Court Opinion

ID: 9428683
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-02 23:24:26.238528+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:23:14.673803
License: Public Domain

Justice Blackmun,
concurring in the judgment.
I agree with much that is said in the Court’s opinion and I therefore concur, of course, in its judgment. I wish, however, that the Court had gone one step further.
We granted certiorari in this case, as the Court notes, ante, at 450, to resolve the existing conflict among the Courts of Appeals regarding postjudgment requests for attorney’s fees under 42 U. S. C. § 1988. Three Circuits have held that these fee requests are not within Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 59(e), but are within the reach of Rules 54(d) and 58. Two have held that the requests are subject to Rule 59(e). And a sixth has held that such a request is not governed by any of the three Rules. See ante, at 450, n. 9. The Court today settles the conflict so far as Rule 59(e) and its inapplicability to a fee request are concerned. But it leaves unanswered the applicability of Rules 54(d) and 58 because “this question is unnecessary to our disposition of this case.” Ante, at 454 and this page, n. 17.
I would answer that question, and hold that Rules 54(d) and 58 also do not apply to postjudgment §1988 fees requests. I believe that the federal courts and the lawyers that practice in them should have an answer so that we shall not have yet another case to decide before the correct procedure for evaluating such requests is settled for all concerned.
*456I note, happily, that the Court at least touches upon the ultimate answer, ante, at 454, and n. 17, when it observes that district courts are free to adopt local rules. By so saying, the Court comes close to approving the position taken by the United States Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit in Obin v. District No. 9, Int’l Assn. of Machinists and Aerospace Workers, 651 F. 2d 574 (1981). I think the Eighth Circuit is correct in its approach to the general problem. Thus, I would approve that approach and have the matter settled, eliminating the inconsistency which the Court leaves between the views of the Fifth, Sixth, and Seventh Circuits on the one hand, and the view of the Eighth Circuit on the other.