Full opinion text
MEMORANDUM OPINION AND ORDER McDONALD, District Judge. Pending before the Court are the Motions for Attorneys’ Fees of L.A. (“Al”) Greene, George Korbel, Jesse Botello, Craig Washington, and Frumencio Reyes. Having considered the arguments of the parties and the applicable law, the Court is of the opinion that the Motions should be GRANTED. The filing and the litigation of the cases for which Plaintiffs seek attorneys’ fees and Plaintiffs’ attorneys’ unceasing efforts before the Department of Justice were essential catalysts to the City of Houston’s adoption of a new system of electing its City Council members. The Plaintiffs were prevailing parties and should be awarded fees for services performed. The amount of the award is set forth in the tables made a part of this Opinion. The first case, styled Greater Houston Civil Council, Inc. v. Mann, C.A. No. H-73-1650, was a constitutional challenge to Houston’s system of electing its City Council members in at-large elections. The case was decided adversely to Plaintiffs at trial, and was appealed to the Fifth Circuit. During the pendency of the appeal, Houston adopted a mixed system of election for City Council members, utilizing both at-large and single-member district elections. The case was declared to be moot and was remanded to the district court for a determination on attorneys’ fees. The second case, Moses Leroy v. City of Houston, C.A. No. H-75-1731, was a challenge under Section 5 of the Voting Rights Act of 1965, 42 U.S.C. § 1973c (1982), after Houston annexed land, did not secure preclearance from the Department of Justice or declaratory judgment from the District Court for the District of Columbia, and attempted to hold an election. The court hearing Leroy refused Plaintiffs’ requested injunction and the ease was closed after the Justice Department precleared the changes. The third case, Moses Leroy v. City of Houston, C.A. No. 78-2174 [hereinafter referred to as “Leroy II”], also challenged an election scheduled to be held after annexations that had not been precleared or declared not to violate § 5 by the District of Columbia court. During the pendency of this litigation Plaintiffs’ lawyers met with officials of the Department of Justice who were considering the City’s request for preclearance. I. The legal standards relevant to attorneys’ fee awards. Questions to be considered when making an award of attorneys’ fees are: who is the prevailing party; for what services, if any, performed before an administrative agency may the prevailing party be compensated; how are fees computed; and how does the multiplier apply. Plaintiffs’ lawyers have requested fees under 42 U.S.C. § 198^ and § 1973/ (e), which respectively provide that: In any action or proceeding to enforce a provision of Sections 1981, 1982, 1983, 1985 and 1986 of this title, title IX of Public Law 92-318 ... or title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 ... the court, in its discretion, may allow the prevailing party, other than the United States, a reasonable attorney’s fee as part of the costs. 42 U.S.C. § 1988. In any action or proceeding to enforce the voting guarantees of the fourteenth or fifteenth amendments, the court, in its discretion, may allow the prevailing party, other than the United States, a reasonable attorney’s fee as part of the costs. 42 U.S.C. § 19731(e). The Supreme Court in Henlsey v. Eckerhart, 461 U.S. 424, 429, 103 S.Ct. 1933, 1937, 76 L.Ed.2d 40 (1983) (footnote omitted), outlined the purposes of the statutes in one of its most recent discussions of § 1988: In Alyeska Pipeline Service Co. v. Wilderness Society, 421 U.S. 240, 95 S.Ct. 1612, 44 L.Ed.2d 141 (1975), this court reaffirmed the “American Rule” that each party in a lawsuit ordinarily shall bear its own attorney’s fees unless there is express statutory authorization to the contrary. In response Congress enacted the Civil Rights Attorney’s Fees Awards Act of 1976, 42 U.S.C. § 1988, authorizing the district courts to award a reasonable attorney’s fee to prevailing parties in civil rights litigation. The purpose of § 1988 is to ensure “effective access to the judicial process” for persons with civil rights grievances. H.R.Rep. No. 94-1558, p. 1 (1976). Accordingly, a prevailing plaintiff “ ‘should ordinarily recover an attorney’s fee unless special circumstances would render such an award unjust.’ ” S.Rep. No. 94-1011, p. 4 (1976), U.S.Code Cong. & Admin.News 1976, p. 5912 (quoting Newman v. Piggie Park Enterprises, 390 U.S. 400, 402, 88 S.Ct. 964, 966, 19 L.Ed.2d 1263 (1968). Unfortunately, awarding fejps for civil rights litigation has also spawned, in many instances, “a second major litigation” over those fees. See id. at 437, 103 S.Ct. at 1941; see also Laffey v. Northwest Airlines, Inc., 746 F.2d. 4, 29 (D.C.Cir.1984), cert. denied, 472 U.S. 1021, 105 S.Ct. 3488, 87 L.Ed.2d 622 (1985) (court “aghast” at number of hours devoted solely to fee request); Tasby v. Wright, 550 F.Supp. 262, 285 (N.D.Tex.1982) (main case and fee award litigation constitute “seemingly endless legal struggle”); In re Fine Paper Antitrust Litigation, 98 F.R.D. 48, 68 (E.D.Pa.1983), (task of awarding fees in antitrust suit “not ... an easy one” when judge has to consider voluminous time records, objections thereto, and 41 days of testimony regarding fee petitions) rev’d in part on other grounds, 751 F.2d 562 (3d Cir.1984). The court can attest to the lengthiness and difficulty of awarding fees in the case at bar, the process having taken over three years for the court to reach the point where it could decide the issues. Along the way, inter alia, the court has granted the Defendants four continuances on hearings and has allowed innumerable extensions of time for filings. The Defendants also sought unsuccessfully to recuse the court. See In re City of Houston, 745 F.2d 925 (5th Cir.1984). Plaintiffs’ lawyers alone have expended 1737 hours. In reaching its decision on attorneys’ fees, the court must consider and apply four legal standards. The first two standards concern the question of entitlement to fees, i.e., who is a “prevailing party” under the statute and for what administrative work, if any, prevailing parties can be compensated. The second two standards relate to the computation of fees to which a party may be entitled, viz., the viability of the so-called Johnson factors and under what circumstance multipliers are to be used. The court will address each of these legal issues individually, and then proceed to discuss how those factors apply to the cases at bar. The first standard requiring discussion is the definition of “prevailing party.” The statute allows only prevailing parties to receive fees. The parties in the cases at bar offer different formulations of the test for determining who is a prevailing party. Plaintiffs’ lawyers contend that the Supreme Court has set out a standard, in Hensley v. Eckerhart, 461 U.S. 424, 429-30, 103 S.Ct. 1933, 1937-38, 76 L.Ed.2d 40 (1983). However, the Supreme Court did not adopt the standard as its own, but merely recognized that the First Circuit had enunciated a standard. The Supreme Court appears not to have adopted any definition of “prevailing party,” and the Court must therefore turn to the Fifth Circuit’s recent opinion on the subject, Hennigan v. Ouachita Parish School Board, 749 F.2d 1148 (5th Cir.1985). In Hennigan, the Fifth Circuit reversed a decision by a district court judge that a plaintiff