Opinion ID: 406181
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: Finality of the Order for Purposes of Appeal

Text: 6 A final judgment is one that terminates the litigation between the parties on the merits of the case, and leaves nothing to be done but to enforce by execution what has been determined. St. Louis Iron Mountain & Southern Railway v. Southern Express Co., 108 U.S. 24, 28-29, 2 S.Ct. 6, 8, 27 L.Ed. 638 (1883). No appeal lies from a finding of liability on the merits when the district court leaves undetermined the nature and scope of relief. Liberty Mutual Insurance Co. v. Wetzel, 424 U.S. 737, 96 S.Ct. 1202, 47 L.Ed.2d 435 (1976). Thus we are faced with the legal question whether the lack of determination of the amount of attorney's fees left undetermined any of the merits or scope of relief in this case. 7 The United States Supreme Court has recently spoken indirectly to the question before us. In White v. New Hampshire Department of Employment Security, --- U.S. ----, 102 S.Ct. 1162, 71 L.Ed.2d 325 (1982), the court addressed the question whether a motion to award attorney's fees statutorily authorized by 42 U.S.C. § 1988 4 for an action brought under one of the Civil Rights Statutes was a motion to alter or amend a judgment under Fed.R.Civ.P. 59(e). 5 The Court, in its determination that a request for attorney's fees was not covered by Rule 59(e), analyzed the relationship of an award of attorney's fees in civil rights suit to a determination on the merits and the scope of relief in such a case. 8 In White, the plaintiff moved for an award of attorney's fees under § 1988 more than ten days after the entry of a consent decree in a § 1983 suit. The defendant argued that the attorney's fees motion was not timely under Rule 59(e). The Court held that a motion for attorney's fees under § 1988 was not subject to Rule 59(e), and, therefore, could be made more than ten days after the entry of judgment. The Court reasoned that an award of attorney's fees under § 1988 was not integral to the main cause of action. Rather, the award was a collateral matter, independent of the merits of the case and uniquely separable from the cause of action to be proved at trial. White v. New Hampshire Department of Employment Security, --- U.S. at ----, 102 S.Ct. at 1165-66. The Court concluded: 9 As the Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit recently stated: 10 (A) motion for attorney's fees is unlike a motion to alter or amend a judgment. It does not imply a change in the judgment, but merely seeks what is due because of the judgment... Knighton v. Watkins, 616 F.2d 795, 797 (CA5 1980). 11 Id. at 1166-67 (footnotes omitted). 12 The question whether a judgment is final when attorney's fees have been awarded but their amount has not been set has also been addressed in various circuit court decisions. The determination of finality has, as was the case in White, seemingly hinged upon a circuit court's analysis of whether the award of attorney's fees was, in a particular action, similar to an application for costs, Johnson v. Snyder, 639 F.2d 316 (6th Cir. 1981) (judgment final although amount of attorney's fees not yet determined), a part of the relief sought, Johnson v. University of Bridgeport, 629 F.2d 828 (2nd Cir. 1980) (judgment not final when amount of attorney's fees not yet determined), or a collateral or independent claim that is neither a part of the relief sought or costs. Obin v. District No. 9, International Assn. of Machinists and Aerospace Workers, 651 F.2d 574 (8th Cir. 1981) (judgment final although amount of attorney's fees not yet determined). See also White v. New Hampshire Department of Employment Security, --- U.S. at ----, 102 S.Ct. at 1165 n.9 (setting forth, circuit by circuit, the various rules relating to finality of the judgment absent a determination of the amount of attorney's fees). 13 This court has also had occasion to discuss the relationship of attorney's fees to the finality of an order for purposes of appeal. Jones v. Dealers Tractor and Equipment Company, 634 F.2d 180 (5th Cir. 1981); Knighton v. Watkins, 616 F.2d 795 (5th Cir. 1980); Williams v. Ezell, 531 F.2d 1261 (5th Cir. 1976); Stacy v. Williams, 446 F.2d 1366 (5th Cir. 1971). In Jones and Knighton, we held, consistent with the Supreme Court's later decision in White, that Fed.R.Civ.P. 59(e) is inapplicable to a request for attorney's fees under the Civil Rights Attorney Fees Award Act. 42 U.S.C. § 1988. We reasoned: 14 Because this statute designates attorney's fees as part of the costs, they will ordinarily be sought only after litigation. See Gore v. Turner, 563 F.2d 159, 163 (5th Cir. 1978). 15 Jones v. Dealers Tractor and Equipment Co., 634 F.2d at 181-82 (emphasis added). In Williams v. Ezell, we held that an order granting a motion for attorney's fees but reserving the determination of their amount is not a final order for purposes of appeal. 6 In Stacy v. Williams, finding that the attorney's fees were part of the relief requested, we held that a motion for attorney's fees was a motion to alter a judgment and subject to the stricture of Rule 59(e). 16 Thus, while we have not articulated in detail our rationale for holding that an undetermined amount of attorney's fees may pretermit a final judgment in some cases (Stacy ) but not in others (Jones ), the applicable rationale, as derived from pertinent case law, is clear. When attorney's fees are similar to costs (White ) or collateral to an action (Obin ), a lack of determination as to the amount does not preclude the issuance of a final, appealable judgment on the merits. When, however, the attorney's fees are an integral part of the merits of the case and the scope of relief, they cannot be characterized as costs or as collateral and their determination is a part of any final, appealable judgment. The final task for us, then, is to determine the appropriate characterization of the attorney's fees award in this maintenance and cure action.
