Corbin v. Steak n Shake, Inc.

Minor Hannah Corbin (plaintiff) worked at a fast-food restaurant owned by Steak n Shake, Inc. (Shake) (defendant). She sued Shake, asserting hostile-work-environment, gender-discrimination, and retaliation claims under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 (Title VII). Corbin showed that adult coworker Will McCann verbally and physically sexually harassed Corbin for months. The restaurant’s managers, adult males friendly with McCann, refused to stop McCann and themselves made inappropriate comments. The jury held in Corbin’s favor on the hostile-work-environment claim and Shake’s favor on the other claims. The jury awarded Corbin $1,308 in compensatory damages—$308 in backpay and $1,000 for emotional distress—and $50,000 in punitive damages. Shake moved for remittitur, or a reduction, of punitive damages, arguing the ratio between punitive and compensatory damages was so excessive that the award violated due process. Corbin sought $273,680.75 in attorney’s fees with a multiplier of two for success in the suit, bringing the total to $547,361.50. The fees were based on work by Matthew Bruce and Brian Spitz, attorneys with 11 and 22 years of experience, respectively. Bruce listed an hourly rate of $475 and Spitz $550. From the suit’s initiation through mediation, Bruce billed 85.82 hours for litigation tasks and 25.25 hours for communications with the client. Spitz joined the case for the trial phase. In that phase, Bruce billed 181.45 hours and Spitz 225.9 hours. For Bruce, 11.28 hours were marked as communication. Many of Spitz’s hours reflected work that was duplicative of Bruce’s or necessary only because Spitz was not involved from the beginning. Shake objected to the requested attorney’s fees, arguing they were clearly excessive. The court considered remittitur and attorney’s fees.