Court Opinion

ID: 9573183
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-21 20:49:21.955969+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T12:37:52.309453
License: Public Domain

GARTH, Circuit Judge,
dissenting:
Let me recount the fundamental issues presented on this appeal — in effect: “let’s review the bidding.”
1. The complaint filed by Jama sought $250,000 in statutory damages for violations of the Religious Freedom Restoration Act (“RFRA”); it also sought a total of nearly $5 million for all damages including general negligence damages, punitive damages, and RFRA.
2. RFRA provides that, if a violation is found, not only may damages be awarded but reasonable attorney’s fees may be assessed. 42 U.S.C. § 1988(b).
3. After 23 days of trial before a jury which heard evidence of RFRA violations and tortious conduct by some of the defendants, the jury was charged specifically by the District Court as follows:
You must not award compensatory damages more than once for the same injury. For example, if Miss Jama prevails on two claims and establishes a dollar amount for her injuries, you must not award her any individual compensatory damages on each claim if the two claims resulted in the same injuries. Miss Jama is only entitled to be made whole once, and may not recover more than she has lost. Of course, if different *182injuries are attributable to the separate claims, then you must compensation [sic] Miss Jama for all of her injuries----
If you return a verdict for Miss Jama on the ATCA and the RFRA claims, but Miss Jama has failed to prove compensatory damages, then you must award nominal damages of one dollar.... However, if you find actual injury, you must award compensatory damages as I instructed you, rather than nominal damages.
J.A. 209-10.
4. No exceptions were taken to the charge. No additions were sought by the plaintiffs to the charge. See Farrar v. Cain, 756 F.2d 1148, 1150-51 (5th Cir.1985), aff'd 506 U.S. 103, 113 S.Ct. 566, 121 L.Ed.2d 494 (1992) (failure to object to the jury charge and special interrogatories precludes our review in the absence of plain error or manifest miscarriage of justice).
5. The evidence before the jury consisted of actions which violated RFRA, but also consisted of other negligent tortious actions by the defendants. We note them infra.
6. The jury was asked to answer a series of interrogatory questions in delivering its verdict.16 The jury complied fully with the District Court’s instructions and answered the relevant interrogatories as follows:
1. [not relevant to this appeal]
2. Has Ms. Jama proved by a preponderance of the evidence her Religious Freedom Restoration Act claim against Esmor ... and/or Lima?
Yes17
2F. What is the amount of compensatory damages to which Ms. Jama is entitled on account of her RFRA claim alone, without considering damages on account of any other claim on which you found a Defendant liable?
$1.00
2G. Was the amount of the damages awarded on the RFRA claim included in the amount of damages awarded on any other claim, and, if so, which claims?
Negligence Claim # 1: No18
2H. Is Ms. Jama entitled to punitive damages against any Defendant found liable on her RFRA claim?
No
3F. What is the amount of the compensatory damages to which Ms. Jama is entitled on account of her negligence # 1 claim?
$100,000
J.A. 240-43.
7. No exceptions or objections were taken to the form or to the content of the interrogatories, nor were additions sought to the interrogatories.
8. When the jury returned with its verdict, the Clerk of the Court had the following exchange with the jury foreperson:
*183THE CLERK: Okay. What is the amount of compensatory damages to which Miss Jama is entitled on account of her RFRA claim alone, without considering damages on account of any other claim on which you found a defendant liable?
THE FOREPERSON: One dollar.
THE CLERK: Was the amount — I’m sorry. Was the amount of damages awarded on the RFRA claim included in the amount of damages awarded on any other claim?
THE FOREPERSON: No.
THE CLERK: Okay. Is Miss Jama entitled to punitive damages against any defendant found liable on her RFRA claim?
THE FOREPERSON: No.
J.A. 232 (emphasis added).
9. The District Court awarded attorney’s fees holding that 33% to 50% of the damages awarded were allocable to the RFRA claim.
10. My colleagues in the majority correctly hold that the District Court erred in its determination, and I agree with them. Where I part company with my colleagues is their stark refusal to recognize the jury’s explicit declaration, made after receiving the District Court’s specific instructions, that the $1 awarded for the RFRA claim was not included in the calculation of the $100,000 awarded on the general state negligence claim. In other words, the fee-eligible RFRA conduct punished by the $1 award was wholly apart from, and distinct from, the non-fee-eligible conduct punished by the award of $100,000 for negligent conduct.
Thus, in this case, only the nominal damages may be considered for purposes of fee-eligible attorney’s fees, and the only reasonable attorney’s fee is no fee at all. Farrar v. Hobby, 506 U.S. 103, 113 S.Ct. 566, 121 L.Ed.2d 494 (1992).
I would not remand to the District Court. Rather, I would reverse outright and instruct the District Court to deny all attorney’s fees as I believe no further consideration is required.
I.
