Opinion ID: 670488
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: Retroactive application of attorney's fee amendment

Text: 77 Until early 1989, a court could award attorney's fees and costs to a prevailing plaintiff in a Fair Housing Act action only if the plaintiff was not financially able to assume said attorney's fees. 42 U.S.C. Sec. 3612(c) (1982). In 1988, Congress eliminated the financial need requirement and opted instead to leave the granting of attorney's fees and costs to the discretion of the trial court. 42 U.S.C. Sec. 3613(c)(2) (1988). This amendment became effective on March 18, 1989, about a year-and-a-half after the instant case had begun. Breitman contends that the Court improperly applied this amendment retroactively to this case by not requiring the plaintiffs to establish financial need before awarding them attorney's fees and costs. 18 78 The District Court carefully considered Breitman's argument but rejected it on the ground that retroactive application was justified. After the District Court decision in the instant case, however, we ruled in Ragin v. Harry Macklowe Real Estate Co., 6 F.3d 898, 910-11 (2d Cir.1993), that the attorney's fees amendment in 42 U.S.C. Sec. 3613(c)(2) should not be applied retroactively. 19 We held that the amendment applied only to legal services rendered on or after the amendment's effective date. Thus, in the instant case, the District Court could have awarded attorney's fees and costs for legal services rendered prior to the effective date only upon a showing of financial need, but could have awarded fees and costs for services rendered on or after the effective date without such a showing. Indeed, plaintiffs admit as much in a letter to the Court. See Plaintiffs' Letter of October 8, 1993. 79 Not ready to concede that a remand is required in light of Ragin, however, plaintiffs argue that they have already met the requirements of the earlier version of the statute. They contend that no remand is necessary because the District Court has already found that they are unable to pay attorney's fees. They point to the following language in the District Court opinion as demonstrating that finding: 80 [A hearing on the plaintiffs' financial status] would require the parties to incur additional expenses and may be an unnecessary expenditure of judicial resources for the following reasons: (1) a substantial part of the plaintiffs' attorney's fees would not be affected by the hearing's outcome, as they were incurred after the effective date of the amendments; (2) as the Open Housing Center is a not-for-profit organization, there is a reasonable likelihood that it is financially unable to meet the legal costs it incurred in this case; and (3) the defendants have stated that in order to prepare for such a hearing, they will require further discovery. 81 Cabrera, 814 F.Supp. at 286-87. However, the Court's educated guess that it is reasonably likely that a plaintiff can meet 42 U.S.C. Sec. 3612(c)'s old requirement of financial need does not substitute for a finding on that issue. Indeed, the Court's remarks suggest the opposite of what the plaintiffs believe they say. Instead of showing that the Court found the plaintiffs to be financially unable to pay attorney's fees, the quoted remarks show only that the Court decided not to undertake the burden of examining the plaintiffs' financial means because it was under the mistaken impression that such an inquiry was unnecessary. 82 We accordingly vacate the grant of attorney's fees against Breitman and remand for further proceedings not inconsistent with this opinion. Our order affects only that twenty percent of the total attorney's fees and costs award that is taxed to Breitman. See Cabrera, 814 F.Supp. at 292. 83