Attorney Fees Rulings

Concert-Booking Discrimination Claims. A Manhattan federal district court declined award attorney fees to defendant booking agents and concert promoters who prevailed in a suit by black concert promoters alleging race discrimination in concert bookings. Rowe Entertainment Inc. v. The William Morris Agency Inc., 98 Civ. 8272 (RPP). The defendants had moved, among other things, for attorney fees under 42 U.S.C. Sec. 1988, which permits an award of reasonable attorney fees to a prevailing party in an action under 42 U.S.C. Secs. 1981, 1985 and 1986, all included in the plaintiffs' complaint. Prevailing defendants may be awarded attorney fees under Sec. 1988 in 'frivolous, unreasonable, or groundless' cases. The district court noted in part, however, that while the evidence was insufficient to support the plaintiffs' discrimination claims, '[t]he Court did not find that Plaintiffs did not believe that there was race discrimination in the contemporary music concert business, and the evidence did reveal that, in general, black promoters like Plaintiffs were not retained by white artists utilizing the Booking Agency Defendants. ' [Furthermore,] Plaintiffs and their attorneys, in view of Plaintiffs' limited participation in the concert promoter business, may not have been aware of the promotion of white acts by certain more successful black concert promoters.'