Opinion ID: 1207601
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: Unrelated Claims

Text: A plaintiff is not eligible to receive attorney's fees for time spent on unsuccessful claims that are unrelated to a plaintiff's successful § 1983 claim. Such unrelated claims must be treated as if they had been raised in a separate lawsuit to realize congressional intent to limit awards to prevailing parties. Id at 435, 103 S.Ct. 1933. However, in a lawsuit where the plaintiff presents different claims for relief that involve a common core of facts or are based on related legal theories, the district court should not attempt to divide the request for attorney's fees on a claim-by-claim basis. Id. Instead, the court must proceed to the second part of the analysis and focus on the significance of the overall relief obtained by the plaintiff in relation to the hours reasonably expended on the litigation. Id. In this case, the district court correctly treated all of McCown's claims as related for the purpose of determining attorney's fees. Each of McCown's claims, though brought on the basis of different legal theories against different defendants, arose from a common core of facts, namely, his arrest on June 2, 2004. Therefore, the district court did not abuse its discretion when it treated all the claims, successful and unsuccessful, as arising out of a common core of facts.