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DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA COURT OF APPEALS
No. 20-CV-77
HENRY ZUNIGA, ET AL.,
APPELLANTS,
V.
WHITING-TURNER CONTRACTING CO.
AND
COMMERCIAL INTERIORS INC.,
APPELLEES.
Appeal from the Superior Court
of the District of Columbia
(CAB-5017-18)
(Hon. Robert Rigsby, Trial Judge)
(Argued April 13, 2021 Decided March 3, 2022)
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.
2
Before GLICKMAN and MCLEESE, Associate Judges, and THOMPSON, Senior
Judge. *
GLICKMAN, Associate Judge: This appeal arises from a lawsuit for unpaid
wages filed by appellants in Superior Court. After appellants prevailed in that action,
they applied for and received a judgment awarding them attorneys’ fees and costs.
When the fee award remained unpaid, appellants requested the trial court to amend
the award to clarify appellees’ joint and several liability for its payment. The court
granted that request. Appellees then complied with the award.
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.
*
Senior Judge Thompson was an Associate Judge of the court at the time of
argument. On October 4, 2021, she was appointed as a Senior Judge but she
continued to serve as an Associate Judge until February 17, 2022. See D.C. Code §
11-1502 & 1504(b)(3) (2012 Repl.). On February 18, 2022, she began her service
as a Senior Judge. See D.C. Code § 11-1504.
3
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 hold that the trial court properly denied appellants’ application for fees and costs
incurred to enforce the award. However, to the extent appellants also sought to
recover fees and costs incurred to obtain other relief (for example, the interest they
still were seeking on the initial fee award), we hold it was error to deny their request
as untimely under Rule 54. Whether appellants may recover such fees and costs
therefore remains to be determined in the proceedings on remand.
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
1
D.C. Code § 32-1301 et seq. (2019 Repl.).
2
D.C. Code § 32-1001 et seq. (2019 Repl.).
4
contractor, Whiting-Turner Contracting Co., and its subcontractor Commercial
Interiors, Inc.3 In response, Commercial Interiors paid appellants back wages
amounting to $8,536 and made offers of judgment on behalf of both it and Whiting-
Turner for an additional payment of $8,536 (for a total recovery of $17,702) plus
reasonable attorneys’ fees to be determined by the trial court. Appellants accepted
the offers of judgment, and the Superior Court entered judgment on November 7,
2018, dismissing the complaint against both appellees with prejudice.
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.”
3
Appellants had been hired by AJ&G Construction, LLC, a direct
subcontractor of Commercial Interiors and an indirect subcontractor of Whiting-
Turner. AJ&G was defunct by the time appellants filed their lawsuit. See D.C. Code
§ 32-1303(5) (providing that “[a] subcontractor, including any intermediate
subcontractor, and the general contractor shall be jointly and severally liable to the
subcontractor’s employees for the subcontractor’s violations” of, inter alia, the
DCWPCL).
5
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.
6
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 interest did not accrue on
an award of attorneys’ fees and that the motion for additional fees was untimely
because it was not filed within fourteen days of the May 13 order as required by
Superior Court Civil Rule 54(d)(2)(B). The court saw no reason for appellants to
7
have “waited 135 days from the date the amended order was issued to file their
motion for additional attorneys’ fees.”
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
D.C. Code § 28-3302(c) (2013 Repl.). That statute provides for interest to accrue
on “judgments and decrees.” Appellants claim entitlement to an additional award of
attorneys’ fees pursuant to D.C. Code § 32-1308(b)(1) (2019 Repl.). In pertinent
part, that statute provides that a prevailing employee plaintiff is entitled to the award
of costs, including reasonable attorneys’ fees, “in any proceeding to enforce” a
favorable judgment. We address each claim in turn.
A. Interest on Attorneys’ Fee Awards Under D.C. Code § 28-3302(c)
Whether D.C. Code § 28-3302(c) provides for the accrual of interest on
awards of attorneys’ fees is a question of statutory interpretation, as to which our
8
review is de novo. 4 Our “judicial task is to discern, and give effect to, the
legislature’s intent.”5 If “the plain meaning of the statutory language is
unambiguous, ordinarily, judicial inquiry need go no further.”6
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
4
Burke v. Groover, Christie & Merritt, P.C., 26 A.3d 292, 296 (D.C. 2011).
5
Burton v. Off. of Emp. Appeals, 30 A.3d 789, 792 (D.C. 2011).
6
Clark Constr. Grp., Inc. v. District of Columbia. Dep’t of Emp’t Servs., 123
A.3d 199, 203 (D.C. 2015) (citations and internal quotation marks omitted).
9
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, Civil Rule 54(a)
defines “judgment” as including “a decree and any order from which an appeal
lies.”8 Black’s Law Dictionary likewise defines “judgment” as “a court’s final
determination of the rights and obligations of the parties in a case,” and as
“includ[ing] an equitable decree and any order from which an appeal lies.”9 Since a
7
Robinson v. Georgetown Court Condo., LLC, 39 A.3d 1286, 1288 (D.C.
