A recent Law 360 story, “Safeway Can’t Shrink Fee Award in Calif. Wage-Hour Action,” reports that a California appeals court denied Safeway Inc.’s bid to shrink a fee award for attorneys representing a named plaintiff in a failed wage-and-hour class action but also blocked the plaintiffs' attorneys attempt to have the award more than doubled to $1.5 million. 

The Second Appellate District affirmed Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Anthony Mohr’s $603,000 fee award to a team of attorneys who represented plaintiff Linda Heyen in her suit against Safeway.  At trial, Heyen recovered $26,000 in unpaid overtime after attempts at a national class action against her former employer had proved unsuccessful.

Safeway argued that the fees awarded were too high because the jurors only awarded Heyen overtime for approximately 25 percent of the days she sought.  At trial, Heyen claimed that while working at Safeway’s Oceanside, California, store she had been misclassified as an exempt employee for 83 weeks, but the jury found she was misclassified for 21 weeks, according to the ruling.

The company also argued that the fees should be trimmed because the scope of the case Heyen’s attorneys presented at trial paled in comparison to the much broader claims pursued at the outset of the case.  Safeway also took issue with the hourly rates the plaintiffs’ attorneys sought, particularly a $1,000 hourly rate attributed to attorney Ian Herzog.  According to the ruling, top earners in the Los Angeles area billed hourly rates of approximately $850 during the years the case was litigated.

The appeals court agreed that the $1,000 rate was high but noted that Judge Mohr had already reduced fees the plaintiffs' attorneys had requested by 60 percent.  By reducing the request, the trial court effectively awarded a blended hourly rate of $258 an hour, a rate that is “well within a reasonable range,” according to the ruling.