was not a prevailing party. Judge Rubin, writing for the panel, acknowledged that: The Fifth Circuit opinions have not articulated a consistent standard for measuring whether a plaintiff whose efforts did not result in a judgment in his favor has succeeded sufficiently to be a prevailing party. The district judge may understandably have been misled, for we have phrased the test differently, in a number of opinions. Id. at 1151 (footnote omitted). The opinion goes on to explain the burden a fee applicant carries: Despite their variety, all of our prior formulations of the applicable criteria have certain elements in common. All recognize the initial need to identify the goal that the plaintiff sought to achieve in bringing his civil rights action. Although the opinions have not always identified the precise legal or factual condition that the plaintiff sought to change, all have determined the nature of the benefit the plaintiff hoped to gain, or the burden of which he hoped to be relieved, by bringing the lawsuit. Using this as a benchmark, the first element that must be established by a plaintiff claiming prevailing party status is whether, as a practical matter, the plaintiff’s goal was achieved. This is determined in this circuit by applying the central-issue test. In other circuits, as we have discussed, the plaintiff need “succeed [only] on any significant issue in the litigation which achieves some of the benefit [he] sought in bringing suit.” When the plaintiff’s goal has been achieved by the defendant’s unilateral action, the plaintiff must of course also show that the lawsuit caused the defendant to act, and thus allowed the plaintiff to achieve his desired goal. To demonstrate this causal connection, the plaintiff must demonstrate that his suit was a “substantial factor or a significant catalyst in motivating the defendants to end their unconstitutional behavior.” This means more, however, than merely showing that the event occurred after suit was filed. Here, as elsewhere in the law, propter hoc must be distinguished from post hoc. The inquiry has been described as “an intensely factual, pragmatic one,” and courts should carefully consider the chronology of events in order to assess the provocative effect of the plaintiff’s lawsuit. When the plaintiff has shown both that he succeeded on the central issue in the litigation and that the lawsuit caused the defendant to act, he has made a prima facie case that he is the prevailing party and entitled to attorney’s fees. Id. at 1152 (footnotes omitted) (emphasis added). Defendants contest the propriety of an award by claiming that the applicants did not cause ameliorative action to have been taken. Hennigan addresses this claim: However, a plaintiff who brings an action that has no colorable, or even reasonable, likelihood of success on the merits is not entitled to recover attorney’s fees if the defendant simply complies with the plaintiff’s demands and moots the case for reasons that have nothing to do with the potential merit of the suit. Whether activated by economic, political, or purely personal concerns, a defendant may choose voluntarily to make the change sought in the suit rather than undergo protracted and expensive litigation. A defendant who contends that his conduct was a wholly gratuitous response to a lawsuit that lacked colorable merit, must demonstrate the worthlessness of the plaintiffs claims and explain why he nonetheless voluntarily gave the plaintiffs the requested relief. Forcing the defendant to establish that the plaintiff has not presented a cognizable claim is consistent with the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure which allocates this burden to the defendant at every stage of the litigation. Id. at 1153 (emphasis added) (footnote omitted). The second standard to be applied in considering the question of entitlement to fees concerns the extent to which a lawyer can recover compensation for work performed in administrative proceedings. This question first arose in the City’s Motion to Exclude from consideration in this case Plaintiffs’ Claims for Attorneys’ Fees for Legal Services Performed in Other Cases and Administrative Proceedings. The City argues in its Motion that fees were not available under § 1988 for work performed in administrative actions. The Court denied the Motion. Since the Motion was denied, the Supreme Court decided Webb v. Board of Education of Dyer County, 471 U.S. 234, 105 S.Ct. 1923, 85 L.Ed.2d 233 (1985). The City in its Brief on Attorneys’ Fees argues on the basis of Webb that attorneys’ fees are not available for any administrative work in the case at bar. The Court disagrees that Webb precludes any compensation for this work and likewise concludes that it is not an absolute bar to recovery of payment for services performed before an administrative agency. Further, this Court will discuss the Fifth Circuit’s most recent decision on administrative work, Arriola v. Harville, 781 F.2d 506 (5th Cir.1986) Webb involved the termination of a black teacher’s employment. The teacher claimed that his firing was unjustified. He challenged his dismissal by way of appeal to a state board. The teacher appeared before the board with his lawyer, but obtained no relief. Subsequently, suit was filed in federal court, complaining of both the dismissal and the board’s allegedly racially based decision. Plaintiff received damages and his lawyer petitioned for fees under 42 U.S.C. § 1988. The Supreme Court ultimately ruled that the lawyer was not entitled to fees under § 1988 for the work he did before the board. Although the Supreme Court did not specify its reasons for denying the fee request, it did note that: Congress only authorized the district courts to allow the prevailing party a reasonable attorney’s fee in an “action or proceeding to enforce [§ 1983].” Administrative proceedings established to enforce tenure rights created by state law simply are not any part of the proceedings to enforce § 1983____ Id. at 1928 (footnote omitted). ****** When the attorney’s fee is allowed “as part of the costs” — to use the language of the statute — it is difficult to treat time spent years before the complaint was filed as having been “expended on the litigation” or to be fairly comprehended as “part of the costs” of the civil rights action. Ibid. * * * * * * The petitioner made no suggestion below that any discrete portion of the work product from the administrative proceedings was work that was both useful and of a type ordinarily necessary to advance the civil rights litigation to the stage it reached before settlement. Id. at 1929. What, then, does Webb say to courts deciding fee petitions? It clearly does not say that no one may ever collect fees for time expended in administrative proceedings. The Court’s conclusions in Webb were limited to the facts of that case. It also, at least implicitly, endorses the idea that materials from a proceeding for which one could not normally receive compensation under 42 U.S.C. § 1988, if used in a proceeding for which a fee award is available, may be compensable. Id. at 1928-29. And, by allowing the award to Webb’s lawyer for a case that settled, the case supports the practice of awarding fees for cases where non-trial procedures such as settlement win the day for a plaintiff. The Second Circuit addressed the specific question of preclearance review proceedings which lead to settlements: Arguably, where the initiation of