Court Opinion

ID: 9488039
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-05 12:34:33.032976+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:52:39.020583
License: Public Domain

COX, Circuit Judge,
concurring in part and dissenting in part:
I agree with the majority’s affirmance of the directed verdict. The majority also correctly states the rule governing the award of attorney’s fees, the factors a district court should take into account when applying that rule, and this court’s abuse-of-discretion standard of review. I disagree, however, with the majority’s determination that the district court abused its discretion in awarding NationsBank attorney’s fees.
As the district court found, and as the majority points out in its discussion of the directed verdict, Walker had no evidence of gender discrimination. She adduced no testimony, for example, to sexist remarks. No evidence was presented of a pervasive pattern of favoring males at NationsBank. Walker offered no other evidence indicating that the arguably pretextual reasons NationsBank offered were pretexts for preferring males over females. Thus, this was not a difficult case in which the plaintiff almost, but not quite, met her evidentiary burden. Cf. Busby v. City of Orlando, 931 F.2d 764, 776-82, 787 (11th Cir.1991) (vacating a fee award because the evidence presented a close case, requiring careful consideration). Walker may have presented evidence of an unjust termination, but she never came close to showing that NationsBank discriminated against her.
Discretion, by definition, allows the district court a range of choices. When this court reviews a district court for abuse of its discretion, we do not disturb the result absent a “clear error of judgment.” United States v. Kelly, 888 F.2d 732, 745 (11th Cir.1989). Despite the patent lack of evidence of discrimination, the majority contends that the district court abused its discretion in finding that at some point in the discovery process it should have been apparent that the suit was unreasonable or frivolous. The majority justifies this conclusion by what seems to me a de novo consideration of the appropriateness of the fee award. I find no abuse of discretion.
For these reasons, I respectfully dissent from the vacation of the fee award.