Zuniga v. Whiting-Turner Contracting Co.Zuniga v. Whiting-Turner Contracting Co.
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Appeal from the Superior Court of the District of Columbia (CAB-5017-18)
Matthew B. Kaplan, with whom Matthew K. Handley was on the brief, for appellants.
Michael J. Jack, of the bar of the State of Maryland, pro hac vice, by special leave of court, for appellees. Aindrea M. Conroy was on the brief for appellees.
Stephen B. Pershing and Daniel A. Katz filed an amicus curiae brief for Metropolitan Washington Employment Lawyers Association.
Before GLICKMAN and MCLEESE, Associate Judges, and THOMPSON, Senior Judge.*
Appellants thereafter requested the court to award them (1) interest on the fee award for the months it had remained due and unpaid, and (2) additional attorneys’ fees and costs they had incurred, mainly in their efforts to enforce the fee award. The trial court denied both requests. It ruled that appellants were not entitled to interest on the unpaid fee award, and that their motion for additional fees and costs was untimely under Superior Court Civil Rule 54 (which imposes a 14-day deadline for such motions) because it was filed four months late. Appellants challenge those rulings in the present appeal.
We hold that appellants are entitled to interest on the fee award, and we remand for calculation of that interest and an order directing appellees to pay it. We also
I.
In July 2018, appellants filed a complaint against appellees in Superior Court, alleging they had not been paid for approximately two weeks of work on a District of Columbia construction project and had not been compensated properly for overtime work, in violation of the District‘s Wage Payment and Collection Law (DCWPCL)1 and Minimum Wage Revision Act.2 Appellants sought an award of their proper wages, liquidated damages, and attorneys’ fees from the general contractor, Whiting-Turner Contracting Co., and its subcontractor Commercial Interiors, Inc.3
Within a week, appellants timely moved for an award of costs, including attorneys’ fees. On February 12, 2019, the Superior Court awarded fees and expenses to appellants in the amount of $41,573.43 ($41,245.83 in attorneys’ fees and $327.60 in expenses). However, while the court‘s order stated that appellants were “awarded $41,573.43 in attorneys’ fees and expenses,” it did not specifically name the parties who were obligated to pay the award. The caption on the order identified the defendants as “Whiting-Turner Contracting, Co. et al.”
When appellees did not immediately pay the awarded fees and expenses, appellants informed them they would seek to enforce the order and would be entitled to a supplemental fee award for the legal work related to that effort. Appellants then attempted to obtain a writ of attachment to execute on appellees’ assets, but because the February 12 order did not specifically name the parties liable to pay the award, the Superior Court Clerk‘s Office refused to issue the writ.
On April 10, 2019, appellants filed a motion requesting the court to modify the February 12 order so that it specifically identified the liable parties, because the order as written was (in appellants’ words) “seemingly unenforceable against any Defendant.” Appellants asked that the corrected order “be issued nunc pro tunc to February 12, 2019, the date of the original Order, so as to avoid any potential uncertainty about . . . the date on which the calculation of interest should commence.” Appellees did not oppose the motion, and on May 13, 2019, the Superior Court issued a corrected order providing that “Defendants Whiting-Turner Contracting Company and Commercial Interiors, Inc. are jointly and severally liable for payment of the amount awarded by this Order.” As requested, the court dated the order as nunc pro tunc to February 12, 2019. Within two days of the order‘s issuance, appellants received a check from appellees for $41,573.43.
Thereafter, on June 10, 2019, appellees filed a motion asking that the Superior Court enter the judgments against them as “paid, settled, and satisfied.” Appellants opposed this motion on June 17, 2019, arguing that the judgments had not been fully satisfied because “judgment interest provided for by law and attorneys’ fees provided for both by law and by the terms of the Judgment have not been fully paid.” On September 16, 2019, the trial court granted the motion. In doing so, the court stated it was “not persuaded” that appellants were entitled to interest on the February 12 attorneys’ fee award for the three-month period in which that award remained unpaid, or to additional attorneys’ fees (which appellants had not yet quantified or requested).
On September 25, 2019 (approximately four-and-a-half months after the court issued its May 13 order), appellants filed two motions: (1) a motion for reconsideration of the court‘s September 16 order, in which appellants asserted their right to interest on the February 12 fee award; and (2) a motion for additional attorneys’ fees and costs incurred after that award. On December 31, 2019, the Superior Court denied both requests, on the grounds that
II.