litigation is necessary to compel defendants to obtain preclearance before holding an election, lobbying efforts in a preclearance review might bring the litigation to a quick and successful end, a goal consistent with the statutory purpose of Section 1973 1 (e). Gerena-Valentin v. Koch, 739 F.2d 755, 759 (2nd Cir.1984). The Fifth Circuit found it unnecessary to reach the question of whether attorney’s fees can ever be awarded for participation in a preclearance review. Posada v. Lamb County, Texas, 716 F.2d 1066, 1074 (5th Cir.1983). Opinions that have been rendered since the hearing on the Motion for Attorneys’ Fees have been reviewed and considered and do not affect the Court’s decision awarding fees to the Plaintiffs. The first such case is Arriola v. T.L. Harville, 781 F.2d 506 (5th Cir.1986). Ar iola does not call for a different result— the Fifth Circuit expressly so holds: As will be evident from our later discussion, this holding does not preclude compensation for services rendered in a preclearance submission that bear directly on the issues in an independent lawsuit and where that work is required and necessary to resolve the issues of the independent lawsuit. Id. at 507 n. 1. The services performed by counsel for the Plaintiffs in their efforts before the Department of Justice were part and parcel of the ongoing litigation in the federal courts. Basically the issue was whether the totally at-large system of electing persons to sit on the City Council must be modified as a matter of law. Counsel for Plaintiffs had to proceed on various fronts contemporaneously. In Arriola the Fifth Circuit found that Plaintiffs there had received a final judgment of exactly the relief they had sought — an injunction. (The only relief they could have received in a § 5 suit such as theirs.) Plaintiffs had sought to characterize their involvement in the preclearance process as the “remedy phase” of the litigation. Id. at 511. The Fifth Circuit found this characterization “artful” but held that Plaintiffs efforts in the preclearance process “could not have been useful or required for the litigation.” Id. at 511-12. This Court finds the cases before it to be proper candidates for the recovery of attorney fees in accordance with Arriola and Webb. Services performed before the Justice Department for preclearance submissions occurred while the various parties were pursuing their judicial remedies. The work done before the Justice Department was a direct catalyst of change necessary to the resolution of the lawsuits. Two very recent cases of the United Supreme Court are also of relevance: City of Riverside v. Rivera, — U.S. —, 106 S.Ct. 2686, 91 L.Ed.2d 466 (1986) and Thornburg v. Gingles, — U.S. —, 106 S.Ct. 2752, 92 L.Ed.2d 25 (1986). Riverside, reaffirms the use of the “lodestar approach,” provides further instruction on who is considered to be the prevailing party, and recognizes the continued viability and appropriateness of the use of the “multiplier.” Thornburg constitutes a continuing recognition of the importance of the use of experts and of the factors initially enunciated Johnson v. Georgia Highway Express, Inc., 488 F.2d 714 (5th Cir.1974). Having discussed the first two questions, i.e., (1) when is a party to be considered as “prevailing” and (2) for what services, if any, performed by an attorney before an administrative agency are compensable, the Court turns to the second two questions: the computation of fees under Johnson v. Georgia Highway Express, Inc., 488 F.2d 714 (5th Cir.1974) and the extent to which the “multiplier” affects those Johnson factors. Preliminarily, the question is whether the factors outlined in Johnson v. Georgia Highway Express, Inc., 488 F.2d 714 (5th Cir.1974) as guideposts in fee awards have survived Blum v. Stenson, 465 U.S. 886, 104 S.Ct. 1541, 79 L.Ed.2d 891 (1984). The City argues that the factors did not, while Plaintiffs’ lawyers argue that Johnson is still good law. The City takes the position that the “lodestar” approach is the exclusive method of allocating fees. The Court rejects that argument, finds ample support for the continued viability of Johnson, and considers that it must discuss those factors. The Court considers that Blum did little to alter the fundamental premise of Johnson. Johnson has, since its inception, been the leading case in the Fifth Circuit on attorney’s fees. The Johnson court listed twelve factors which district courts making fee awards were to consider: 1) time and labor required; 2) novelty and difficulty of the questions; 3) skill requisite to perform the legal service properly; 4) preclusion of other employment by the attorney due to acceptance of the case; 5) customary fee; 6) whether the fee is fixed or contingent; 7) time limitations imposed by the client or the circumstances; 8) amount involved and results obtained; 9) experience, reputation, and ability of the attorneys; 10) “undesirability” of the case; 11) nature and length of the professional relationship with the client; and 12) awards in similar cases. Johnson, 488 F.2d at 717-19. Johnson has not escaped criticism, however. Several commehtators have expressed reservations about the factors. Courts have also criticized Johnson. In Northcross v. Board of Education of the Memphis City Schools, 611 F.2d 624, 642-43 (6th Cir.1979), cert. denied, 447 U.S. 911, 100 S.Ct. 2999, 64 L.Ed.2d 862 (1980) the court expressed its concerns as follows: We have learned through experience, however, that merely providing a check list of factors to consider does not lead to consistent results, or, in many cases, reasonable fees. Many of the factors are overlapping, and there is no guidance as to the relative importance of each factor, or indeed, how they are to be applied in a given case. We conclude that an analytical approach, grounded in the number of hours expended on the case, will take into account all the relevant factors, and will lead to a reasonable result. The number of hours of work will automatically reflect the “time and labor involved,” “the novelty and difficulty of the question,” and “preclusion of other employment.” The attorney’s normal hourly billing rate will reflect “the skill requisite to perform the legal service properly,” “the customary fee,” and “the experience, reputation and ability of the attorney.” District Courts, with the initial responsibility for applying the factors, have also found fault with the Johnson test: The Fifth Circuit has repeatedly insisted that the Johnson factors control the district courts’ computation of attorneys’ fees. Although these criteria remain central to any fee determination, we con-elude that the consideration of these factors, without more, cannot guarantee a rational, reasonable setting of fees. See Copeland v. Marshall, 641 F.2d 880, 890 (D.C.Cir.1980) (en banc). “The fundamental problem with an approach that does no more than assure that the lower courts will consider a plethora of conflicting and at least partially redundant factors is that it provides no analytical framework for their application. It offers no guidance on the relative importance of each factor, whether they are to be applied differently in different contexts, or, indeed, how they are to be applied at all.” Copeland v. Marshall, 641 F.2d at 890. District judges for this reason, have had difficulty applying the Johnson factors. Id. Riddell v. National Democratic Party, 545 F.Supp. 252, 255-56 (S.D.Miss.1982), rev’d in part on other