2012).
8
Super. Ct. Civ. R. 54(a). In Robinson, supra, a case in which we considered
the meaning of “judgment” as used in another statute, this court deemed it reasonable
to turn to Rule 54 for guidance and assume that it “sets out a useful definition of
‘judgment,’” given the presumed familiarity of the legislature with that usage. 39
A.3d at 1289-90.
9
Judgment, BLACK’S LAW DICTIONARY (11th ed. 2019) (“A court’s final
determination of the rights and obligations of the parties in a case. The term
judgment includes an equitable decree and any order from which an appeal lies.”).
As for the term “decree,” the dictionary defines it as “a court’s final judgment” or
“any court order.” Decree, BLACK’S LAW DICTIONARY.
10
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 28 U.S.C. § 1961, 11 the “federal
analogue” of § 28-3302, 12 as providing for post-judgment interest on orders
awarding attorneys’ fees. The reason is simple: “[T]here exists no real distinction
between judgments for attorneys’ fees and judgments for other items of damages . .
. .[O]nce a judgment is obtained, interest thereon is mandatory without regard to the
elements of which that judgment is composed.”13 This reasoning applies with equal
force to § 28-3302. 14
10
See Purcell v. Thomas, 28 A.3d 1138, 1141 (D.C. 2011) (“The judgment
disposing of the merits is immediately appealable, and the decision regarding
attorney fees may be appealed separately.”).
28 U.S.C. § 1961 provides that interest shall be awarded “on any money
11
judgment in a civil case recovered in a district court.”
12
Burke, 26 A.3d at 299.
13
Perkins v. Standard Oil Co., 487 F.2d 672, 675 (9th Cir. 1973). See also,
e.g., Eaves v. Cnty. of Cape May, 239 F.3d 527, 527–28 (3d Cir. 2001); MidAmerica
Fed. Sav. & Loan Ass’n v. Shearson/Am. Exp., Inc., 962 F.2d 1470, 1476 (10th Cir.
1992).
14
This court previously has deemed “federal court constructions of 28 U.S.C.
§ 1961 . . . [to be] informative,” even though they do not constitute “binding
authority” with respect to our construction of our local statutory analogue. Bell v.
Westinghouse Elec. Corp., 507 A.2d 548, 554 (D.C. 1986).
11
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 litigation 15 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 D.C. Code § 28-3302.
15
See D.C. Code § 32-1308(b)(1) (stating that the award of attorney’s fees is
to be computed utilizing the matrix approved in Salazar v. District of Columbia, 123
F. Supp. 2d 8 (D.D.C. 2000)).
16
Fountain v. Kelly, 630 A.2d 684, 686 n.3 (D.C. 1993).
12
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.
The May 13 order was “nunc pro tunc” to February 12. The purpose of a nunc
pro tunc order “is to merely correct the record of the judgment.”17 A trial court may
exercise its nunc pro tunc power “to make the record reflect the true judgment or
order intended by the court at the time the original judgment or order was entered.”18
In this instance, the Superior Court exercised that power to clarify that both appellees
were liable (jointly and severally) for the fees awarded in the February 12 Order, so
that the award could be enforced against them, if necessary, through garnishment or
other process. This was an appropriate use of the nunc pro tunc power.
While the clarification was desirable for such enforcement purposes,
appellees could not have been in any doubt that the February 12 order required them
17
Appeal of A.H., 590 A.2d 123, 131 (D.C. 1991) (citing Cairns v.
Richardson, 457 F.2d 1145, 1149 (10th Cir. 1972)).
18
Fed. Nat. Bank & Tr. Co. of Shawnee, Okla. v. Dillard, 830 P.2d 1374,
1376 (Okla. 1992) (citations and internal quotation marks omitted).
13
to pay the awarded fees. Appellees’ offers of judgment specifically envisioned that
the court would issue such an award, and D.C. Code § 32-1303(5), by its express
terms, made appellees jointly and severally liable for it.19 As far as it appears,
appellees expressed no confusion about the scope of the February 12 order when it
issued or thereafter. 20 Moreover, when appellants moved the court to modify the
February 12 order, they specifically requested that the corrected order be “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 calculation of interest should commence.”
Appellees did not object to that request or oppose the motion to modify. For these
reasons, we conclude that interest accrued on the fee award from February 12, 2019,
to May 13, 2019, a period of three months.
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 D.C. Code § 32-1308(b)(1) entitled them to an
additional award of costs and attorneys’ fees relating to legal work on their behalf
19
See footnote 3, supra.
20
Appellants claimed that appellees refused to pay the award only because
appellants declined to provide them with their home addresses.
