Opinion ID: 474830
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: The Damage Claim

Text: 11 The plaintiffs urge that whatever else may be said in favor of the order dismissing the complaint, the district court plainly erred in dismissing their claim for money damages and attorney fees. We agree. It is settled in this circuit that a district court, when abstaining from adjudicating a claim for injunctive relief, should stay and not dismiss accompanying claims for damages and attorney fees when such relief is not available from the ongoing state proceedings. Crane v. Fauver, 762 F.2d 325, 328-29 (3d Cir.1985) (reversing district court dismissal of claims for damages and attorney fees); Williams v. Red Bank Board of Education, 662 F.2d 1008, 1022-24 (3d Cir.1981) (same). The defendants do not contend that the ongoing state proceedings at issue in this case offer the plaintiffs any opportunity to recover either damages or attorney fees. Nonetheless, they offer several arguments in support of the district court's dismissal of the damage claims. 12 The defendants' principal contention is that the eleventh amendment, as interpreted by the Supreme Court in Pennhurst State School & Hospital v. Halderman, 465 U.S. 89, 97-124, 104 S.Ct. 900, 906-921, 79 L.Ed.2d 67 (1984), bars the district court from awarding damages against them individually, even with respect to alleged violations of the federal Constitution. The state officials neither cite any authority nor proffer any credible argument for such an extreme proposition, and we reject it. 13 Alternatively, the state urges us to affirm the district court's Younger -based dismissal of the damage claim on the ground that the plaintiffs could have asserted that claim in a state tribunal. That, of course, is true of every section 1983 claim, see, e.g., Maine v. Thiboutot, 448 U.S. 1, 100 S.Ct. 2502, 65 L.Ed.2d 555 (1980) (affirming judgment in section 1983 claim brought in Maine state court), and it was true of the damage claims asserted in Crane and Red Bank. It, however, is no reason for a district court to abstain from adjudicating a cognizable section 1983 claim. 14 No argument advanced by the defendant-appellees convinces us that the holdings of Crane and Red Bank do not control this case or that those cases are no longer valid. Consequently, we will reverse the district court's dismissal of the plaintiffs' claims for damages and attorney fees.