Memorandum Order

     [||8fec8c99-486b-4e3a-9768-10e1865c9790||] UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT 

NORTHERN DISTRICT OF MISSISSIPPI 

  

Post OFFICE DRAWER 190 

GREENVILLE, MISSISSIPPI 38701   WiLLiam C. KEADY 270 
CHIEF JUDGE January 26, 1979 

Mrs. Katherine Butts 

Chief Deputy Clerk 
United States District Court 
Oxford, Miss. 

  

Re: Norwood v. Harrison, No. WC 70-53-K 

Dear Katherine: 

For the jacket file I am enclosing Memorandum Order 
in the above case, which I have today signed. 

Copy is being sent to persons listed below. 

Yours very truly, 
fn 

% 2s Elin 7 C { ois enn i 

William C. Keady Y, 
WCK/ fg / 
Enclosure 

cc: Hon. Bill Lan Lee 

Suite 2030, 10 Columbus Circle 
New York, New York 10019 

Hon. Peter M. Stockett, Jr. 

Box 220 

Jackson, Miss. 39205   
Mr. W. A. Matthews, Executive Secretary 

Mississippi State Textbook Purchasing Board 
Box 1075 
Jackson, Miss. 39205 

  
  
 



  

IN THE UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT 
FOR THE NORTHERN DISTRICT OF MISSISSIPPI 

WESTERN DIVISION 

DELORES NORWOOD, ET AL, Plaintiffs 

V. NO. WC 70-53-K 

D. L., HARRISON, ET AL, Defendants 

MEMORANDUM ORDER 
  

Pursuant to the mandate of the United States Circuit 

Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit in the above entitled 

cause, Norwood v. Harrison, 581 F. 2d 518 (1978), we are directed 

to determine appropriate compensation to be paid for legal services 

performed by plaintiffs! counsel since March 2, 1976. Heretofore 

this court awarded $23,852 in full payment of legal services 

rendered by plaintiffs' counsel prior to that date in success- 

fully challenging the constitutionality of Mississippi's statute 

permitting the loan of state-owned textbooks to private schools 

engaged in practicing racially discriminatory student admission 

policies. 

For their services since March 2, 1976, plaintiffs seek 

an additional award of $7,082.50 in fees, 8553.50 reimbursable 

costs, or an additional total sum of $7,636. This claim is based 

upon a demand for Melvyn R. Leventhal's services at the rate of 

$100 per hour for 52.75 hours and for Bill Lann Lee's services 

at the rate of $75 per hour for 24.1 hours. The itemization of 

Leventhal's time improperly includes 32 hours for services per- 

formed prior to March 2, 1976, and must be excluded, as well as 

6 hours claimed by him for a motion to amend this court's prior 

judgment, which was denied. Our denial was upheld on appeal; 

counsel are not entitled to be paid for unsuccessful efforts. We 

thus reduce Leventhal's compensable time to 14.75 hours. Apart 

 



  

from legal res=arch and briefing, Leventhal's principal effort 

was to appear in the Court of Appeals at New Orleans, participate 

in oral ardument and review the appellate court's order which was 

entered November 21, 1977, dismissing the appeal as interlocutory 

rather than final. The court therefore refused to consider the 

appeal based on our original order of March 2, rE thenah 15 

hours easily were devoted to the appellate effort, the results 

were, if not unsuccessful, hardly conclusive. Attorney Lann's 

services commenced in 1978, apparently after Mr. Leventhal left 

the case, accepted other employment and was no longer of counsel 

in this litigation. Lann's time was expended principally in 

research and briefing the issue of the collectibility of the 

judgment. 

We hold that the compensable time for both attorneys, 

Leventhal and Lee, did not exceed 40 hours. Considering the 

experience of these attorneys and their success in bringing the 

litigation to a favorable conclusion, payment at the rate of 

$40 an hour would be fair and reasonable. The court, however, is 

mindful that plaintiffs' counsel, apart from the time set forth 

in the affidavits, have expended additional time, which we find 

to be 20 hours, in determining the eligibility vel non of various 

private schools applying for the loan of state textbooks during 

the years 1977 and 1978 and their efforts should be compensated 

at the rate of $30 per hour. This brings the compensable time 

to 60 hours payable at the rate of $40 per hour for 40 hours and 

  

1/ In that order we assessed the members and the executive 
secretary of the Mississippi State Textbook Purchasing 
Board in their official capacities with liability in the 
sum of $23,852 as attorney fees due and payable to plain- 
tiffs" counsel ($22,102 to Melvyn R, Leventhal, $1,750 to 
James M. Nabrit III) and $4,999.94 taxable costs incurred 
by plaintiffs in the prosecution of the action. Jurisdic- 
tion is reserved to implement the mandate of this order. 

 



  

$30 per hour for 20 hours, or $2,200. In making this determina- 

tion, we take into account other awards allowed by us in similar 

cases, the prevailing charge for legal services in this judicial 

district, and the same criteria which we considered in making 

our original award. Indeed, since not all of the time allowable 

might be considered strictly "in court" time, the allowance of a 

$40-$30 rate is generous in this case. We agree with the state's 

attorneys that the allowance of much greater hourly rates by 

courts in other sections of the United States is immaterial here. 

The item of $553.50 costs is not challenged by the state and 

will be allowed. It is, therefore - 

ORDERED AND ADJUDGED 

That Melvyn R. Leventhal and Bill Lann Lee, attorneys 

for the plaintiff class, do have of and recover from Governor 

Cliff Finch, Charles E. Holladay, Jean McCool, Larry Tynes, 

T. M. Stone and W. A. Matthews, constituting the members and 

executive secretary of the Mississippi State Textbook Purchasing 

Board, and their successors in office, the sum of $2,200 as legal 

fees and $553.50 as reimbursable costs, plus interest from this 

date at the rate of 8% per annum until paid. 

For which let execution issue. 

This, 26th day of January, 1979. 

Maen, Jo aby 
Chief Judge 

United States District Court 

  

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