Court Opinion

ID: 9475988
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-05 05:44:57.994664+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:45:04.373430
License: Public Domain

BECKER, Circuit Judge,
concurring.
I concur in the majority’s opinion but write separately to emphasize the narrowness of the principle that I understand informs the holding on the merits in section II.B of the opinion. I do this by identifying those principles that, in my view, do not animate our decision.
First, we are not denying attorneys’ fees merely because we believe that Taylor is a “bad guy.” The government is frequently sued by such people, and we are not holding that the special circumstances exception authorizes denial of counsel fees under the EAJA any time a “bad guy” litigant has defeated the government in a lawsuit. Second, we are not denying attorney’s fees because of the government’s good faith. Good faith or laudatory motives are not a defense to an EAJA claim.1
What does motivate our decision to deny fees is that Taylor purposefully undertook affirmative activity that took advantage of the very government misconduct he later challenged in court. The court has already concluded that the government was wrong to have involuntarily extended Taylor’s enlistment, see Taylor v. United States, 711 F.2d 1199 (3d Cir.1983). However, once the government acted this way, Taylor purposefully used his enlisted status to avoid being turned over by the Navy to Spanish authorities for pretrial detention in Spanish jails. Taylor was thus able to flee the jurisdiction when it was certain that he was to serve a sentence in a Spanish prison. He now seeks attorneys’ fees for challenging government conduct that he affirmatively utilized for his own significant advantage.
I therefore agree that the district court did not abuse its limited discretion in finding that the special circumstances present in this case make an award of fees unjust. I join in the majority’s opinion on the understanding that it rests on the very narrow grounds I have described, grounds that “infrequently justify a denial of an award.” Maj.Op., at 253. An exception any broader might swallow the rule.

. To the extent that such a determination is appropriate, it is subsumed fully within the substantial justification prong of the EAJA fee award inquiries. As courts have generally held in the context of 42 U.S.C. § 1988 litigation, the government’s good faith alone is no defense to an award of attorneys' fees. See, e.g., Hutto v. Finney, 437 U.S. 678, 693, 98 S.Ct. 2565, 2574, 57 L.Ed.2d 522 (1978). See also, Rutherford v. Pitchess, 713 F.2d 1416 (9th Cir.1983); Grendel’s Den v, Larkin, 749 F.2d 945, 959 n. 11 (1st Cir.1984); Espino v. Besteiro, 708 F.2d 1002, 1005 (5th Cir.1983); Holley v. Lavin, 605 F.2d 638, 646 (2d Cir.1979), cert. denied, 446 U.S. 913, 100 S.Ct. 1843, 64 L.Ed.2d 266 (1980).