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Matched Legal Cases: ['§ 307', '§ 307', '§ 307', '§ 307', '§ 307', 'art, 461', '§ 304', '§ 307', '§ 307', '§ 307', '§ 307', '§ 304', '§ 307', '§ 307', '§ 307', '§ 307', '§ 307', '§ 304', '§ 304', '§ 304', '§ 307', '§ 304', '§ 304']

RUCKELSHAUSE V. SIERRA CLUB, 463 U. S. 680 - Volume 463 - 1983 - Full Text - US Supreme Court Center - USSC Cases - Nolo
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RUCKELSHAUSE V. SIERRA CLUB, 463 U. S. 680 (1983)
Ruckelshause v. Sierra Club, 463 U.S. 680 (1983)
such award is appropriate." Respondents argued that, despite their failure to obtain any of the relief they requested, it was "appropriate" for them to receive fees for their contributions to the goals of the Clean Air Act. The Court of Appeals agreed with respondents, ultimately awarding some $45,000 to the Sierra Club and some $46,000 to EDF. Sierra Club v. Gorsuch, 217 U.S.App.D.C. 180, 672 F.2d 33 (1982); Sierra Club v. Gorsuch, 221 U.S.App.D.C. 450, 684 F.2d 972 (1982). We granted certiorari, 459 U.S. 942 (1982), to consider the important question decided by the Court of Appeals. [Footnote 1]
Our basic point of reference is the "American Rule," see Alyeska Pipeline Co. v. Wilderness Society, 421 U. S. 240,
421 U. S. 247 (1975) (emphasis added), under which even "the prevailing litigant is ordinarily not entitled to collect a reasonable attorneys' fee from the loser." It is clear that generations of American judges, lawyers, and legislators, with this rule as the point of departure, would regard it as quite "inappropriate" to award the "loser" an attorney's fee from the "prevailing litigant." Similarly, when Congress has chosen to depart from the American Rule by statute, virtually every one of the more than 150 existing federal fee-shifting provisions predicates fee awards on some success by the claimant; while these statutes contain varying standards as to the precise degree of success necessary for an award of fees -- such as whether the fee claimant was the "prevailing party," [Footnote 3] the "substantially prevailing" party, [Footnote 4] or "successful" [Footnote 5] -- the consistent rule is that complete failure will not justify shifting fees from the losing party to the winning party. Also instructive is Congress' reaction to a draft of the Equal Access to Justice Act, which permitted shifting fees from losing parties to the Government, if "in the interest of justice," S. 2354, 95th Cong., 2d Sess. (1978). This provision, criticized by the Justice Department as a "radical" departure from traditional principles, was rejected by Congress. [Footnote 6] Finally, English courts have awarded counsel fees to successful litigants for 750 years, see
Alyeska, supra, at 421 U. S. 247, n. 18, but they have never gone so far as to force a vindicated defendant to pay the plaintiff's legal expenses.
Also relevant in deciding whether to accept the reading of "appropriate" urged by respondents is the fact that § 307(f) affects fee awards against the United States, as well as against private individuals. Except to the extent it has waived its immunity, the Government is immune from claims for attorney's fees, Alyeska, supra, at 421 U. S. 267-268, and n. 42. Waivers of immunity must be "construed strictly in favor of the sovereign," McMahon v. United States, 342 U. S. 25, 342 U. S. 27 (1951), and not "enlarge[d] . . . beyond what the language requires." Eastern Transportation Co. v. United States,
272 U. S. 675, 272 U. S. 686 (1927). In determining what sorts of fee awards are "appropriate," care must be taken not to "enlarge" § 307(f)'s waiver of immunity beyond what a fair reading of the language of the section requires.
