Affidavit in Response to Magistrate's Findings and Recommendation

    IN THE 

UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT 

FOR THE 

EASTERN DISTRICT OF LOUISIANA 

  

BARBARA MAJOR, et al., 

Plaintiffs, 

Vv. Civil Action No. 82-1192 

DAVID C. TREEN, etc., Section C 

et al., 

Defendants. 

  

AFFIDAVIT IN RESPONSE TO MAGISTRATE'S 

FINDINGS AND RECOMMENDATION 

C. Lani Guinier, deposes and states the following: 

1. I am Assistant Counsel for the NAACP Legal 

Defense and Educational Fund, Inc., (LDF) and have primary 

responsibility for LDF's voting rights program. I am one 

of the attorneys for plaintiffs in this case. I submit 

this affidavit in support of plaintiffs' application for 

attorneys' fees and in response to the Magistrate's Findings 

and Recommendation of July 11, 1986. 

2. The Magistrate denies my request for $508.05 

expenditures for food, travel and lodging in New Orleans in 

May 1983 incurred in connection with "confecting the post- 

trial brief, reviewing exhibits and conferring with co-counsel  



One reason given 

- this expenditure was the ostensible claim 

2d One FEundred Twenty-Three and 51/100 

($122.51) dollars in hotel bills paid to a hotel in 

Raleigh, N. C. The other reason given, and I was invited 

to respond to this claim, was that I flew round trip to 

Raleigh without proving the "cost of round trip air 

flight from Raleigh/Durham to New Orleans and back to 

Raleigh/Durham" was reasonably attributed to Major v. 

Treen. (Recommendation at 39). 

There is no evidence anywhere in the record that I 

billed or attempted to include $123.51 or any amount for 

a hotel in North Carolina or that I flew round trip to 

Raleigh, N. C. In fact, in my Affidavit in Response to 

Defendants' Answers to Interrogatories, dated June 7, 1985, 

I explained that I billed my hotel in Raleigh to another 

case and that I only charged defendants the cost of travel to 

and from New Orleans, as follows: 

‘My total expenses for the time period 

(5/83) were $818.16. My fare to Raleigh, 

North Carolina and my hotel there were 

billed to another case. I billed defend- 

ants (Treen, et al.) only for my fare from 

Raleigh to New Orleans and New Orleans to 

New York =-- $238.00 -- and for hotel and 

meals in New Orleans -- $270.95. See 

original affidavit and documentation pro- 

vided therefor. 
June 7, 1985 Affidavit at 10. 

3. I, therefore, request reimbursement of $508.05 in 

expenses incurred only in connection with my required presence 

in New Orleans on this case. By billing defendants for my.  



to New Crleans instead of New York 

was saving defendants several hundred 

have charged for rcund trip 

airfare from New York toc New Orleans. 

Magistrate denies my request for $86.65 

reimbursement for service of subpoenas on the ground that 

the "court is unsure as to who was to be served, when the 

service was to be accomplished and for what purposes ser- 

vice was sought." In fact, defendants were served with 

copies of the subpoenas served by Associated Investigators 

in December 1982 on William Bradford Reynolds, Gerald Jones 

and Gerald Hebert. These subpoenas were necessary to 

plaintiffs' discovery of the Department of Justice files 

surrounding the preclearance under Section 5 of the Voting 

Rights Act of the plan submitted by defendants, approved by 

| Mr. Reynolds and ultimately rejected by this Court. In 

response to the subpoenas, plaintiffs were provided with 

documents that are part of the trial record in this matter 

and which assisted the Court in determining that the plaintiffs 

were not barred, as defendants suggested, from litigating 

this matter de novo. I, therefore, object to this finding and 

request reimbursement for $86.65 paid to Associated 

Investigators. 

5. I object to the Magistrate's disallowing $671.92 of 

expenses to LDF paid to Gordon Henderson, expert witness. 

The Magistrate claims no receipts were produced by Mr. 

Henderson to substantiate this sum. In fact, I produced  



receipts that LDF had paid this sum in connection with 

the litication and LDF should therefore by r 

With regard to Mr. Henderson's travel to hi 

defendants had previously agreed to have Mr. Henderson 

travel to New Orleans rather than submit tc a deposition in 

Indiana. The entire amount of his travel, including first 

class seating which was all that was available, should be 

reimbursed. Nevertheless, at the Magistrate's request 

I will attempt to determine from Delta the cost of round 

tip coach fare from New Orleans to Cincinnati to Dayton, 

Ohio in March 1983, and will submit it upon receipt. 

6. In response to the Magistrate's ruling that I may 

clarify the amount expended and type of fare used for travel 

on May 5, 1985 from New York to New Orleans, returning May 8, 

1985, I submit the following information, which is also 

appended to my Affidavit of May 13, 1985. I flew coach class 

and paid $450.00 for my round trip New York/New Orleans fare 

on Piedmont and Eastern airlines. I request reimbursement 

. Lani Guinier 

for this amount. 

Further deponent sayeth not. 

  

Sworn to before me this 

L5H day of July, 1986. 

/ Notary ba C 

GERTRUDE A. REYNOLDS 
Notary Public, Stats of Mew York 

© NO. 24-4624270 
Qualified ih Kings County 

Commission Expires July 31, 1988