Court Opinion

ID: 9625443
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-22 07:41:14.153156+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T12:29:27.549894
License: Public Domain

MATTHEWS, Justice,
concurring.
A consent judgment is a contract which the parties have chosen to make enforceable as a judgment.1 I would hold that no Rule 82 attorney’s fees may be awarded following a consent judgment, unless there is an agreement that they will be, because doing so changes the contract of the parties. Such a rule would ensure that each party gets what he bargains for, would eliminate uncertainty which could discourage settlements, and would eliminate post-settlement litigation of the very controversy which the settlement was meant to resolve.2
I agree with that portion of the opinion concerning 42 U.S.C. § 1988.

. See Note, The Consent Judgment as an Instrument of Compromise and Settlement, 72 Harv.L.Rev. 1314, 1316 (1959).

. See Clanton v. Allied Chemical Corporation, 409 F.Supp. 282, 416 F.Supp. 39 (E.D.Va.1976).