Court Opinion

ID: 9482126
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-05 08:41:17.771944+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:48:47.123873
License: Public Domain

BOWMAN, Circuit Judge,
dissenting.
I agree with most of the analysis set forth in the well-reasoned opinion of the Court, but I do not agree with its conclusion that Justine’s post-judgment motion for attorney fees should not be viewed in its entirety as a request for attorney fees “attributable to the case” within the meaning of Budinich v. Becton Dickinson & Co., 486 U.S. 196, 202-03, 108 S.Ct. 1717, 1722, 100 L.Ed.2d 178 (1988).
All the attorney fees Justine seeks are directly related to the contractual dispute that was tried in the District Court and with respect to which that court entered judgment. As Justine’s post-judgment motion makes clear, what Justine sought in that motion was simply “its costs of this action including a reasonable attorneys [sic] fee as is provided in the Settlement Agreement.” Plaintiff’s Motion to Alter or Amend Judgment, Joint Appendix at 169 (emphasis added). The motion concludes with the request that the court alter or amend its judgment “to include an award to Justine of its costs, including reasonable attorneys’ fees, incurred'in this action, the exact amount of those costs and fees to be determined at the conclusion of this action. ” Id. at 170 (emphasis added). Plainly, Justine sought nothing more than fees “attributable to the case,” and it matters not that its claim for fees is based on an asserted contractual right rather than on a fee-shifting statute. I therefore would hold that all these fees are “attributable to the case.”
Because Justine has sought nothing more than fees “attributable to the case” (or “for the litigation”), it follows that under Budinich Justine’s post-judgment motion did not toll the thirty-day period for filing a notice of appeal as provided in Rule 4 of the Federal Rules of Appellate Procedure. As Justine’s notice of appeal was not filed within thirty days after the District Court’s entry of final judgment, the appeal should be dismissed for lack of jurisdiction. I respectfully dissent from our *1050Court’s strained effort to avoid that result by its reading into Justine’s motion things that are not there.