17 Holmes describes the award of attorney's fees here as similar to costs. If that were the case, our decision might be materially different. However, in an action for arbitrary and willful failure to pay maintenance and cure, attorney's fees are not similar to costs, at all but rather are an element of damages which may be recovered. As the Supreme Court stated in its seminal decision allowing an award of attorney's fees in an action for maintenance and cure: 18 Nor do we have the usual problem of what constitutes costs in the conventional sense. Cf. The Baltimore, 8 Wall. 377 (19 L.Ed. 463). Our question concerns damages. Counsel fees were allowed in The Apollon, 9 Wheat. 362, 379 (6 L.Ed. 111), an admiralty suit where one party was put to expense in recovering demurrage of a vessel wrongfully seized. While failure to give maintenance and cure may give rise to a claim for damages for the suffering and for the physical handicap which follows (The Iroquois, 194 U.S. 240 (24 S.Ct. 640, 48 L.Ed. 955) ), the recovery may also include necessary expenses. Cortes v. Baltimore Insular Line, 287 U.S. 367, 371 (53 S.Ct. 173, 174, 77 L.Ed. 368). 19 In the instant case respondents were callous in their attitude, making no investigation of libellant's claim and by their silence neither admitting nor denying it. As a result of that recalcitrance, libellant was forced to hire a lawyer and go to court to get what was plainly owed him under laws that are centuries old. The default was willful and persistent. It is difficult to imagine a clearer case of damages suffered for failure to pay maintenance than this one. 20 Vaughan v. Atkinson, 369 U.S. 527, 530, 82 S.Ct. 997, 999, 8 L.Ed.2d 88 (1962) (emphasis added). 21 Additionally, we emphasize two critical facts that indicate that the attorney's fees were integral to the determination of the merits of the action. First, Holmes requested the attorney's fees as part of his damages for McDermott's arbitrary and willful failure to pay maintenance and cure, and this requested relief was included in the pretrial order. Second, the jury was charged on the issue of attorney's fees and the jury returned a verdict awarding them. 22 Moreover, the Supreme Court in White distinguished the case before it from the type with which we are faced today. 23 Unlike other judicial relief, the attorney's fees allowed under § 1988 are not compensation for the injury giving rise to an action. Their award is uniquely separable from the cause of action to be proved at trial. See Hutto v. Finney, 437 U.S. 678, 695 n.24, 98 S.Ct. 2565, 2576 n.24, 57 L.Ed.2d 522 (1978). 24 White v. New Hampshire Department of Employment Security, --- U.S. at ----, 102 S.Ct. at 1165 (emphasis added). 7 Here, in contrast, the award of attorney's fees to Holmes was an element of damages for McDermott's willful and arbitrary denial of maintenance and cure. Vaughan v. Atkinson, supra. The attorney's fees award, therefore, was not uniquely separable from the merits but was bound hand in hand with them. The jury was instructed to consider awarding attorney's fees only if it found that the denial of maintenance and cure was willful and arbitrary. Moreover, the maintenance and cure issue is the only one on which attorney's fees were awarded. Thus, the considerations that the Supreme Court found controlling in a motion for § 1988 attorney's fees do not apply here. 8 Cf. Stacy v. Williams, 446 F.2d at 1367 (per curiam) (a motion for attorney's fees because of opponent's bad faith in prolonging litigation is a component of substantive relief, and, therefore, the motion must be made either before judgment or within ten days of judgment as required by Fed.R.Civ.P. 59(e)). 9 25 We simply cannot distinguish this case from any other judgment of liability that leaves undetermined the relief as to the amount of damages to which the plaintiff is entitled. The policies against piecemeal appeals apply fully to such a situation; they are also applicable here. Cf. Security & Exchange Commission v. Independence Drilling Co., 595 F.2d 1006 (5th Cir. 1979) (district court's order that the SEC pay for the costs of a receivership was not final until the Commission's liability had been given a dollar amount). 26 In sum, while we recognize that determination of the amount of attorney's fees may be similar to costs, Knighton v. Watkins, supra, or collateral to the main dispute in a case in some situations, see Odin v. District No. 9 of the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers, supra, in an action for arbitrary and willful failure to pay maintenance and cure we hold that such determination is not collateral to the main issues of the case but an issue relating to the substantive component of the case. The order appealed from which left the amount of a substantive claim undetermined 10 is not final and we have no jurisdiction to hear this appeal. 27 DISMISSED.