in part, Blanchard v. Bergeron, 489 U.S. 87, 109 S.Ct. 939, 103 L.Ed.2d 67 (1989) (Blanchard, 489 U.S. at 93, 109 S.Ct. at 944, noted that "a contingent- fee contract does not impose an automatic ceiling on an award of attorney's fees, and to hold otherwise would be inconsistent with the statute [Civil Rights Attorney's Fees Awards Act, 42 U.S.C.A. ยง 1988] and its policy and purpose" (alteration
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