Opinion ID: 489491
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 6

Heading: the cross-appeals

Text: 35 The cross-appeals implicate the appellee's solicitation of a further 25% jump in the hourly rate to account for the contingent nature of the fee agreement with its attorneys. It seeks such a multiplier with respect to the underlying awards in both Sierra I and Sierra II. The request was made to the district court but a deviation of this sort was found not [to] be proper in this case. Sierra III, 639 F.Supp. at 1222. 36 Relying principally on precedent which has evolved under the Civil Rights Fees Act, 42 U.S.C. Sec. 1988, the Club argues that a premium should be fashioned to compensate its counsel for the risk that, had the plaintiff lost (or prevailed, but in circumstances where the federal appellants' actions were deemed to have been substantially justified), the lawyers would have gone begging--and perhaps, have incurred substantial out-of-pocket expenses to boot. Where Sec. 1988 controls, we have held that a court may within reasonable limits adjust the hourly rate to 'compensate for the risk that the lawsuit would be unsuccessful and that no fee at all would be obtained.'  Maceira v. Pagan, 698 F.2d 38, 41 (1st Cir.1983) (quoting Copeland v. Marshall, 641 F.2d 880, 892 (D.C. Cir.1980)). See also Wildman v. Lerner Stores Corp., 771 F.2d 605, 612-14 (1st Cir.1985) (multiplier for contingency permissible under Fees Act). 9 The Sierra Club would have us extend this principle to the EAJA, and to hold that the district court's failure to energize the multiplier mechanism in these cases was tantamount to an abuse of its discretion. The imprecation asks too much. 37 It is a relatively open question whether the EAJA--as opposed to the Fees Act--permits a multiplier to be employed as an added compensation for contingency arrangements. We note at the outset that the EAJA differs from other fee-shifting statutes (such as the Fees Act) in material respects. While Sec. 1988, for example, entitles a prevailing party to reasonable attorneys' fees, the EAJA caps hourly rates and allows courts--other than adjusting for inflation, see ante Part V--to lift the cap only in narrowly constrained circumstances. Courts have discretion to consider whether a special factor, such as the limited availability of qualified attorneys for the proceedings involved, justifies a higher fee. 28 U.S.C. Sec. 2412(d)(2)(A). Apart from this single reference to a shortage of qualified counsel, the EAJA is silent as to how elastic (or inelastic) the special factor language may be. 38 In this case, the Sierra Club contends that the contingent nature under which its counsel were engaged constituted just such a special factor. There is a divergence of opinion as to whether contingency is a special factor of the type which may be considered under the EAJA. Compare Action on Smoking and Health v. CAB, 724 F.2d at 218 (adjustment to EAJA rates for contingent nature of engagement appropriate) with Underwood v. Pierce, 761 F.2d 1342, 1347-48 (9th Cir.1985) (no multiplier, for contingency or otherwise, may be applied to fees awarded under EAJA). See also Bunn v. Bowen, 637 F. Supp. 464, 473-74 (E.D.N.C.1986) (contingency multiplier inapposite under EAJA). A kindred issue was left undecided by the Court in Pennsylvania v. Delaware Valley Citizens' Council for Clean Air, --- U.S. ----, 106 S.Ct. 3088, 3100, 92 L.Ed.2d 439 (1986), and remains under review. See Pennsylvania v. Delaware Valley Citizens' Council for Clean Air, --- U.S. ----, 106 S.Ct. 3331, 92 L.Ed.2d 737 (1986). 10 39 Though the background and theoretical underpinnings of the problem are intriguing, the case at bar does not legitimately call upon us to pursue the question further. There is no case which holds that--contingency or no--a party is entitled to an EAJA special factor premium as a matter of right. Assuming for the sake of argument--but without deciding--that it would be permissible for a court to raise EAJA's permitted hourly rates because of the aleatory nature of a lawyer's fee arrangement, the most that can be said for the plaintiff's position is that the district court had discretion to grant such an upward adjustment. Yet, the district court in this instance decided not to do so. It examined the nature of the actual fee arrangement, determined that the arrangement was based in part on the understanding that there would be some fundraising efforts undertaken to pay for legal services, and concluded that neither an enhanced fee award nor a special factor adjustment was proper in this case. Sierra III, 639 F.Supp. at 1222. Whatever label the district court attached to the fee agreement, it had knowledge of all of the facts pertinent to counsels' retention and to the circumstances of the litigation. It is too much of a stretch to say that the court's determination not to raise further the already inflation-adjusted hourly rate ... to reflect the allegedly contingent nature of [counsels'] fee arrangement, id. at 1222, was an abuse of discretion.