Respondents make relatively little effort to dispute much of the foregoing, devoting their principal attention to the legislative history of § 307(f). Respondents' arguments rest primarily on the following excerpt from the 1977 House Report on § 307(f): [Footnote 8]
In determining the meaning of the Senate Report's rejection of the "prevailing party" standard, it first is necessary to ascertain what this standard was understood to mean. When § 307(f) was enacted, the "prevailing party" standard had been interpreted in a variety of rather narrow ways. See, e.g., Taylor v. Safeway Stores, Inc., 524 F.2d 263, 273 (CA10 1975); Pearson v. Western Electric Co., 542 F.2d 1150 (CA10 1976); Best Medium Publishing Co. v. National Insider, Inc., 385 F.2d 384, 386 (CA7) (the "prevailing party'
is the one who prevails as to the substantial part of the litigation"), aff'g 259 F.Supp. 433 (ND Ill.1967); Dobbins v. Local 212, Int'l Brotherhood of Electrical Workers, AFL-CIO, 292 F.Supp. 413, 450 (SD Ohio 1968); Goodall v. Mason, 419 F.Supp. 980 (ED Va.1976); Clanton v. Allied Chemical Corp., 409 F.Supp. 282 (ED Va.1976). Some courts -- although, to be sure, a minority -- denied fees to plaintiffs who lacked a formal court order granting relief, while others required showings not just of some success, but "substantial" success. Indeed, even today, courts require that, to be a "prevailing party," one must succeed on the "central issue," Coen v. Harrison County School Bd., 638 F.2d 24, 26 (CA5 1981), or "essentially succee[d] in obtaining the relief he seeks in his claims on the merits," Bagby v. Beal, 606 F.2d 411, 415 (CA3 1979). See also Hensley v. Eckerhart, 461 U. S. 424, 461 U. S. 433, n. 8 (1983).
Given this, the House Report's statement that "the court's discretion . . . should [not] be restricted to cases in which the party seeking fees was the prevailing party,'" H.R.Rep. No. 95-294, p. 337 (1977) (emphasis added), provides little, if any, support for the theory that completely unsuccessful plaintiffs may receive fees. Rather, the sentence, fairly read, means only that fees may be awarded to all parties who prevail in part as well as those who prevail in full: it rejects the restrictive notions of "prevailing party" adopted
in Pearson, supra, and like cases, as well as difficult questions of what constitutes a "central" issue, or "essential" success. The Report, however, does not give any real support to the view that Congress meant to depart from the long-established rule that complete winners need not pay complete losers for suing them. [Footnote 11]
Finally, as shown in the margin, [Footnote 13] the central purpose of § 304(d) was to check the "multiplicity of [potentially meritless]
Even though the Court may regard the practice as "novel, costly, and intuitively unsatisfying," ante at 463 U. S. 687, n. 8, it is not at all unusual for a government to pay an unsuccessful adversary's counsel fees; indeed, in the largest category of litigation in which governments engage -- criminal litigation -- they do so routinely. [Footnote 2/1] The question presented in this case is whether Congress has authorized any such award in a challenge to rulemaking by the Environmental Protection Agency. Today the Court holds that, no matter how exceptional the circumstances may be, Congress intended such awards to be made only to prevailing parties. But in § 307(f), Congress deliberately used language that differs from the "prevailing party" standard, and it carefully explained in the legislative history that it intended to give the courts of appeals discretionary authority to award fees and costs to a broader category of parties. If one reads that statute and its legislative history without any strong predisposition in favor of or against the "American Rule" endorsed by the Court in Alyeska Pipeline Service Co. v. Wilderness Society, 421 U. S. 240, 421 U. S. 247 (1975), and repeatedly rejected by Congress thereafter, the answer is really quite plain -- and it is not the one the Court engrafts on the statute.
The millions of tons of sulfur dioxide emitted by coal-burning powerplants constitute a major source of air pollution in the United States. One method of reducing sulfur dioxide emissions is to install flue gas desulfurization equipment; another is to burn coal with lower sulfur content. In 1977, Congress amended the section of the Clean Air Act governing emission standards for newly built or modified stationary pollution sources, including powerplants. These amendments raised significant questions regarding the pollution control methods that would be required in new powerplants and the levels of sulfur dioxide emissions that would result across the Nation. Section 111, as amended, required EPA to establish standards setting an emission ceiling for each category of new sources and also requiring each such plant to achieve a "percentage reduction" in the emissions that would have resulted from the use of untreated fuels. [Footnote 2/2] In 1979, following a lengthy rulemaking proceeding under the Act, the EPA promulgated a controversial new standard for sulfur dioxide emissions by coal-burning powerplants. The standard
established an emissions ceiling of 1.2 pounds/MBtu of sulfur dioxide for all new plants. In addition, it required each new plant to achieve 90% reduction of sulfur dioxide emissions, given the sulfur content of the coal used, except that plants using coal with sufficiently low sulfur content could reduce their emissions by as little as 70% as long as the resulting emissions did not exceed 0.6 pounds/MBtu. [Footnote 2/3]
