Sundaram

MEMORANDUM **

Thambiah Sundaram (“Sundaram”) initially asserted claims against at least six defendants based on twelve causes of action under the First, Fourth, and Fourteenth Amendments. Pretrial motions resulted in dismissal of the entire case. On appeal in Sundaram v. County of Santa Barbara, 39 Fed.Appx. 533 (9th Cir.2002), the Ninth Circuit resurrected four claims against two defendants, Chuck Villanti (“Villanti”) and Dennis Balsamo (“Balsa-mo”). Two claims survived to reach the jury, which returned a verdict for Sundar-am on one claim and awarded damages of $20,000. The district court invoked Hensley v. Eckerhart, 461 U.S. 424 , 103 S.Ct. 1933 , 76 L.Ed.2d 40 (1983) to award Sun-daram’s attorneys less than half of their requested fees, a sum of $129,997.50. The court declined to tax costs. Sundaram now appeals the fee and cost decisions and Villanti cross-appeals. Because the district court acted well within its discretion declining to tax costs and applying Hensley to award a reasonable attorney’s fee, we AFFIRM.

I. Sundaram’s Appeal

A. Costs. We review the district court’s refusal to tax costs against the non-prevailing party for abuse of discretion. See Champion…