Opinion ID: 493314
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: The Officers' Attorney's Fees Award

Text: 24 As discussed above, the district court awarded the Officers, as prevailing parties under 42 U.S.C. Sec. 1988, $4,591.56 in attorney's fees. Davis argues that the defendants were not entitled to attorney's fees under the proper legal standards for awarding such fees in civil rights actions. 25 Under 42 U.S.C. Sec. 1988, a district court may award attorney's fees and expenses in a section 1983 action upon well-supported findings that the suit is frivolous, unfounded, and vexatiously brought and pursued. American Family Life Assur. Co. of Columbus v. Teasdale, 733 F.2d 559, 569 (8th Cir.1984). See also Christiansburg Garment Co. v. EEOC, 434 U.S. 412, 421, 98 S.Ct. 694, 700, 54 L.Ed.2d 648 (1978); Obin v. District No. 9 of the Int'l Ass'n of Machinists and Aerospace Workers, 651 F.2d 574, 577 (8th Cir.1981). The district court awarded the defendants' attorney's fees on the basis of Davis' counsel's alleged failure to conduct discovery after August 8, 1985 (though requesting time to do so), as well as his failure to appear in court for trial on September 30, 1986. 26 Considering the circumstances of this case and the standard enunciated in the above authorities, we believe the trial court entered this award without an adequate basis. First, Davis' counsel contends that he continued to conduct discovery up to March 10, 1986, on which date he received the documents he had requested showing that Officers Grant and Smith were terminated by the Charleston Police Department subsequent to the events giving rise to this litigation. Second, it does not appear that Davis' counsel willfully failed to appear on the fifth trial date set, but rather made every effort to obtain a continuance of this trial date, short of appearing before the district court judge to request one personally or filing a written motion. Finally, and of greatest importance, due to the district court's dismissal of the action upon counsel's failure to appear, Davis was not afforded an opportunity to present evidence or legal arguments to support her section 1983 claims. As the Christiansburg, Teasdale and Obin cases demonstrate, however, an attorney's fee award is properly based upon a complete lack of merits in the plaintiff's claims. From the record before us, we are not prepared to say that Davis could not have established a colorable claim to relief under section 1983 had she been given the opportunity to do so before the district court. 27 Thus, we remand this issue to the district court for a redetermination of the defendants' attorney's fees award in light of these considerations and the standard set forth by the Supreme Court in Christiansburg, and by this court in Teasdale and Obin. On remand, Davis should be allowed the opportunity to submit affidavits or evidence that she believed that she had a claim for relief under section 1983 and that her claims were conceivably of merit. We note that Davis was denied this opportunity due to the district court's dismissal of her action prior to trial and was most likely discouraged from filing a reply to the defendants' second motion for summary judgment by the district court's decision to reset the case for trial only a few days after the defendants filed the motion. 28 C. Davis' Award of Attorney's Fees Against Judge Graham 29 In her final argument, Davis seeks to increase her attorney's fee award in her successful suit against Judge Graham. Although Davis' counsel requested $18,339.75 (87.75 hours X $95.00 per hour by a 2.2 multiplier), the district court awarded only $460.00. The court reduced the hourly rate claimed to $60.00 an hour upon a determination that this was the ordinary fee for similar work in the relevant community of Cape Girardeau, Missouri. The court furthermore determined that Davis failed to raise the argument upon which she prevailed until relatively late in the litigation--in her motion for summary judgment--and that the prevailing issue was only one argument out of the two raised in the motion. Thus, the court's fee award was based upon three out of the six hours claimed for preparation of the summary judgment motion, an additional three hours for time spent responding to motions subsequent to the filing of the summary judgment motion, and $100.00 in filing fees and miscellaneous expenses. 30 In Hensley v. Eckerhart, 461 U.S. 424, 103 S.Ct. 1933, 76 L.Ed.2d 40 (1983), the Supreme Court wrestled with the often complex issue of awarding fees for legal preparation where the party prevailed on only one or some of the issues raised. The Court distinguished between cases where the issue or issues upon which the party prevailed are easily separated from those upon which the party had no success and those cases where the two are not easily differentiated. Regarding the former, the Court said, 31 In such a suit, even where the claims are brought against the same defendants--often an institution and its officers, as in this case--counsel's work on one claim will be unrelated to his work on another claim. Accordingly, work on an unsuccessful claim cannot be deemed to have been expended in pursuit of the ultimate result achieved. 32 Id. at 434-35, 103 S.Ct. at 1939-40 (citation omitted). Regarding the latter, the Court stated, 33 In other cases the plaintiff's claims for relief will involve a common core of facts or will be based on related legal theories. Much of counsel's time will be devoted generally to the litigation as a whole, making it difficult to divide the hours expended on a claim-by-claim basis. Such a lawsuit cannot be viewed as a series of discrete claims. Instead the district court should focus on the significance of the overall relief obtained by the plaintiff in relation to the hours reasonably expended on the litigation. 34 Id. at 435, 103 S.Ct. at 1940. 35 We believe that this case fits the latter description of cases where the issues are not so easily untangled. Although it is certainly true that the exact argument upon which Davis prevailed was not introduced prior to her summary judgment motion, Davis' claim for relief involved a common core of facts, i.e., Judge Graham's decision to incarcerate Davis for nonpayment of a fine without first holding a hearing on her indigency. Furthermore, Davis at all times contended that this incarceration violated her constitutional rights and thus she was entitled to relief under section 1983. 36 As to the reasonable hourly rate for these services, we note that while the district court awarded Davis' counsel $65.00 per hour, it awarded two of the three attorneys involved in Officers Grant and Smith's defense $75.00 per hour. In view of this discrepancy, we believe that the fee award should be based upon $75.00 per hour. 37 Thus, we remand this issue for the district court's determination, in light of Hensley, of the appropriate number of hours for which Davis should be awarded attorney's fees and for entry of a fee award based upon that number of hours times the reasonable hourly rate of $75.00.