grounds, 712 F.2d 165 (5th Cir.1983). Since Johnson the Fifth Circuit has incorporated the twelve factors into the “lodestar” analysis employed by many circuits. As the Fifth Circuit explained in Copper Liquor, Inc. v. Adolph Coors Co., 624 F.2d 575, 583 n. 15 (5th Cir.1980): The Johnson test, as interpreted in First Colonial, is similar to the Third Circuit’s “lodestar” method of computing attorneys’ fees. See Lindy Bros. Bldrs., Inc. v. American Radiator & Standard Sanitary Corp., 3[d] Cir.1976, 540 F.2d 102, 112-18; Lindy Bros. Bldrs., Inc. v. American Radiator & Standard Sanitary Corp., 3[d] Cir.1974, 487 F.2d 161, 167-69; accord, City of Detroit v. Grinnell Corp., 2[d] Cir.1977, 560 F.2d 1093, 1098-1103; City of Detroit v. Grinnell Corp., 2[d] Cir.1974, 495 F.2d 448, 469-74; Grunin v. International House of Pancakes, 8[th] Cir., 513 F.2d 114, 128-29, cert. denied, 1975, 423 U.S. 864, 96 S.Ct. 124, 46 L.Ed.2d 93; Knutson v. Daily Review, Inc., N.D.Cal.1979, 479 F.Supp. 1263, 1268-72. Under the “lodestar” analysis, the district court must first [sic] determine the number of hours reasonably spent by the plaintiffs attorney on matters upon which the plaintiff was successful. Next, the court must ascertain the value of the attorney’s time based on his or her normal billing rate. If a number of attorneys are involved, the court may use different rates to reflect the different amounts of skill, expertise, and experience possessed by the different attorneys. The court then must determine the “lodestar” amount by multiplying the hours spent by each attorney on the case by his or her respective hourly rate. Before arriving at a final award, at least two other subjective factors must be considered. The first is the contingent nature of success. The second factor is the extent to which any exceptionally positive or negative quality of an attorney’s work mandates increasing or decreasing the lodestar. A fact to be considered in making this adjustment is the amount recovered in damages as compared to the defendant’s potential liability. See Knutson v. Daily Review, Inc., 479 F.Supp. at 1269-70. See generally Comment, Attorneys’, Attorneys’ Fees in Individual and Class Action Antitrust Litigation, 60 Cal.L.Rev. 1656 (1972). Some have suggested that the “lodestar” approach and Johnson are two wholly different methods of determining what to award a prevailing party’s lawyer. See New Approaches to Attorney’s Fees: The Judge’s Role in Class Actions, 24 The Judges’ J., 12, 14-15 (describes “lodestar” theory and calls Johnson “another mode of analysis”). Others, the Court feels correctly, consider that Johnson and the “lodestar” approach complement one another. Comment at 832 (footnote omitted) (“The ‘lodestar’ method does not conflict with Johnson but furnishes an orderly regimen for examination of the factors listed.”). In integrating the “lodestar” method and Johnson, the Court awarding fees must undertake a three-step analysis: The Court of Appeals of the Fifth Circuit, progenitor of the Johnson factors has recognized these problems. It therefore has instructed district courts to first ascertain the nature and extent of the services supplied by the attorney from a statement showing the number of hours worked and an explanation of how these hours were spent. The court should next determine the customary hourly rate of compensation. These are essentially Johnson facts 1 and 5. The court should then multiply the number of hours reasonably expended by the customary hourly rate to determine an initial amount for the fee award. Finally, the court should adjust the fee on the basis of the other factors, briefly explaining how they affected the award. In re First Colonial Corp. of America, 544 F.2d 1291, 1298-1300 (5th Cir.1977). See also Copper Liquor, Inc. v. Adolph Coors Co., 624 F.2d 575, 581-84, (5th Cir.1980). Anderson v. Morris, 658 F.2d 246, 249 (4th Cir.1981). See also Tasby v. Wright, 550 F.Supp. 262, 275 (N.D.Tex.1982) (Johnson test similar to “lodestar” three-step method of computing attorneys’ fees); Comment at 832 (though Johnson does not specifically require the “lodestar” approach, factors 1 and 5 embrace its component parts). See generally Copper Liquor, 624 F.2d at 583 (the Johnson test is similar to the “lodestar” method of computing attorneys’ fees). “... There remain other considerations that may lead the district court to adjust the fee upward or downward, including the important factor of the ‘results obtained’.” Hensley, 103 S.Ct. at 1940. The opinion continues in a footnote to adopt an approach somewhat like the Fifth Circuit’s, but with a caveat as to duplication: The district court also may consider other factors identified in Johnson v. Georgia Highway Express, Inc., 488 F.2d 714, 717-719 (CA5 1974), though it should note that many of these factors usually are subsumed within the initial calculation of hours reasonably expended at a reasonable hourly rate. See Copeland v. Marshall, 205 U.S.App.D.C. 390, 400, 641 F.2d 880, 890 (1980) (en banc). Id. at n. 9. Blum v. Stenson did not alter this course; it merely expanded on it. Blum acknowledged that upward adjustments are appropriate in some cases, Blum, 105 S.Ct. at 1548. However, several Johnson factors were described as being properly taken into account in determining the base rate and not the multiplier including novelty and complexity of the issues and results obtained. Thus, although the Supreme Court has reshuffled the Johnson factors somewhat, the factors are still alive and well. This Court cannot agree with the City’s reliance on Patrick v. Board of Trustees of the Mineola Independent School District, 603 F.Supp. 754, 759 (E.D.Tex.1984), which states, Before Blum, a court was required to direct light from the lodestar through the twelve filters enumerated in Johnson, in order to determine whether an overall adjustment of the product of hours-times-rate was necessary to make fees reasonably compensatory. In Blum, the court held that the prevailing hourly rate in the community already subsumes most of the factors listed in Johnson, id. The only Johnson factor to survive Blum is contingency, that is, the degree of risk that the action will be unsuccessful, and also that payment will be delayed. The Supreme Court, for instance, specified in Blum that a multiplier would be available for exceptional success and quality of service “superior to that one reasonably should expect in light of the hourly rates charged____” Blum, 104 S.Ct. at 1549. Contingency therefore cannot be the only Johnson factor left after Blum. Consequently, the City errs in the position taken in its briefing by not addressing to any degree the Johnson factors. The last of the four questions the Court must examine before applying the applicable law to the facts concerns the role of the “multiplier.” The City’s argument here is inconsistent. The City argues in its brief that “in a civil rights attorneys’ fees setting only one contingency risk is present, the risk of non-payment.” (Defendant’s Brief, pp. 75-76) The City discusses shortly thereafter the division of the circuits “on the question of whether a contingency multiplier based on risk of loss is available,” Id. at 76. The City never states what its position is. Presumably, its position would be that a multiplier based on risk of loss is available. But why, then, would Hensley and Blum both reaffirm that multipliers are still available, if risk of loss is the only risk left? The Court