Sommerfield v. City of Chicago

Dist. Ct. did not err in granting defendant-employer’s motion for partial summary judgment with respect to scope of plaintiff-employee’s religion and national origin discrimination claims, where: (1) plaintiff’s allegation in his EEOC charge pertained only to plaintiff’s contention that his supervisor’s comments created hostile work environment; and (2) Dist. Ct. could properly strike plaintiff’s allegations that issuance of series of disciplinary actions were also discriminatory acts based on his religion and national origin, since said allegations were not reasonably related to claims contained in EEOC charge. Moreover, although plaintiff eventually received $30,000 jury verdict on his discrimination claims, Dist. Ct. did not err in reducing plaintiff’s $1.5 million request for attorney fees to $430,000 by: (1) reducing request of 3,742 hours to 2,878 hours and then reducing proposed hourly rate from $395 to $300 per hour; and (2) reducing by 50 percent lodestar amount of $860,000. Ct. rejected plaintiff’s contention that Dist. Ct. could not reduce lodestar amount once it had reduced number of hours and hourly rate. Also, instant reductions were appropriate given: (1) plaintiff’s limited success on merits of his complaint, where plaintiff spent over 10 years on matter and lost on most of his claims; and (2) plaintiff failed to adequately support his proposed $395 hourly rate, where some affiants did not practice in counsel’s area of law, and where other affiants were unfamiliar with counsel’s performance in instant case.