Opinion ID: 538388
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: The Retroactivity and Eleventh Amendment Issue

Text: 18 The district court awarded relief retroactive to the day WVUH commenced its lawsuit against the defendants. We reversed and instead ordered relief from the date of the court's initial judgment. The State's position is that this issue was of great significance to it and to WVUH, requiring significant time and effort from WVUH, and that the services the Hospital devoted to this issue should not be compensated. However, we will not dwell long on this issue because obviously the date the relief commences is directly related to WVUH's principal claim; the retroactivity claim had a direct effect on the claim for damages. 19 Given the relatedness of the retroactive claim to WVUH's successful claims, the court's rejection of WVUH's retroactive claim is not a sufficient reason for reducing its attorneys' fees. Hensley at 435, 103 S.Ct. at 1940. On the contrary, we are to assess the appropriateness of a fee award by focus[ing] on the significance of the overall relief obtained by the plaintiff. Id. The Hospital's retroactive claim was related to the principal issue upon which it obtained substantial relief. Therefore, we exercise our discretion and award attorney's fees for all hours reasonably spent on the retroactive claim. See Hensley at 437, 103 S.Ct. at 1941. The State's contention that the plaintiff is not entitled to a fee award with respect to this issue is rejected.