is persuaded that risk of loss is still compensable via a multiplier. The Supreme Court expressly left this question open. The Fifth Circuit has explicitly stated that “the contingent nature of [the] suit” figures into the Multiplier, and that “[u]nder the rubric of ‘the contingent nature of success’ the district court should appraise the professional burden undertaken — that is, the probability or likelihood of success, viewed at the time of filing suit.” Graves v. Barnes, 700 F.2d 220, 222 (5th Cir.1983); see also Jones v. Diamond, 636 F.2d 1364, 1382 (5th Cir. 1981) (en banc) (“Lawyers who are to be compensated only in the event of victory expect and are entitled to be paid more than those who are assured of compensation regardless of result. This is neither less nor more appropriate in civil rights litigation than in personal injury cases.”); Tasby v. Wright, 550 F.Supp. at 276 (defining “the contingent nature of the employment, i.e., the recovery of attorney’s fees by applicants was wholly contingent upon their prevailing in the litigation____”). C.f. Nicholson v. Bates, 544 F.Supp. 256, 259 (E.D.Tex.1982) (case deemed not contingent because lawyers realized from the outset that Plaintiff could not pay their fees). The Fifth Circuit has recently once again recognized the propriety of enhancement of a fee award for the potential of the Plaintiff not prevailing. The application of the multiplier as a part of Johnson factor (6) is thus clearly appropriate. II. The application of the standards to the case at bar. Having discussed the four legal questions this Court has to consider in determining the propriety of the award of attorneys’ fees to the Plaintiffs, the resulting standards must be applied to this case. Rather than undertake a discrete exegesis of the pertinent facts, the Court will discuss the facts in conjunction with its legal conclusions. The Court will first set out the reasons that Plaintiffs’ lawyers are entitled to an award of fees. Then the Court will discuss what amount is due the lawyers. Until the mid-1950’s the City of Houston (“the City”) elected the members of its City Council from residency districts. The City then changed its method of electing the members of its City Council to a system whereby all candidates for City Council ran at-large. (Tr. vol. 7, p. 21) Many minorities thereafter began to work for the adoption of single-member districts. For example, the State Legislature in 1973 and 1975 was presented with bills to change the method of election of City Council members to a single-member district scheme. Then State Representatives Anthony Hall, Ben Reyes, and Craig Washington all introduced such bills. (Tr. vol. 3, pp. 21-22) Similar bills had changed the method of electing members of the board of the Houston Independent School District to election by single-member districts. (Tr. vol. 9, pp. 157-58) However, there was great resistance to the ’73 and ’75 bills from the City in the Legislature. The influence of the City against the single-member district bills proved fatal to the bills. For example, lobbyist Jim Short used his influence against the bills, and the City swayed the necessary votes that insured that Houston’s method of electing its City Council members would not change. (Tr. vol. 3, p. 35) In 1975, the City held a straw vote to determine whether the population wished to change the method of electing City Council members from at-large to single-member. The straw vote proved favorable to single-member districts. However, the City took no action to change the method of electing City Council members in accord with the wishes of the populace as expressed in the straw vote. (Tr. vol. 3, pp. 35-36) Nevertheless, politicians of the time, have maintained that they would have proposed single-member districts, but for the lack of support, and that the political process itself would have eventually caused those districts to be created anyway. The Court concludes that the support was there but the politicians responsible for the change were not. See discussion infra. After the 1975 referendum, many citizens tried to get enough signatures to change the charter and change the method of election to single-member district. The petitions failed, due to an inadequate number of signatures. (Tr. vol. 3, p. 68) The other attempts to get the City to adopt single-member districts having failed, the minority community turned to litigation as is next recourse. In 1973, Herman Lauhoff, the President of the Greater Houston Civic Council of Organizations, a community group composed in large part of minorities, and Neal West asked A1 Greene to look into the possibility of a suit to challenge the constitutionality of at-large elections of City Council members in Houston. A1 Greene initially worked alone; Mr. Greene ultimately appealed to George Korbel to help him in the lawsuit, and Mr. Korbel in turn brought Mr. Botello into the case. Frumencio Reyes and Craig Washington later joined the group. Mr. Greene also asked the Mexican-American Legal Defense Fund (“MALDEF”) for help, but MALDEF was not able to aid the litigants. The first case, G.H.C.C.O. v. Mann, C.A. H-73-1650, was a challenge under the Fourteenth Amendment of the United States Constitution to at-large election of members of the City Council. Mr. Greene initiated the case. The other lawyers worked with Mr. Greene thereafter, garnering evidence and preparing witnesses. Finally, all the lawyers devoted themselves to the trial of the case before the Honorable Allen B. Hannay, who is now deceased. That trial took place in 1977. That Court entered judgment for the City. The case was appealed to the United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit. The Department of Justice ultimately filed an amicus curiae brief in the case before the Fifth Circuit, taking the Plaintiffs’ position. Houston subsequently adopted a single-member and at-large method of electing City Council members and mooted the case while it was pending before the Fifth Circuit. The record indicates that the parties perceived a strong possibility existed that the case would have been remanded for a new trial. That, for example, was the view of the lead attorney for the Plaintiff, Mr. Greene. In addition, the Court is cognizant that the Fifth Circuit sent back many such cases for retrial during the relevant period for necessary fact findings. (Tr. vol. 7, pp. 129-30) And the Court notes that the City’s three projected scenarios for Mann’s probable disposition in the Fifth Circuit would have involved a remand. Fred Hofheinz, the Mayor of Houston during the period, stated that, after trial, the City considered 73-1650 not to be a live case and felt confident of victory. (Tr. vol. 8, p. 114) However, the Court notes that evidence in the record clearly indicates that the City had hired expert witnesses, the consulting firm of Hamilton & Rabinowitz, to assist in the retrial. The City contends that the evidence of their hiring Hamilton & Rabinowitz does not clearly show that they anticipated retrial, arguing that the contract does not clearly show that 73-1650 was the case for which Hamilton & Rabinowitz, Inc. was hired. Nevertheless, the Court notes that the City spent over $63,000.00, (Tr. vol. 7, p. 130), for the contract and that the City’s budgetary notations regarding that contract referred to Hamilton & Rabinowitz’s “professional consulting services in connection with the analysis of issues raised by litigation, administrative