Appellants argue that the trial court erred in denying each of their requests. They claim entitlement to interest on the delayed payment of the fee award under
A. Interest on Attorneys’ Fee Awards Under D.C. Code § 28-3302(c)
Whether
Section 28-3302(c) states that “[t]he rate of interest on judgments and decrees,” where the “judgment or decree is not against the District of Columbia, or its officers, or its employees acting within the scope of their employment or where the rate of interest is not fixed by contract, shall be 70% of the rate of interest set by the Secretary of the Treasury . . . for underpayments of tax to the Internal Revenue Service. . . .” The statute allows the court to “lower the rate of interest under this subsection for good cause shown or upon a showing that the judgment debtor in good faith is unable to pay the judgment . . . .” The statute does not contain a definition of the terms “judgment” or “decree“; nor, as this court has noted, does any other section of the District of Columbia Code, though the words appear in other sections as well.7 We conclude, however, that the plain meaning of those terms encompasses judicial orders awarding attorneys’ fees and costs.
In legal usage, the term “judgment” is commonly understood to include any final court order from which an appeal may be taken. For example,
trial court‘s award of attorneys’ fees is a final, appealable order,10 it is a “judgment” under this ordinary definition.
Federal courts have uniformly interpreted
Appellees argue that § 28-3302(c), unlike its federal counterpart, does not expressly require the accrual of interest on money judgments, and that the statute should not be applied here because the matrix used to calculate attorneys’ fees in wage and hour litigation15 is annually adjusted for inflation to compensate for delays in payment of fees. Neither part of this argument is persuasive. Section 28-3302(c) states what the rate of interest “shall be” and provides that a court may lower it only for “good cause” or a demonstrated inability to pay. “This court has repeatedly held that, in the absence of unusual circumstances, the word ‘shall’ is mandatory.”16 And the fact that the amount of the fee award is adjusted for delays in payment prior to the date of the award is no reason (and hence, not “good cause” within the meaning of § 28-3302(c)) for denying interest pursuant to a separate statute to compensate for a defendant‘s delay in making payment after the date of the award.
We conclude that judicial orders awarding attorneys’ fees are “judgments or decrees” within the meaning of
Appellees further argue that they should not be required to pay interest on the fee award from February 12 because the Superior Court did not enter a final, enforceable award of attorneys’ fees until May 13, which they then promptly paid in full. We disagree.
While the clarification was desirable for such enforcement purposes, appellees could not have been in any doubt that the February 12 order required them
to pay the awarded fees. Appellees’ offers of judgment specifically envisioned that the court would issue such an award, and
B. Application for Additional Fees Pursuant to D.C. Code § 32-1308(b)(1) and Superior Court Civil Rule 54(d)(2)(B)
Appellants also argue that
following the February 12, 2019 award, and that the trial court erred as a matter of law in denying their request as untimely under
In civil actions for violations of the DCWPCL and the Minimum Wage Revision Act,
proceeding to recover unpaid wages, and (2) any subsequent proceeding to enforce the favorable judgment (including any associated fee award) in the initial proceeding.
In the present case, the February 2019 fee award was in the first category, for the court awarded attorneys’ fees and costs that appellants had incurred to obtain the November 2018 judgment in their favor for unpaid wages. But while the defendants in that proceeding promptly paid the judgment for unpaid wages in full, they did not pay the February 2019 fee award. Their continuing nonpayment led to an enforcement proceeding in which appellants prevailed when the court entered the May 13, 2019 order amending the February order and clarifying that the defendants were jointly and severally liable for the February fee award. The defendants promptly paid that award in full (albeit without interest, which the May 13 order did not mention). At that point, the employees became entitled under § 32-1308(b)(1) to an award of costs, including reasonable attorneys’ fees, relating to the successful “proceeding to enforce” the February judgment.
