Opinion ID: 763539
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: Tenth Circuit Cases

Text: 27 Rosene cites to two Tenth Circuit cases to support its assertion that attorney's fees are substantive. In Hess Oil Virgin Islands Corp. v. UOP, Inc., this court stated: 28 We are convinced that the district court correctly looked to the Oklahoma conflict of laws rule to determine whether Oklahoma would apply its own statute on attorney's fees or that of the Virgin Islands where the substantive claim arose.... We also agree with the trial court's view that Oklahoma would apply the law of the Virgin Islands since the right of recovery of the attorney's fee is intertwined with that of the substantive right. 29 861 F.2d 1197, 1210 (10th Cir.1988) (citations omitted). Although a federal court and not an Oklahoma state court applied Oklahoma choice-of-law principles, Hess is the only case that discusses the issue here. As precedent, however, Hess is so problematic it does not aid this court's decision. First, Hess was decided before Salve Regina College v. Russell, in which the Supreme Court rejected the prevailing clear-error standard of review of district courts' determinations of state law and required instead that courts of appeals review such determinations de novo. 499 U.S. 225, 231, 111 S.Ct. 1217, 113 L.Ed.2d 190 (1991). More significantly, however, it is doubtful that Hess remains viable after Rosene II. See Rosene II, 123 F.3d at 1353. 30 Other Tenth Circuit cases also hold that attorney's fees are substantive, but they do not purport to engage in a choice-of-law analysis for Oklahoma. In Prudential Insurance Co. of America v. Carlson, this court stated that [s]tatutes providing for attorneys' fees impose a liability which one may enforce as a matter of right. Such fees are put in controversy in the suit and are a part of the substantive right. 126 F.2d 607, 611 (10th Cir.1942). Prudential, however, employed the reasoning rejected by Rosene II: Since the substantive rights of the parties are governed by the lex loci, it follows that the law of [the state where the contract was made] ... governs the right to recover attorneys' fees. Id.; see also R.L. Clark Drilling Contractors v. Schramm, Inc., 835 F.2d 1306, 1309 (10th Cir.1987) (citing Prudential ). 31 KMGA points to A.T. Clayton & Co. v. Missouri-Kansas-Texas Railroad Co. to support its claim that the Tenth Circuit has effectively recognized the procedural nature of Oklahoma's attorney fee statutes. 901 F.2d 833 (10th Cir.1990). In Clayton the issue was whether an Oklahoma attorney's fee statute was preempted by a federal statute, the Carmack Amendment, previously determined to preempt state common law remedies. See id. at 834-35. The Clayton court relied upon a Supreme Court decision concluding that a Texas attorney's fee statute was not preempted by the Carmack Amendment because the Texas statute did not contradict or burden the Carmack Amendment. See id. (quoting Missouri, Kansas & Texas Ry. Co. v. Harris, 234 U.S. 412, 419-21, 34 S.Ct. 790, 58 L.Ed. 1377 (1914)). The Clayton court concluded that, similar to the Texas statute, the Oklahoma statute simply provides an incidental compensatory allowance for the expense of employing an attorney and does not substantively enlarge the responsibility of the carrier. See id. at 835 (construing Okla. Stat. tit. 12, § 940 A (1981)). KMGA argues that the Clayton court's willingness to apply the Oklahoma attorney's fee statute even when the case was substantively governed by the law of another jurisdiction indicated the court's view that the statute was procedural. 32 Clayton, however, is completely devoid of state choice-of-law analysis, and the court's conclusion that an Oklahoma attorney fee statute had a de minimis effect on a defendant's liability under the Carmack Amendment contributes nothing to the discussion here. Unlike choice-of-law principles which are a zero-sum game (either state A or state B's law will be applied), preemption law permits the concurrent application of state and federal law if the state law is not inconsistent with the federal law. See Gade v. National Solid Wastes Management Ass'n., 505 U.S. 88, 98-99, 112 S.Ct. 2374, 120 L.Ed.2d 73 (1992) (discussing conflict preemption). Moreover, because federal procedural law is applicable in federal courts, the procedural or substantive nature of Oklahoma's attorney's fee statute was irrelevant. See Hanna v. Plumer, 380 U.S. 460, 465, 85 S.Ct. 1136, 14 L.Ed.2d 8 (1965).