proceedings and legislation [sic] relating to boundary changes by the City.” (Plaintiffs’ Exh. 32) The Court was told and heard no evidence to the contrary that the only case outstanding at the time against the City of Houston concerning boundary changes was 73-1650. (Tr. vol. 8, p. 21) Thus, the Court can only conclude that these expenses were indeed incurred in anticipation of and preparation for a retrial of 73-1650. The Court has reviewed the late Judge Hannay’s decision. Although this court may have realized a different conclusion, that is not the task with this Court. The fact remains, however, that retrial appeared to the parties to be likely, and this likelihood significantly affected the City’s decision to change its system of electing City Council members from all single-member districts. In 1975, the Plaintiffs once again attempted to get via litigation single-member districts in the City of Houston. They filed the case numbered H-75-1731, which was also styled Moses Leroy v. The City of Houston. In this case, the Plaintiffs sought an injunction under § 5 of the Voting Rights Act, 42 U.S.C. § 1973c. The case concerned elections that had added newly-annexed areas to the City of Houston. The three-judge panel that heard the request for injunction on October 30, 1975 refused that request, noting the great expenditure of resources on the election that had already taken place and stating that the Court would invalidate the elections if the Department of Justice refused to preclear the election changes. The Department of Justice eventually precleared the election changes. The case was therefore closed. The Court notes that the point of all these cases was to get Houston to change the at-large system as a way of electing the members of its City Council. The materials prepared for each of these cases was later used by the Department of Justice. In addition, it is important to note that the City was inundated with complex litigation by the Plaintiffs at all times. The record persuades the Court beyond doubt that it was these cases, coupled with the case described below, that enabled the Department of Justice to take the actions that ultimately forced the City to adopt some single-member districts as a method of electing its City Council, and, in addition, that the cases themselves directly catalyzed the City into changing its method of electing City Council members. Events moved very swiftly in 1977-78, providing the impetus for the City of Houston to make changes in the election of City Council members, as the Plaintiffs sought. A short overview of the events of that period would show that the City of Houston annexed parts of Clear Lake City on December 30, 1978; Plaintiffs then took the City to court and the Department of Justice joined the suit; using the record in Mann, C.A. No. 73-1650, the Department of Justice objected to the City’s annexations; and the City therefore had to change its charter to elect the majority of the members of its City Council from single-member districts. After that time, the case at bar was remanded for determination on attorneys’ fees. To make this brief overview is not to slight the importance of the course of events that has brought the litigants before the Court. The Court will examine in relative detail the critical events of the period, as it is those events that justify an award of attorneys’ fees to Plaintiffs. In order to understand the events leading up to the instant motions, it’s necessary to understand the workings of the Voting Rights Act. That Act, which was extended to Texas in 1975, (Tr. vol. 1, p. 92), has a terrific impact upon jurisdictions it covers. Fundamentally, section 5 of the Voting Rights Act provides that covered jurisdictions either preclear with the Justice Department all changes that will affect voting before those changes are implemented or file an action for a declaratory judgment in the District Court for the District of Columbia, requesting the Court to declare that the changes adversely affect minority voting strength. If in the preclearance process the Department finds that the changes would not significantly act to the detriment of minorities’ voting power in the covered jurisdiction, the Department will preclear the changes; the changes can then be put into effect. However, if the changes are objected to, the jurisdiction must take further action before any sort of election can proceed. A jurisdiction whose changes fail to win approval may opt to implement its changes and chance being sued by the Department of Justice or private parties. (Tr. vol. 1, p. 93-94) Many cases brought to enforce the provisions of the Voting Rights Act are brought by private litigants. Cases under section 5 of the Act are usually less complicated than cases under section 2, (Tr. vol. 1, pp. 80-81), because there are only two issues under section 5, i.e., whether voting changes in covered jurisdictions have been enacted and whether there has been a preclearance of those changes. The issues in C.A. No. H-78-2174 were particularly clear, because the City had made no attempt to preclear the changes that it had made in the voting structure by annexing additional areas. (Tr. vol. 7, p. 195) When the Department of Justice is trying to decide whether to preclear a voting change, it generally looks at seven factors. The Department examines: 1) whether racially polarized voting exists in the jurisdiction; 2) what the electoral history of the region is; 3) whether having another method of election would make a difference in elections (for example, what the margins of victories of majority candidates have been and whether proposed election changes would have allowed minority candidates to prevail); 4) case studies; 5) whether past changes have discriminated against minorities; 6) the effect of run-offs in the jurisdiction; and 7) whether, in cases such as in the City of Houston, residency districts or other previously used election devices had actually benefited minority constituents. (Tr. vol. 3, pp. 74-75) The key element in the Department of Justice’s determination in a case such as the City of Houston’s is to determine whether there is racially-polarized voting. (Tr. vol. 1, pp. 100-01) Racially-polarized voting is voting that is based on race to the virtual exclusion of other factors. One determines whether racially-polarized voting exists from a number of factors, such as the local history of discrimination, the degree of responsiveness of local officials to their constituents, the responsiveness of those officials to the minority population in particular, the segregation of the community, and the political and social isolation in the community of the minorities. (Tr. vol. 1, p. 106-07) One determines whether racially-polarized voting exists as a statistical matter by a five-part process. First, one identifies the ethnic and racial composition of the precincts in the area. Then the race of each candidate is determined, and election data for each election is garnered. The next step is to determine whether the precinct has a significant number of other minorities, i.e., is racially pure; finally, one determines how the precinct voted in successive elections. If voting along racial lines has been prevalent, racially-polarized voting exists. (Tr. vol. 1, pp. 102-03) A good example of the elements that the Department of Justice examines is to be found in the case with the City of Houston. The Department of Justice used