The majority offers two theories under which it believes the District Court could award fees. First, under Hensley v. Eckerhart, 461 U.S. 424, 103 S.Ct. 1933, 76 L.Ed.2d 40 (1983), the District Court could determine that the state claim of negligent hiring, training, supervision, and retention involved a “common core of facts” or was based on a “related legal theory” such that the $100,000 award on that claim could enhance the overall “degree of success” of the $1 award obtained on the RFRA claim. But the jury’s verdict, expressed unequivocally and unambiguously in the interrogatory answers and in the answers to the Court Clerk, forecloses this argument by drawing an unmistakable line between the two claims. Alternatively, the District Court might apply Justice O’Connor’s concurrence in Farrar and find that factors other than the amount of damages make the RFRA award, standing alone, more worthy than a “technical” or “de minimis” victory. Again, however, this argument is completely undercut by the fact that the jury explicitly set apart the conduct ascribable to the RFRA claim, and determined that this conduct merited no damages other than the bare acknowledgment that a violation occurred.
A.
An examination of the verdict form rules out the possibility that the plaintiffs success on the negligence claim had any bearing on the nominal award on the RFRA claim. Interrogatory number 2G asked *184specifically whether “the amount of the damages awarded on the RFRA claim [was] included in the amount of damages awarded on any other claim.” J.A. 241. In response, the jury initially marked “Yes,” scratched out that response, and then marked its final answer as “No.” Id. This amended response clearly demonstrates that the jury not only considered, but ultimately rejected, the notion that the RFRA award and the negligence award shared any common basis. All of the proscribed conduct is distinct from the general negligence conduct. So too are the defendants who have been found liable. Only two defendants have been found liable for the RFRA conduct, whereas four defendants have been found liable for the general negligence conduct, thereby emphasizing the lack of legal and factual overlap between the RFRA and negligence claims.
The underlying facts bear out this dichotomy. Indeed, the majority itself notes that Jama presented “evidence of general indignities suffered in the Facility,” on the one hand, and “evidence specifically relating to restrictions on her practice of religion,” on the other hand. Maj. op. 171. The majority then enumerates the conduct that fell within the latter category, including exposing Jama naked to common view, forcing her to eat pork, disrupting her prayers, and defiling her copy of the Koran.
The majority does not, however, explain that the “general indignities” were of an entirely different nature. Toilets were in close proximity to sleeping areas and were clogged and overflowing with human waste. Food supplies were insufficient and often consisted of spoiled or rotten food. The tainted food caused vomiting and diarrhea, which exacerbated the already overwhelmed plumbing. Heating was inadequate in the winter causing ice to collect on the cell walls, while prisoners were deprived of warm clothing and sufficient blankets. Female prisoners, like Jama, were given only one sanitary napkin per month. The guards themselves were physically and psychologically abusive to the prisoners regardless of religion.
The only possible understanding of the jury’s answer to interrogatory number 2G is that the jury segregated these general indignities from the religious indignities, and then concluded that one set (the general conduct) merited $100,000 in compensatory damages while the other set (the RFRA conduct) merited none. The jury explicitly disavowed any overlap in the damages it awarded; accordingly, neither we nor the District Court may alter that verdict by conferring the success obtained on the negligence claim to the RFRA claim. By altering the jury’s verdict, the District Court erred in assuming that the jury ignored its instructions and acted improperly. It is an “almost invariable assumption of the law that jurors follow their instructions.” Shannon v. United States, 512 U.S. 573, 585, 114 S.Ct. 2419, 129 L.Ed.2d 459 (1994) (quoting Richardson v. Marsh, 481 U.S. 200, 206, 107 S.Ct. 1702, 95 L.Ed.2d 176 (1987)). Neither the District Court nor my colleagues in the majority have the authority to alter the jury’s findings or to construe the jury’s findings in a way that is inconsistent with the verdict.
The Seventh Amendment provides that “no fact tried by a jury, shall be otherwise reexamined in any Court of the United States, than according to the rules of the common law.” U.S. Const, amend. VII.; see also Davis v. Omitowoju, 883 F.2d 1155 (3d Cir.1989). My colleagues in the majority would permit the District Court to substitute its judgment for the jury’s verdict by circumventing the jury’s actual RFRA award and adding to it a portion of *185the negligence award so that fee-shifting may be achieved. The majority opinion, by supplanting the jury’s verdict and fact-finding with the District Court’s factfinding, has thereby violated the proper roles of judge and jury under the Constitution.
I believe the verdict form is definitively dispositive in this case.
B.
All we are left with, then, is the $1 award standing alone, irrespective of the $100,000 award. Viewed thus, this case reveals itself to be an unexceptional civil rights case where the plaintiff has prevailed but failed to prove any damages. In Farrar, the Supreme Court announced the default rule that “[w]hen a plaintiff recovers only nominal damages because of his failure to prove an essential element of his claim for monetary relief, the only reasonable fee is usually no fee at all.” 506 U.S. at 115, 113 S.Ct. 566 (citation omitted).
