Source: https://case-law.vlex.com/vid/416-u-s-696-606787642
Timestamp: 2019-04-18 22:48:12+00:00

Document:
if such awards are to be made to promote the public policy expressed in legislative action, they should be authorized by Congress, and not by the courts.
reasonable attorney's fee when appropriate upon entry of a final order in a school desegregation case, the applicability of which to this and other litigation the court then considered. In the other cases, the court held that § 718 did not apply to services rendered prior to July 1, 1972, the effective date of § 718, and, in this case, reasoned that there were no orders pending or appealable on either May 26, 1971, when the District Court made its fee award, or on July 1, 1972, and that, therefore, § 718 could not be used to sustain the award.
Held: Section 718 can be applied to attorneys' services that were rendered before that provision was enacted in a situation, like the one here involved, where the propriety of the fee award was pending resolution on appeal when the statute became law. Pp. 710-724.
(a) An appellate court must apply the law in effect at the time it renders its decision, Thorpe v. Housing Authority of the City of Durham, 393 U.S. 268, 281, unless such application would work a manifest injustice or there is statutory direction or legislative history to the contrary. Pp. 711-716.
(b) Such injustice could result "in mere private cases between individuals," United States v. Schooner Peggy, 1 Cranch 103, 110, the determinative factors being the nature and identity of the parties, the nature of their rights, and the nature of the impact of the change in law upon those rights. Upon consideration of those aspects here (see infra, (c)-(e)), it cannot be said that the application of the statute would cause injustice. Pp. 716-721.
(c) There was a disparity in the respective abilities of the parties to protect themselves, and the litigation did not involve merely private interests. Petitioners rendered substantial service to the community and to the Board itself by bringing it into compliance with its constitutional mandate, and thus acting as a "private attorney general" in vindicating public policy. Pp. 718-719.
(d) Application of § 718 does not affect any matured or unconditional rights, the School Board having no unconditional right to the funds allocated to it by the taxpayers. P. 720.
(e) No increased burden was imposed, since the statute did not alter the Board's constitutional responsibility for providing pupils with a nondiscriminatory education, and there is no change in the substantive obligation of the parties. Pp. 720-721.
simultaneously with the entry of a desegregation order, and a district court must have discretion in a school desegregation case to award fees and costs incident to the final disposition of interim matters. Pp. 721-723.
(g) Since the District Court made an allowance for services to January 29, 1971, when petitioners were not yet the "prevailing party" within the meaning of § 718, the fee award should be recomputed to April 5, 1971, or thereafter. Pp. 723-724.
472 F.2d 318, vacated and remanded.
BLACKMUN, J. delivered the opinion of the Court, in which all Members joined except MARSHALL and POWELL, JJ., who took no part in the consideration or decision of the case.
[94 S.Ct. 2010] MR. JUSTICE BLACKMUN delivered the opinion of the Court.
In this protracted school desegregation litigation, the District Court awarded the plaintiff petitioners expenses and attorneys' fees for services rendered from March 10, 1970, to January 29, 1971. 53 F.R.D. 28 (ED Va.1971).
was proper. Pertinent to the resolution of the issue is the enactment in 1972 of § 718 of Title VII, the Emergency School Aid Act, 20 U.S.C. § 1617 (1970 ed. Supp. II), as part of the Education Amendments of 1972, Pub.L. 9318, 86 Stat. 235, 369.
en banc, affirmed, with two judges dissenting in part, and held that the plan satisfied the Board's constitutional obligations. 345 F.2d 310 (1965). The court saw no error in the trial court's refusal to allow the plaintiffs' attorneys more than a nominal fee ($75). Id. at 321. The dissenters referred to the fee as "egregiously inadequate." Id. at 324. On petition for a writ of certiorari, this Court, per curiam, 382 U.S. 103 (1965), summarily held that the petitioners improperly had been denied a full evidentiary hearing on their claim that a racially based faculty allocation system rendered the plan constitutionally inadequate under Brown v. Board of Education, 347 U.S. 483 (1954). In vacating the judgment of the Court of Appeals and in remanding the case, we expressly declined to pass on the merits of the desegregation plan and noted that further judicial review following the hearing was not precluded. 382 U.S. at 105.
After the required hearing, the District Court, on March 30, 1966, approved a revised "freedom of choice" plan2 submitted by the Board, and agreed to by the [94 S.Ct. 2011] petitioners.
App. 17a. It provided that, if the steps taken by the Board "do not produce significant results during the 19667 school year, it is recognized that the freedom of choice plan will have to be modified." Id. at 23a. This plan was in operation about four years. While it was in effect, Green v. County School Board of New Kent County, 391 U.S. 430 (1968), was decided. The Court there held that, where methods promising speedier and more effective conversion to a unitary system were reasonably available, a freedom of choice plan was not acceptable. Id. at 439-441.

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