LOUISVILLE, Ky. (Legal Newsline) – A Kentucky church will possibly be required to pay its own legal fees despite a successful challenge to Gov. Andy Beshear’s 2020 COVID orders that prevented its congregation from gathering in their cars.
U.S. Magistrate Judge Regina Edwards on June 16 recommended Maryville Baptist Church’s motion for attorneys fees and expenses be denied. The church is seeking $390,556.88 for attorneys fees and about $1,500 in expenses.
“(A)lthough this lawsuit and others like it may have catalyzed Governor Beshear’s amendment to the mass gathering order, the Supreme Court has rejected such a ‘catalyst theory’ for awarding fees,” Edwards wrote.
“In sum, Maryville Baptist’s is not one of those rare cases where a preliminary injunction winner is entitled to recover its attorneys fees. Maryville Baptist is not a ‘prevailing party’ because it did not receive material, enduring and irrevocable relief by virtue of the injunctions issued in this case.”
The judge presiding over the case will now either accept or reject Edwards’ recommendations.
State Attorney General Daniel Cameron tried to warn Beshear with an amicus brief submitted in April 2020 that said his order forbidding mass gatherings for religious services was “quintessential discrimination.”
All non-life-sustaining businesses were ordered closed. Cameron wrote, “Just as troubling is Governor Beshear’s refusal to define religious activity as ‘life-sustaining’ for those Kentuckians with sincerely held beliefs about communal worship.”
After his initial order in March 2020 as the COVID-19 pandemic began, Beshear on April 10, 2020, held a press conference to announce Kentucky State Police would collect license plate numbers of all people who attended church on Easter Sunday. He threatened those worshippers with misdemeanors.
Troopers followed his instructions that Sunday at Maryville. Pastor Dr. Jack Roberts received a notice of a misdemeanor violation and became a co-plaintiff in Maryville’s lawsuit.
The trial court refused their motion for temporary restraining order/preliminary injunction, but they appealed to the Sixth Circuit. That court granted an emergency injunction pending appeal, and the trial judge then granted a preliminary injunction after the Sixth Circuit had written the plaintiffs were likely to succeed.
The appeal was dismissed as moot, since the trial judge had entered the preliminary injunction. Meanwhile, the Kentucky General Assembly passed four measures to restrict the governor’s emergency powers.
Five lawyers and a legal assistant billed for 738 hours for a total of $312,445.50. Lawyers billed between $375 and $525 per hour and seek a multiplier of 1.25.