Opinion ID: 692064
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 4

Heading: Availability of Costs and Fees:

Text: 17 In the light of the complaint's prayers for relief, defendants asserted the qualified immunity defense. A question has been presented in this appeal about whether the monetary damages which the defense of qualified immunity bars include plaintiffs' claims for costs, expenses of litigation, and attorneys' fees. 7 The answer is yes. We hold that, for qualified immunity purposes, the term damages includes costs, expenses of litigation, and attorneys' fees claimed by a plaintiff against a defendant in the defendant's personal or individual capacity. 18 In the present case, these kinds of monetary claims might follow from plaintiffs having a successful outcome (if they do) on their federal-law-based demands for injunctive and declaratory relief. Nowadays, such sums can be substantial, often in excess of a plaintiff's other damages. The policy that supports qualified immunity--especially removing for most public officials the fear of personal monetary liability--would be undercut greatly if government officers could be held liable in their personal capacity for a plaintiff's costs, litigation expenses, and attorneys' fees in cases where the applicable law was so unsettled that defendants, in their personal capacity, were protected from liability for other civil damages. 19 Title 42 U.S.C. Sec. 1988, as amended by the Civil Rights Attorneys' Fees Awards Act of 1976, provides in part:In any action or proceeding to enforce section[ ] ... 1983 ... the court, in its discretion, may allow the prevailing party, other than the United States, a reasonable attorney's fee as part of the costs. 20 42 U.S.C. Sec. 1988 (1976). 21 The amended statute was largely a response to Alyeska Pipeline Service Co. v. Wilderness Society, 421 U.S. 240, 95 S.Ct. 1612, 44 L.Ed.2d 141 (1975), a decision which limited judicial power to award attorneys' fees. See S.Rep. No. 94-1011, p. 1, 4 (1976) U.S.Code Cong. & Admin.News 1976 at pp. 5908, 5911, 5912. Still, as the Senate Committee Report shows, Congress did not foresee or require the award of fees against government officers, sued in their individual capacity, when the officers avoided acting in bad faith. The legislative history reveals from whom attorneys' fees may be collected pursuant to section 1988: 22 [I]t is intended that the attorney's fees, like other items of costs, will be collected either directly from the official, in his official capacity, from funds of his agency or under his control, or from the State or local government (whether or not the agency or government is a named party). 23 Id. at p. 5 U.S.Code Cong. & Admin.News 1976 at pp. 5908, 5913. (emphasis added) (all but one footnote deleted). 24 The footnote adds a lot: Proof that an official had acted in bad faith could also render him liable for fees in his individual capacity.... Id. at p. 5, n. 7 U.S.Code Cong. & Admin.News 1976 at p. 5913. The significance of these legislative materials is that a defense of good faith was understood by Congress--even when liberalizing the law of fees--to be a valid shield for defendants on awards of attorneys' fees to plaintiffs. And, just two years after section 1988 was amended about fees, the Supreme Court also recognized that [a]wards against the official in his individual capacity ... were not to be affected by the statute; ... they would continue to be awarded only 'under the traditional bad faith standard recognized ... in Alyeska.'  Hutto v. Finney, 437 U.S. 678, 699-700, 98 S.Ct. 2565, 2578, 57 L.Ed.2d 522 (1978). Again, good faith barred fee awards against individuals. With the Harlow v. Fitzgerald, 457 U.S. 800, 102 S.Ct. 2727, 73 L.Ed.2d 396 (1982), decision, good faith became an objective as opposed to a subjective standard. But, under Harlow and its progeny, qualified immunity continues to be good faith immunity. Id. at 815, 102 S.Ct. at 2736 (Qualified or 'good faith' immunity is an affirmative defense....). Put differently, if a defendant has qualified immunity for damages, the defendant has good faith immunity for the purposes of fees and so on. 25 Because section 1988, especially when read in the light of its legislative history, requires no award of costs, litigation expenses, or attorneys' fees from defendants in their personal capacity 8 and because the policy underlying qualified immunity would in no way be advanced by the award of such costs and fees against defendants in their personal capacity, we hold that such awards, even in actions for injunctive and declaratory relief, are barred when the defendant's conduct meets the objective good faith standard encompassed by the qualified immunity doctrine. 9 26