Court Opinion

ID: 9463712
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-04 23:13:53.635712+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:38:14.685984
License: Public Domain

FIELD, Senior Circuit Judge,
dissenting:
As noted by the majority, in Bradley v. Richmond School Board, 416 U.S. 696, 711, 94 S.Ct. 2006, 2016, 40 L.Ed.2d 476 (1974), the Court stated “that a court is to apply the law in effect at the time it renders its decision, unless doing so would result in manifest injustice or there is statutory direction or legislative history to the contrary.” On May 17, 1976, we did just that when we filed our opinion in this case denying an award of attorneys’ fees.1 Thereafter we stayed our mandate to permit the plaintiffs to apply for a writ of certiorari, and on September 30, 1976, and while the petition for certiorari was pending, Public Law 94-435, amending 15 U.S.C. § 26, became effective. Certiorari was denied by the Supreme Court on November 15, 1976.
The majority, drawing primarily on Bradley, concludes that since our mandate had not issued2 our decision in this case is not final and that we should therefore give the plaintiffs the benefit of the Amendment. In my opinion the rationale of Bradley is inapplicable to this case. In Bradley the statute had become effective while the case was pending in this court and had not yet been decided. In the present case, however, the case had been decided by us and had become a finality in this court over four months prior to the effective date of the Amendment. While I agree, of course, that the denial of certiorari has little or no decisional or precedential effect, nevertheless, it occurs to me that the Supreme Court would have been as perceptive as we in discerning any effect of the Amendment on this case. In my opinion the majority has intruded upon the legislative area in giving the Amendment retroactive effect.

. Alphin v. Henson, 538 F.2d 85 (4 Cir. 1976).

. Rule 41(b), Fed.R.App.P., provides, inter alia, that “[u]pon the filing of a copy of an order of the Supreme Court denying the petition for writ of certiorari the mandate shall issue immediately.” Since our mandate was initially stayed for the limited purpose of permitting the plaintiffs to file their petition for certiorari, I entertain serious doubts that our action in ordering a further stay after certiorari had been denied was consonant with Rule 41(b).