Subsequently, several courts of appeals have affirmed that a nominal victory should receive a fee award only in the rare or unusual case. See Pino v. Locascio, 101 F.3d 235, 238 (2d Cir.1996) (“[Wjhile there is no per se rule that a plaintiff recovering nominal damages can never get a fee award, Farrar indicates that the award of fees in such a case will be rare.”); Doe v. Chao, 511 F.3d 461, 467 (4th Cir.2007) (interpreting Farrar as permitting fee awards only “in some rare cases”); Pouillon v. Little, 326 F.3d 713, 717 (6th Cir.2003) (concluding that the plaintiff had failed to distinguish his case “from the ‘usual’ case where a prevailing civil rights plaintiff is not entitled to attorney’s fees when all that he has won is ... nominal damages”); Maul v. Constan, 23 F.3d 143, 146 (7th Cir.1994) (stating that “attorney’s fees are not appropriate simply because plaintiff successfully establishes that his constitutional rights have been violated”); Wilcox v. City of Reno, 42 F.3d 550 (9th Cir.1994) (“Farrar teaches that an award of nominal damages is not enough” to support an award of fees without some other tangible result.); Gray ex rel. Alexander v. Bostic, 570 F.3d 1321, 1326-27 (11th Cir. 2009) (“Plaintiffs in nominal-damage cases should not be awarded attorney’s fees in any but exceptional circumstances.”).
The majority sets aside the controlling opinion in Farrar, however, and turns instead to Justice O’Connor’s concurrence for the proposition that fee awards are occasionally permitted despite an award of only nominal damages. But Justice O’Connor’s concurring opinion — not joined by any other member of the Court — is just that: it is her own explanation of how she herself would like to hold. Farrar, 506 U.S. at 116, 113 S.Ct. 566 (O’Connor, J„ concurring) (“I join the Court’s opinion and concur in its judgment. I write separately only to explain more fully why, in my view, it is appropriate to deny fees in this case.”). Five justices including Justice O’Connor joined the majority opinion in holding that a $1 nominal fee does not usually entitle the plaintiff to § 1988(b) attorney’s fees. There was no plurality for Justice O’Connor’s concurring opinion to join or to bolster, and therefore we do not look to it for the “narrowest grounds” of a splintered decision. See Marks v. United States, 430 U.S. 188, 193, 97 S.Ct. 990, 51 L.Ed.2d 260 (1977) (“When a fragmented court decides a case and no single rationale explaining the result enjoys the assent of five Justices, the holding of the Court may be viewed as that position taken by those Members who concurred in the judgments on the narrowest grounds.”) (emphasis added) (citation and quotation marks omitted); see also Planned Parenthood of Se. Pa. v. Casey, 947 F.2d 682, 693 (3d Cir.1991) (“In a run-of-the-mill case where a majority of the Justices endorse a *186single legal standard, lower courts simply follow that standard.” (citation omitted)).
Moreover, to the extent that Justice O’Connor’s concurrence is attractive, it only elaborates that, in some cases, a fee award might be justified by the presence of other factors, such as a significant legal issue or the accomplishment of some public goal, which elevate the nominal damages beyond a mere “technical” or “de minimis” victory. Id. at 121-22, 113 S.Ct. 566 (O’Connor, J., concurring). And, in some unusual cases, courts have indeed cited these factors in affirming fee awards for nominal damages. See, e.g., Mercer v. Duke Univ., 401 F.3d 199 (4th Cir.2005) (noting that the case involved a question of first impression that had broader implications for all women participating on traditionally male school sports teams); Diaz-Rivera v. Rivera-Rodriguez, 377 F.3d 119 (1st Cir.2004) (concluding that the plaintiffs’ victory in a political discrimination suit against their municipality was a significant legal conclusion serving an important public purpose).
Nevertheless, an award of attorney’s fees remains inappropriate in the ordinary civil rights case where the only damages obtained were nominal. See Pino, 101 F.3d at 239 (“The vast majority of civil rights litigation does not result in groundbreaking conclusions of law....”); Maul, 23 F.3d at 146 (observing that all “Section 1983 claims necessarily involve the violation of a right, privilege or immunity”).
Indeed, none of the indicated factors are present in this case. Nothing in the record suggests that Jama’s victory on her RFRA claim was anything but a technical and de minimis victory. Even the District Court was unable to justify awarding fees for Jama’s RFRA claim without borrowing substantially from the general negligence claim. Without the ability to conflate these two claims, however, the District Court would only be left to conclude that no fee award is appropriate.
II.
Because I would hold that the District Court is entirely precluded by the jury’s special interrogatories and verdict form from augmenting the nominal damages on the RFRA claim with the $100,000 damages on the general negligence claim, I would hold that the District Court’s judgment must be reversed and that the District Court must be instructed that no attorney’s fees are to be allowed. Therefore, I respectfully dissent from the majority’s opinion, which remands to the District Court for further consideration.

. The only other case cited by Jama in which interrogatories were utilized by the District Court was Farrar itself. However, the interrogatories in Fairar were not detailed as they were here, did not involve the distinction between eligible and ineligible fee statutes, and did not afford the explicit and unequivocal answers to the interrogatories that the instant verdict provides.

. The jury found that the RFRA claim was not proved against Defendants Slattery, Staley, and McClure.

. "Yes” was the first answer given by the jury. That answer was crossed out and "No” was entered in its place.