many of the elements described above to determine whether to object to the City’s annexations. For example, the Department looked at the City’s employment patterns to determine whether racial segregation existed. (Tr. vol. 3, p. 182) The Department also looked at the City’s old system of residency districts for City Council candidates to see whether black candidates had carried their districts. Tr. vol. 3, pp. 183-84) The Department found that they did, but lost citywide. The Department also inquired about Judson Robinson and Leonel Castillo, two minority candidates who were elected in Houston city-wide, as a council member and city controller, respectively, and satisfied itself that these elections were aberrations. (Tr. vol. 4, p. 49) The Department examined the effect of run-off elections on minorities, comparing minority success with run-offs in City Council races with success in Houston Independent School District, which did not have run-off elections. (Tr. vol 3, pp. 182-83) The Department also looked at why Houston had changed from using residency districts in the 1950’s (Tr. vol. 3, pp. 183-84) and the general electoral history of Houston. (Tr. vol. 3, p. 175) The process by which the Department of Justice examines this material is well-prescribed. The jurisdiction submits materials prescribed by regulations to the Justice Department. (Tr. vol. 1, pp. 84-85) The materials contain information about the changes and the jurisdiction. The Department has sixty days within which to object, not object, or ask for further information, (Tr. vol. 6, p. 70) The size of the jurisdiction in some part determines the degree of proof necessary; the more complicated the change and the larger the jurisdiction, the greater the scrutiny given. (Tr. vol. 1, p. 101) The Department of Justice reviews all voting changes in covered jurisdictions, even a change of a voting place from one building to another within the same precinct. (Tr. vol. 7, p. 190) The resources the Department possesses to deal with the submissions are inadequate to deal fully with the submissions made. The Department of Justice received over 7,000 voting changes in 1979, and employs only 13 non-attorneys and between 10 and 14 attorneys to handle all these submissions. (Tr. vol. 6, pp. 59-60) Over 7,000 jurisdictions, 4,000 in Texas alone, make submissions. When many jurisdictions were added to the list of those already under the Voting Rights Act in 1975, no more persons were hired to help review submissions. (Tr. vol. 6, p. 74) Moreover, the Department has no budget for expert witnesses to help sort out the many knotty problems a submission may pose. (Tr. vol. 6, p. 79) Of course, the Department generally pays more attention to large submissions than to small ones, and keeps a continuing file on all jurisdictions subject to the Voting Rights Act. (Tr. vol. 7, p. 199) But the numbers above speak for themselves; the Department can scarcely keep up with the work that it has. For example, in the instant case, only David Hunter at the Department of Justice worked directly on the City’s extensive submission. (Tr. vol. 7, p. 199) In sum, the Department is spread too thin to handle all the information it receives, and certainly did not have the resources to develop by itself the data regarding Houston which the submission at controversy in this case demanded. (Tr. vol. 3, p. 116; Tr. vol. 4, pp. 78-79) The record clearly indicates that the Department, because of its limited resources, routinely relies on individuals in jurisdictions making submissions to provide invaluable information with which to judge the submissions. (Tr. vol. 6, p. 77) Reliance upon local persons is particularly heavy in large jurisdictions such as Houston. (Tr. vol. 1, p. 84; Tr. vol. 6, p. 69) In some instances, the Department of Justice calls people in localities whom the Department already knows. For example, the Department has often called organizations and private citizens to ascertain an opinion of a submitted voting change. (Tr. vol. 1, p. 83) However, the Department lacks sources of local information in many communities. Instead, it must ask its few contacts in an area for names of other persons who should be called. Id. Many who often deal with the Department, such as Jose Garza, consider that the Department relies particularly heavily on comments from lawyers in the locality. The Department often relies on lawyer’s comments because those comments generally are written more with an eye to the law and offer more evidence in support of arguments than do those of non-lawyers. (Tr. vol. 1, p. 69; Tr. vol. 6, p. 77) And, without local input, objections are rare. (Tr. vol. 1, p. 84) Another effect of the limited resources available to the Department of Justice is that the Department often is unable to sue all jurisdictions which do not comply with section 5. (Tr. vol. 7, p. 7) The cases are too numerous and, many times, burdensome in terms of amount of evidence for the Department to handle. (Tr. vol. 6, p. 67) And when the Department does move to enforce, its efforts are frequently unavailing. For example, in Crockett County, Texas, the Department moved to enforce its objection under section 5, but, misunderstanding the local situation, took actions that actually undercut minority voting strength. (Tr. vol. 7, pp. 204-05) In addition, the Department is often not as quick to request injunctions as private parties. (Tr. vol. 7, p. 204) As a result, testimony indicated that the Department generally does not initiate its own section 5 enforcement proceedings. Rather, it files amicus briefs or intervenes after locals have moved to enforce section 5. (Tr. vol. 1, p. 98) And such intervention is relatively rare. (Tr. vol. 7, p. 8) The Court is persuaded here that the intervention did little to add to the Plaintiffs’ lawyers efforts. See discussion infra. Houston underwent the above-described review in 1978 because Plaintiffs filed C.A. 78-2174. C.A. 78-2174 concerned election changes resulting from the annexation of Clear Lake City, changes which had not been precleared. The three-judge panel that heard 78-2174 refused an initial request for injunction because the City withdrew its ordinance calling an election. However, it was at this point clear to the City from the three-judge panel that, were an election called without preclearance of election changes, an injunction would issue. The City made its submission. The Justice Department objected to the submission, due in large part to the Plaintiffs’ litigation efforts. On July 11, 1979, the City did call an election without having precleared its election changes, and the three-judge panel enjoined the election on July 19, 1979. (Tr. vol. 6, p. 14) The Department of Justice did file a companion suit, C.A. 78-2407, and, on December 13, 1978, moved to consolidate with 78-2174 and advocated the Plaintiff’s position. (Tr. vol. 7, pp. 197-198. The cases were consolidated on December 15, 1978. However, there was no division of labor between the Justice Department and Plaintiffs. The Department merely intervened to add its voice on the side of the Plaintiffs. (Tr. vol. 6, p. 32) The Plaintiffs did the substantive work. Thus, although the City was forced to deal with the Department of Justice to attempt to obtain preclearance of the voting changes, the Plaintiffs were the ones who actually did the forcing. In order to understand the events that transpired during the period before the injunction issued, one