Opinion ID: 406181
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: Pertinent Case Law

Text: 6 A final judgment is one that terminates the litigation between the parties on the merits of the case, and leaves nothing to be done but to enforce by execution what has been determined. St. Louis Iron Mountain & Southern Railway v. Southern Express Co., 108 U.S. 24, 28-29, 2 S.Ct. 6, 8, 27 L.Ed. 638 (1883). No appeal lies from a finding of liability on the merits when the district court leaves undetermined the nature and scope of relief. Liberty Mutual Insurance Co. v. Wetzel, 424 U.S. 737, 96 S.Ct. 1202, 47 L.Ed.2d 435 (1976). Thus we are faced with the legal question whether the lack of determination of the amount of attorney's fees left undetermined any of the merits or scope of relief in this case. 7 The United States Supreme Court has recently spoken indirectly to the question before us. In White v. New Hampshire Department of Employment Security, --- U.S. ----, 102 S.Ct. 1162, 71 L.Ed.2d 325 (1982), the court addressed the question whether a motion to award attorney's fees statutorily authorized by 42 U.S.C. § 1988 4 for an action brought under one of the Civil Rights Statutes was a motion to alter or amend a judgment under Fed.R.Civ.P. 59(e). 5 The Court, in its determination that a request for attorney's fees was not covered by Rule 59(e), analyzed the relationship of an award of attorney's fees in civil rights suit to a determination on the merits and the scope of relief in such a case. 8 In White, the plaintiff moved for an award of attorney's fees under § 1988 more than ten days after the entry of a consent decree in a § 1983 suit. The defendant argued that the attorney's fees motion was not timely under Rule 59(e). The Court held that a motion for attorney's fees under § 1988 was not subject to Rule 59(e), and, therefore, could be made more than ten days after the entry of judgment. The Court reasoned that an award of attorney's fees under § 1988 was not integral to the main cause of action. Rather, the award was a collateral matter, independent of the merits of the case and uniquely separable from the cause of action to be proved at trial. White v. New Hampshire Department of Employment Security, --- U.S. at ----, 102 S.Ct. at 1165-66. The Court concluded: 9 As the Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit recently stated: 10 (A) motion for attorney's fees is unlike a motion to alter or amend a judgment. It does not imply a change in the judgment, but merely seeks what is due because of the judgment... Knighton v. Watkins, 616 F.2d 795, 797 (CA5 1980). 11 Id. at 1166-67 (footnotes omitted). 12 The question whether a judgment is final when attorney's fees have been awarded but their amount has not been set has also been addressed in various circuit court decisions. The determination of finality has, as was the case in White, seemingly hinged upon a circuit court's analysis of whether the award of attorney's fees was, in a particular action, similar to an application for costs, Johnson v. Snyder, 639 F.2d 316 (6th Cir. 1981) (judgment final although amount of attorney's fees not yet determined), a part of the relief sought, Johnson v. University of Bridgeport, 629 F.2d 828 (2nd Cir. 1980) (judgment not final when amount of attorney's fees not yet determined), or a collateral or independent claim that is neither a part of the relief sought or costs. Obin v. District No. 9, International Assn. of Machinists and Aerospace Workers, 651 F.2d 574 (8th Cir. 1981) (judgment final although amount of attorney's fees not yet determined). See also White v. New Hampshire Department of Employment Security, --- U.S. at ----, 102 S.Ct. at 1165 n.9 (setting forth, circuit by circuit, the various rules relating to finality of the judgment absent a determination of the amount of attorney's fees). 13 This court has also had occasion to discuss the relationship of attorney's fees to the finality of an order for purposes of appeal. Jones v. Dealers Tractor and Equipment Company, 634 F.2d 180 (5th Cir. 1981); Knighton v. Watkins, 616 F.2d 795 (5th Cir. 1980); Williams v. Ezell, 531 F.2d 1261 (5th Cir. 1976); Stacy v. Williams, 446 F.2d 1366 (5th Cir. 1971). In Jones and Knighton, we held, consistent with the Supreme Court's later decision in White, that Fed.R.Civ.P. 59(e) is inapplicable to a request for attorney's fees under the Civil Rights Attorney Fees Award Act. 42 U.S.C. § 1988. We reasoned: 14 Because this statute designates attorney's fees as part of the costs, they will ordinarily be sought only after litigation. See Gore v. Turner, 563 F.2d 159, 163 (5th Cir. 1978). 15 Jones v. Dealers Tractor and Equipment Co., 634 F.2d at 181-82 (emphasis added). In Williams v. Ezell, we held that an order granting a motion for attorney's fees but reserving the determination of their amount is not a final order for purposes of appeal. 6 In Stacy v. Williams, finding that the attorney's fees were part of the relief requested, we held that a motion for attorney's fees was a motion to alter a judgment and subject to the stricture of Rule 59(e). 16 Thus, while we have not articulated in detail our rationale for holding that an undetermined amount of attorney's fees may pretermit a final judgment in some cases (Stacy ) but not in others (Jones ), the applicable rationale, as derived from pertinent case law, is clear. When attorney's fees are similar to costs (White ) or collateral to an action (Obin ), a lack of determination as to the amount does not preclude the issuance of a final, appealable judgment on the merits. When, however, the attorney's fees are an integral part of the merits of the case and the scope of relief, they cannot be characterized as costs or as collateral and their determination is a part of any final, appealable judgment. The final task for us, then, is to determine the appropriate characterization of the attorney's fees award in this maintenance and cure action.