But the time in which to file a motion requesting such an award is not open-ended.
filed no later than 14 days after the entry” of the “judgment . . . entitling the movant to the award.”22 This provision is derived from its counterpart in the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure, and federal courts have construed the time requirement to mean just what it says. “Once a final judgment is entered, a plaintiff has fourteen days to file and serve a motion for attorneys’ fees or she is time-barred.”23 As the Seventh Circuit has admonished, “[j]udges need good reasons for permitting litigants to exceed [the Rule‘s] deadlines.”24 In District of Columbia v. Jackson this court reached the same conclusion in holding that where a fee motion was untimely under our Rule 54(d)(2)(B), “the trial court was not in a position to rule upon its merits.”25
But appellants did not comply with Rule 54(d)(2)(B) after the court entered its May 13, 2019 order enforcing the February award. That order was a “judgment” within the meaning of Rule 54.26 Because the order entitled appellants to an award of costs and reasonable attorneys’ fees in accordance with
Appellants did not make a timely request for an extension of the 14-day deadline, and they have not provided any valid excuse for failing to meet it. Instead, appellants object that the 14-day deadline of
Appellants reason that it would have been impossible for them to apply within 14 days of February 12 for an award of costs and fees that they had not yet incurred and would not be entitled to receive before the favorable judgment on May 13. Appellants misread the Rule, however. Rule 54(d)(2)(B) states the 14-day period starts to run when the judgment entitling the movant to attorneys’ fees is entered. Although the May 13 order was nunc pro tunc, its date of entry was still May 13. Thus, there is no absurdity in applying the 14-day deadline to appellants’ motion for the award to which the May 13 order entitled them.
Appellants also have argued that their September 2019 fee application should be considered timely because it was merely supplemental to their timely first fee application. This argument also is mistaken. The September 2019 application was not a supplement of the first application. The first application was for an award of costs and fees that the November 2018 judgment entitled appellants to receive. The September 2019 application was for an award of different costs and fees, incurred in subsequent proceedings, that the November 2019 judgment did not entitle appellants to receive. Thus, where appellants obtained another, later judgment entitling them to an additional award of costs and fees, Rule 54(d)(2)(B) required appellants to apply for it within 14 days of that later judgment‘s entry.
Accordingly, the trial court did not err by denying, as time-barred, appellants’ motion for those costs and attorneys’ fees to which they were entitled by virtue of the May 13 judgment. Rule 54(d)(2)(B) required the court to so rule. However, our review of appellants’ fee application requires us to qualify our affirmance of the trial court‘s denial in one respect. The May 13 judgment concluded one distinct “proceeding to enforce” the February judgment by clarifying the defendants’ joint and several obligation and compelling them to pay the February award. Rule 54(d)(2)(B) thus required appellants to apply for an award of any legal fees and costs they incurred to obtain that particular
the May 13 order did not entitle appellants to such an award, Rule 54(d)(2)(B) did not require appellants to request it within 14 days of that order; such a request would have been premature before the entry of a judgment granting the additional relief. The trial court‘s denial of appellants’ fee application as untimely (the only ground on which the court relied) therefore cannot preclude appellants from seeking an award of such costs and fees in the future, if and when they obtain a judgment entitling them to it. So, for example, the court could have denied appellants’ request for fees relating to the recovery of interest as premature before any award of interest; but if, in accordance with this opinion, appellants on remand secure a judgment for interest on the February 12 fee award, that judgment will entitle them to apply within 14 days for costs and reasonable attorneys’ fees incurred to obtain it.
It also should be noted that this opinion does not address appellants’ entitlement to fees and costs incurred in appealing the trial court‘s denial of their fee petition. That issue has not been raised in this appeal. We express no views as to appellants’ right to recover such expenses.
III.
For the foregoing reasons, we reverse the order denying interest on the February 12, 2019 award of attorneys’ fees and expenses and remand for the Superior Court to calculate and award the interest owed according to the statutory rate provided for in
Notes
(b)(1) The court, in any action brought under this section shall, in addition to any judgment awarded to the prevailing plaintiff or plaintiffs, allow costs of the action, including costs or fees of any nature, and reasonable attorney‘s fees, to be paid by the defendant. In any judgment in favor of any employee under this section, and in any proceeding to enforce such a judgment, the court shall award to each attorney for the employee an additional judgment for costs, including attorney‘s fees computed pursuant to the matrix approved in Salazar v. District of Columbia, 123 F. Supp. 2d 8 (D.D.C. 2000), and updated to account for the current market hourly rates for attorney‘s services. The court shall use the rates in effect at the time the determination is made.