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Ex-Rota council workers awarded $449K
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Posted on Nov 02 2005
The Superior Court has awarded former employees of the Rota municipal council a total of $449,356.66, in connection with their lawsuit against the council and its members.
Eight employees sued the council and members Richard and Jeffrey Manglona and Balbina Taisacan in 2004 after being terminated from their jobs.
Associate Judge Juan T. Lizama awarded a total of $376,447.80 in damages to the employees on their claim for violation of civil rights.
Yesterday, the judge also granted the employees’ request for an award of cost and attorney’s fees of $72,908.86. Of that amount, $59,280.25 pertains to attorney’s fees for 316.95 hours of attorney work rendered.
“The court has reviewed the billings and has concluded that [the workers’] attorneys did an adequate job of reducing their request to ‘hard’ hours, that the hours sought are adequately documented, and that the total amount sought is reasonable given the nature of the proceedings,” Lizama said.
Lawyers Eric Bozman and Joseph Horey of the O’Connor, Berman, Dotts and Banes law firm represented the employees.
The employees include Sylvan Atalig, Francisca Barcinas, Robert Calvo, Esperansa Cruz, Maria Manglona, Martin Quitugua, Francisco Taga and Ray Taitague.
One of the employees, Calvo, died on April 16, 2005. But Lizama yesterday allowed the administrator of his estate, Ronnie M. Calvo, to substitute on the deceased claimant’s behalf.
The court awarded Calvo a total of $110,238.28 out of the total damages it granted the employees. Yesterday’s court order did not specify which among the other employees successfully prevailed in the lawsuit.