must understand the annexations the City made. Annexation of outlying areas was a top priority of the City during the relevant period. In testimony, witnesses stated that one or two of the members of the Houston City Council may have opposed the City’s aggressive policy of annexation, but by and large the Council and the Mayor(s) were firmly behind annexations. (Tr. vol. 8, pp. 134-35) For example, the City annexed much territory. during the administration of Fred Hofheinz. (Tr. vol. 8, p. 97) Mayor Hofheinz stated before the Court that annexation was necessary in order to protect Houston’s tax base (Tr. vol. 8, p. 98) and testified that he felt that the annexations benefited both Houston and the county. (Tr. vol. 8, pp. 104-05) Similarly, the Mayor who succeeded Hofheinz, Jim McConn, favored aggressive annexation. (Tr. vol. 9, p. 181) Mayor McConn stated that he also felt that annexations were necessary in order to protect the City’s tax base. (Tr. vol. 9, p. 181) Support from the Houston City Council was evidenced by the testimony of Councilman Judson Robinson, who stated that he approved of Houston’s aggressive annexation policy. (Tr. vol. 8, p. 139) So, for example, on December 28, 1977, Houston annexed the Aldine/Greenspoint Mall area, Inwood Forest/Candlelight Forest, Scarsdale, and Briarwick. (Tr. vol. 10, pp. 46-47) These annexations added to Houston approximately 140,000 people. (Tr. vol. 10, p. 55) The Clear Lake City annexation brought the situation at bar to a head. Because the Voting Rights Act was extended to cover Texas in 1975, Houston had to preclear the annexations that it made retroactive to 1972. Houston had therefore submitted changes to the Department of Justice before Houston undertook to annex Clear Lake City. Both City Attorney Robert Collie and Mayor McConn knew that the City would have to preclear any election changes caused by annexations. (Tr. vol. 10, p. 105; Tr. vol. 9, p. 162) The Department had precleared the changes before Clear Lake (Tr. vol. 8, p. 80) but the Clear Lake City annexation did not go so smoothly. There were two steps in the Clear Lake City annexation. The first step was the annexation of a strip of land in Clear Lake. The Department of Justice approved the strip annexation on October 28, 1977, but by letter to the City of Houston, noted that, were a larger area annexed, objections could be lodged under the Voting Rights Act. (Tr. vol. 8, pp. 100-01) (Defendants’ Exh. 1) This letter raises an important question: would the Justice Department actually have undertaken to move the City to adopt single-member districts without the Plaintiffs’ intervention? Present conclusions about what actions may have been taken in the past are difficult, but the record indicates nothing to support an affirmative answer. The Department relied heavily on the information the Plaintiffs supplied in objecting. Without an objection, no remedy of adopting single-member districts would have been discussed. In addition, the information generated from the pending litigation which Plaintiffs supplied manifested once and for all the appropriateness of single-member districts. The Department found the strip annexation unobjectionable because few people lived there. (Tr. vol. 8, p. 103) Altogether, approximately 20,000 people lived in Clear Lake City at the time of the annexation (Tr. vol. 10, pp. 25-26), most of them white. Tr. vol. 8, p. 104) The purpose of the strip annexation was to take so much of Clear Lake City’s land that Clear Lake could not incorporate and avoid annexation by Houston. (Tr. vol. 10, p. 23) The 1977 Texas Legislature actually forced Houston to annex the remainder of Clear Lake City. The Legislature passed a law that meant that Houston had to annex before 1979 or lose Clear Lake forever. (Tr. vol. 8, pp. 98-99) Houston, therefore, annexed Clear Lake City on December 30, 1977. Before Houston could hold a much-needed bond election, the annexation of Clear Lake City had to be submitted to the Justice Department. The City wished to hold a critical bond election (Tr. vol. 9, p. 184) Houston, as do other municipalities, pays for its expenditures through bonds. The City had little money available and without a bond election could not pay its debts. Judson Robinson testified that the Houston City Council was very worried because it knew that several cities had not been able to have elections for years because of problems with the Department of Justice and they knew that Houston could not function without the bond issue. (Tr. vol. 8, pp. 147-48) City Attorney Collie testified that in his opinion as City Attorney such an election not involving recently-annexed areas would not be legal. (Tr. vol. 9, pp. 228-231) In any event, Collie testified further, the City did not want a cloud over its bonds from a bond election having been held only in parts of the City. (Tr. vol. 9, pp. 233-34) Thus, although opinions on the City Council of Houston varied from going to court in the District of Columbia to negotiating with the Justice Department (Tr. vol. 9, pp. 222-23), it was clear that the City’s best option was to negotiate with the Department. And, at that point, it was also clear that the Clear Lake City annexations could be used to force the City to adopt single-member districts. Senator Craig Washington described the annexations as having leverage and having the City “by the throat” because of the City’s need for a bond election and the Department of Justice’s refusal to preclear the annexations. (Tr. vol. 3, pp. 69-71) City Attorney Collie was in charge of the actual preparation under submission. (Tr. vol. 9, p. 160) Before the submission was sent in, the Department of Justice wrote to ask why Houston had not yet submitted the annexation; the City replied that it was working on the submission. (Tr. vol. 10, pp. 27-28) The submission was finally sent to the Department of Justice in February of 1979. (Tr. vol. 10, p. 148) The Plaintiffs entered the preclearance process at this point. The Plaintiffs at first sent letters and telephoned the Department officials, and later actually met with persons reviewing the submission. Evidence in the record indicates sustained contact between Plaintiffs and the Justice Department. Mr. Washington testified that his clients asked Plaintiffs’ counsel to go to the Department of Justice concerning the situation soon after the loss at trial. (Tr. vol. 3, pp. 27-28) After it became clear that the Department of Justice was going to come into the 73-1650 on appeal, and while the Department of Justice was studying the objection, the Plaintiffs rendered invaluable aid to the Department by giving them information that the Department would not have had otherwise. For example, the Plaintiffs gave the full record in 73-1650 to the Department of Justice (Tr. vol. 3, p. 99) and this time record was replete with evidence that the Department utilized regarding racially-polarized voting in Houston. The reliance of the Department of Justice on Plaintiffs is further evidenced by the fact that the Department frequently contacted some of the Plaintiffs’ witnesses in 73-1650 while they were considering the City’s submission. For example, Mr. Chandler Davidson testified that he spoke several times with David Hunter and Gerald Jones of the Department of Justice. (Tr. vol. 3, p. 180) In addition, one of Plaintiffs’ attorneys, Mr. A1 Greene, travelled to Washington to apprise the Department of Justice of the situation in Houston, and gav