Bridget Reed Morawski
WMAL.com
WASHINGTON — (WMAL) A court has ruled that WMATA is on the hook for $50,145 in legal fees, stemming from a local musician’s lawsuit over his right to perform near metro stations.
Alex Young, the plaintiff in the lawsuit, claimed he was harassed by transit police for performing, despite setting up within the metro stations’ free zones. These free zones, which are at least 25-feet away from any escalators or fare machines, permit non-commercial activity, such as Young’s performances.
However, because Young would leave his guitar case open – tacitly soliciting donations from passersby – WMATA considered his performances commercial activity, and attempted to stop him. Had Young shut his guitar case, Metro argued in court, his performance would have been protected by the first amendment.
“Before we filed this lawsuit, we sent a letter to Metro explaining what the situation was, asking if it was truly their position that playing music with a closed guitar case was ok, and playing music with an open case was a criminal violation,” said Jeffrey Light, the attorney who represented Young on referral from the Rutherford Institute.
As if Metro needed to look for more trouble, the agency doubled down on their position, and eventually lost their case after a drawn out court case. Despite losing, WMATA refused to pay Young’s legal fees on the grounds that they were substantially higher than what the agency believed was fair.
This further litigation piled onto the already high legal fees, which at Light’s hourly rate of $661 added up quickly. The additional legal gymnastics added approximately $20,000 to the Metro’s legal tab.
Young never sought monetary compensation from WMATA for barring him – only a decision that would allow him to perform.
Light points out that, had Metro settled initially and allowed Young to perform with the guitar case open, they could have saved themselves – and riders – $50,000 and a lot of paperwork.
“I’m not sure what they were hoping to accomplish, racking up legal fees that they would have to pay me, and also using their own attorney’s time,” said Light. “And for what? To try to prevent somebody from having their guitar case to be open when they have, obviously, a lot more pressing issues to be dealing with.”
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