14
following the February 12, 2019 award, and that the trial court erred as a matter of
law in denying their request as untimely under Civil Rule 54(d)(2)(B).
In civil actions for violations of the DCWPCL and the Minimum Wage
Revision Act, D.C. Code § 32-1308(b)(1) provides for the award of “costs of the
action,” including reasonable attorneys’ fees, to prevailing employee plaintiffs.21
The statute states that, “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
. . . .” (Emphasis added.) Thus, § 32-1308(b)(1) entitles a prevailing employee
plaintiff to an award of costs and fees in two types of proceeding: (1) the initial
21
D.C. Code § 32-1308 provides:
(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.
15
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. Civil Rule 54(d)(2)(B) states that “[u]nless a statute or a court order provides
otherwise, [a motion for attorney’s fees and related nontaxable expenses] must be
16
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
22
See Civil Rule 54(d)(2)(B)(i), (ii). The Rule allows the trial court to extend
the deadline. See District of Columbia v. Jackson, 878 A.2d 489, 492 (D.C. 2005).
23
Gardner v. Catering by Henry Smith, Inc., 205 F. Supp. 2d 49, 51(E.D.N.Y.
2002) (denying motion for attorneys’ fees filed by prevailing employees in suit for
unpaid wages under the Fair Labor Standards Act and New York Labor Law, where
motion was filed more than fourteen days after entry of judgment and “[n]either the
FLSA, the New York Codes, Rules and Regulations for the Department of Labor
nor the New York Labor Law extend the fourteen day time-period to file a motion
for attorneys’ fees.”).
24
Robinson v. City of Harvey, 617 F.3d 915, 918-19 (7th Cir. 2010) (reversing
supplemental award of attorneys’ fees available under federal civil rights statute
because motion was untimely under Fed. R. Civ. P. 54(d)(2)(B)).
25
Jackson, 878 A.2d at 494. See also id. at 494 n.6 (“[W]hile the 14-day
period is not jurisdictional, the failure to comply should be sufficient reason to deny
the fee motion, absent some compelling showing of good cause.” (quoting MOORE’S
FEDERAL PRACTICE 54.151 [1] (3d ed. 2000))).
17
The 14-day deadline for filing attorneys’ fee motions applied in this case; no
statute or court order provided otherwise. In the initial proceeding to recover unpaid
wages, appellants complied with the Rule by applying for a fee award within 14 days
of the entry of the November 7, 2018 judgment that entitled them to such an award
under § 32-1308(b)(1). This enabled them to obtain the February 12, 2019 order
awarding them attorneys’ fees and costs incurred in obtaining that judgment.
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 D.C. Code § 32-
1308(b)(1), the Rule required appellants to apply for that award within 14 days of
May 13. Yet they waited over four months, until September 2019, to do so.
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 Rule 54(d)(2)(B) must be disregarded
in this instance because the May 13 order was nunc pro tunc to February 12.
26
See Rule 54(a). The May 13 order was a judgment for the same reasons we
have held the February order to be a judgment.
18
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.
19
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 favorable result within 14 days of the May 13
judgment. 27 But we perceive that a few of the fees and costs appellants sought to
be awarded in their September petition may have been incurred to obtain additional
relief that the May 13 judgment did not provide — in particular, interest on the
February 2019 award (which it appears appellants first sought after May 13). 28 Since
27
We observe that appellants incurred some of the fees they requested before
they moved the court to enforce the February fee award, for example, fees associated
with their thwarted attempt to obtain a writ of attachment. Neither party has
questioned whether appellants incurred those fees in the enforcement “proceeding”
(within the meaning of § 32-1308(b)(1)) that culminated in the May 13 order. We
therefore refrain from expressing a view on that potential issue.
28
Although there may be other examples, appellants have not identified them
or argued that any particular fees and costs they requested in their September 2019
motion are exempt from the otherwise proper denial of their petition as untimely.
We take note, however, that some of the fees that appellants sought were for work
done after the May 13 judgment was entered. It appears these fees were incurred
20
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.
principally either in appellants’ unsuccessful opposition to the defendants’ June
motion to enter the judgments against them as satisfied, or in support of appellants’
unsuccessful (and for the most part untimely) September fee application. The trial
court did not explain its denial of these post-May 13 fees. To the extent any of them
related to appellants’ ongoing request for interest on the February judgment, they
remain potentially recoverable following an award of interest. Otherwise, appellants
have not explained, and we do not see, why they would be entitled to an award of
the post-May 13 fees they requested. However, for the reasons discussed above, this
is a matter appellants may pursue in further proceedings on remand.
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.
21
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 D.C. Code § 28-3302(c). We affirm the Superior Court’s denial
of additional attorneys’ fees, without prejudice to a future application for fees (and
costs) as and to the extent permitted by this opinion.
Zuniga v. Whiting-Turner Contracting Co.
Combined Opinion