Opinion ID: 1145408
Heading Depth: 4
Heading Rank: 4

Heading: Proportionality of fees to damages

Text: The attorney's fees that Singh requested exceeded the damages he recovered in the settlement. The United States Supreme Court has rejected the proposition that fees awarded under § 1988 for civil rights litigation must be less than the damages recovered. Id. The Rivera plaintiffs received a $33,350 damages award. Their attorneys requested $245,456.25 in fees. The Court upheld the award in a 5-4 decision. Justice Brennan, writing for a 4-Justice plurality, categorically rejected the need for proportionality in civil rights cases, holding that such cases have inherent public benefits. Id. at 575, 106 S.Ct. at 2695 (plurality opinion). Justice Powell concurred, but stated that [i]t probably will be the rare case in which an award of private damages can be said to benefit the public to an extent that would justify the disproportionality between damages and fees reflected in this case. Rivera, 477 U.S. at 586 n. 3, 106 S.Ct. at 2700 n. 3. (Powell, J., concurring). He indicated that the public interest served by civil rights litigation, as well as the damages awarded, might support such a disproportionate award, though he did not specify what degree of disproportionality requires such an analysis. While Justice Powell limited his discussion to the vindication of constitutional rights, the reasoning of his concurrence may be extended to civil rights litigation involving the vindication of statutory rights as well. The ambiguity created by the divisions in Rivera has led the federal circuit courts in different directions. Schwartz & Kirklin, supra, at 304-07. Some courts have treated Justice Powell's concurrence as the controlling law. See Foley v. City of Lowell, 948 F.2d 10, 19-20 (1st Cir.1991); Nephew v. City of Aurora, 830 F.2d 1547, 1550 (10th Cir.1987). Others have declined to do so. See Cowan v. Prudential Ins. Co. of America, 935 F.2d 522, 525-26 (2d Cir.1991); Bell v. United Princeton Properties, Inc., 884 F.2d 713, 724 (3d Cir.1989). There is no need in this case for a remand to the superior court for consideration of the public interest served by the litigation. As noted above, a majority of the United States Supreme Court has not endorsed the notion that such an analysis is ever necessary. Moreover, the gross disproportionality of the fees requested in Rivera is not present here. Singh settled for $17,501, and requested $31,920 in fees. This is in sharp contrast with Rivera, where requested fees were almost seven times the damages award.