After further proceedings, the Court of Appeals unanimously decided that it was appropriate to award attorney's fees to both respondents. [Footnote 2/7] It first concluded that § 307(f) gave it authority to award fees in an "appropriate" case even to a party that did not prevail on any issue it addressed. The court then explained in some detail the grounds for its conclusion that the respondents had substantially contributed
to the goals of the Act. "While the occasions upon which nonprevailing parties will meet such criteria may be exceptional, . . . Sierra Club is such an occasion." 217 U.S.App.D.C. at 186, 672 F.2d at 39. [Footnote 2/8]
As the Court of Appeals correctly observed, the language of § 307(f) differs crucially from the wording of many other federal statutes authorizing the court to award attorney's fees and costs. [Footnote 2/11] Most of those statutes expressly require that a party "prevail" or "substantially prevail" in order to obtain fees. [Footnote 2/12] The contrast between the text of § 307(f) and
Ante at 463 U. S. 684. Factually, as the Court's own opinion makes clear, this is something of an overstatement. After all, the Court notes that 16 federal statutes and § 304(d) of the Clean Air Act contain provisions for awards of attorney's fees identical to § 307(f). Ante at 463 U. S. 682-683, n. 1. Logically,
the assertion is a non sequitur. It begs the question at issue in this case -- whether, by using significantly different language in § 307(f), Congress wished to depart from or to adopt the more customary standard. [Footnote 2/13]
The legislative history, like the text of the statute, supports the conclusion that Congress intended to allow attorney's fees not only to prevailing parties but also, in appropriate circumstances, to nonprevailing parties. In 1977, when § 307(f) was added to the Clean Air Act, the Senate Committee considered, but did not adopt, a provision that would have required the Court of Appeals to award fees to any "party other than the United States which prevails in such action" and would have given it discretion to award fees to a party "[i]n any case in which such party prevails in part." [Footnote 2/14]
The Senate Report explained that, under the different provision the Committee had chosen to adopt, fees and costs may be awarded "whenever the court determines that such an award is appropriate." [Footnote 2/15] It is clear from the House Report that the language of § 307(f), "whenever [the court] determines that such an award is appropriate," was intended to be broader than a "prevailing party" standard:
H.R.Rep. No. 95-294, p. 337 (1977), 41977 Leg.Hist., at 2804 (emphasis supplied). [Footnote 2/16]
Unpersuaded by the statutory language and legislative history, the Court relies heavily on two other propositions. First, it notes, the doctrine of sovereign immunity requires that any statute authorizing the payment of fees and costs by the United States must be strictly construed. Ante at 463 U. S. 685-686. But this general statement does little to support the Court's position in this case. Congress clearly intended to authorize fees in certain circumstances, see n. 16, supra, and left it to the courts to ascertain which cases would be "appropriate." [Footnote 2/19]
Second, the majority finds the relation between § 307(f) and § 304(d), a similarly worded Clean Air Act provision enacted in 1970, to be "instructive." Ante at 463 U. S. 691. [Footnote 2/20] I do not share the majority's interpretation of the significance of § 304(d).
As originally proposed in 1970, § 304(d) provided for attorney's fee awards "whenever the court determines such action is in the public interest." [Footnote 2/21] The Senate Report on that provision explained that the Committee intended to give courts the authority to award costs to defendants who had been harassed by frivolous litigation, and also to compensate citizens who performed a public service by bringing actions that successfully caused the defendant to abate an environmental violation "before a verdict is issued." [Footnote 2/22] Subsequently, the
When the 1977 Act was passed, Congress made clear that the courts had the power to award fees and costs in actions brought in the courts of appeals under § 307 as well as those filed in district courts under § 304. [Footnote 2/24] As its citation to the
1973 NRDC opinion demonstrates, it also took into account post-1970 judicial developments in attorney's fees law. By 1977, if not before 1970, the case law had made clear that the authority to award fees to "prevailing parties" included the two situations specifically mentioned in the 1970 legislative history. [Footnote 2/25] It was therefore not necessary to go beyond the
"prevailing parties" standard to achieve the result petitioner now seeks to ascribe to Congress in 1977. Moreover, the "appropriate" standard in § 304(d) itself had been construed more broadly to permit awards to nonprevailing parties. [Footnote 2/26]
Hill, 437 U. S. 153, 437 U. S. 194-195 (1978). Congress consciously selected a particular course: that a party who seeks judicial review of an EPA regulation may be entitled to compensation from the Government, when the court deems it "appropriate," even if the reviewing court determines that there is no ground for disturbing the agency's conclusions. I would construe this category of "appropriate" cases to be narrow; it is wrong, however, to read it out of the statute altogether. It is not the function of the courts to "sit as a committee of review, nor are we vested with the power of veto." Ibid. [Footnote 2/29]
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