Opinion ID: 670488
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: The basis for awarding attorney's fees against Breitman

Text: 84 Breitman also makes a more fundamental attack against the award of attorney's fees against him. He argues that the legal and equitable relief directed against him was too insignificant to justify the Court's award of attorney's fees against him. Citing Farrar v. Hobby, --- U.S. ----, 113 S.Ct. 566, 121 L.Ed.2d 494 (1992), Breitman contends that the one dollar nominal fee award, coupled with equitable relief that was minimal compared to that awarded against Jakabovitz ... [or to that] requested by Appellees, was insufficient to support the award against him. 85 We disagree. In Farrar, the Supreme Court said that  'the degree of the plaintiff's overall success goes to the reasonableness' of a fee award. Farrar, --- U.S. at ----, 113 S.Ct. at 574 (quoting Texas State Teachers Association v. Garland Independent School District, 489 U.S. 782, 793, 109 S.Ct. 1486, 1494, 103 L.Ed.2d 866 (1989)). Assuming for the argument that Farrar's standard, though articulated in a 42 U.S.C. Sec. 1988 attorney's fees case, applies in a Title VIII attorney's fees case, we hold that plaintiffs easily met that standard. The fact that plaintiffs obtained only one dollar in damages from Breitman does not automatically exempt him from paying any share of plaintiffs' attorney's fees. See id. at ----, 113 S.Ct. at 578 (O'Connor, J., concurring) ([A]n award of nominal damages can represent a victory in the sense of vindicating rights even though no actual damages are proved.). Here, the plaintiffs prevailed on a significant legal issue--namely, that landlords can be held liable for employing real estate brokers who are engaged in racial steering. One does not search in vain for the public purpose this litigation has served. Id. That purpose is readily apparent: Breitman's loss in this case serves as a clear warning to landlords that the law will not tolerate their use of brokers who discriminate invidiously.