Court Opinion

ID: 9483770
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-05 09:31:00.742198+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:49:49.721508
License: Public Domain

NOONAN, Circuit Judge,
dissenting:
Thomas, the appellant, was convicted of ten felonies arising out of skimming at the Tropicana Hotel and Casino. See United States v. DeLuna, 763 F.2d 897 (8th Cir.), cert. denied, 474 U.S. 980, 106 S.Ct. 382, 88 L.Ed.2d 336 (1985). In our previous decision in this case we described him as “the ringleader, who induced, instigated, and supervised his codefendants on how to skillfully skim from the casinos.” Thomas v. Bible, unpublished disposition, 896 F.2d 555 (9th Cir.1990), affirming 694 F.Supp. 750 (D.Nev.1988). Following our affirmance of summary judgment against Thomas, the district court awarded attorney’s fees to the Nevada Gaming Commission and the individuals that Thomas had sued.
The majority now holds that “the law of the case” prohibited the award of attorney’s fees in the district court because in the previous appeal we denied fees on appeal saying “[Ajttorney’s fees will be awarded if an appeal is entirely frivolous. Thomas’s appeal is not frivolous.” The majority concedes that there may be appeals that are not frivolous even though the underlying action is frivolous, but concludes that in this case the merits of the appeal were intertwined with the merits of the action, so that a decision that the appeal was not frivolous was a decision that the action was not frivolous. However, our characterization of the appeal as not frivolous was functionally equivalent to a discretionary decision not to award attorney’s fees. The exercise of this discretion by us cannot establish “the law of the case” for the exercise of discretion by the district court.
Moreover, the standard for the award of fees against a § 1983 plaintiff has been laid down with clarity in Hughes v. Rowe, 449 U.S. 5, 14, 101 S.Ct. 173, 178, 66 L.Ed.2d 163 (1980), adopting the standard set in *156Christiansburg Garment Co. v. EEOC, 434 U.S. 412, 98 S.Ct. 694, 54 L.Ed.2d 648 (1978). As stated in Christiansburg, “In sum, a district court may in its discretion award attorney’s fees to a prevailing defendant in a Title VII case upon a finding that the plaintiff’s action was frivolous, unreasonable, or without foundation, even though not brought in subjective bad faith.” Id. at 421, 98 S.Ct. at 700.
The standard set by the Court is in the disjunctive. We err in blithely assuming that the Court engaged in rhetorical sur-plusage or stuttered saying in five words what required only one. The ordinary rules of construction require that alternatives put in the disjunctive should not be collapsed into a single standard. Azure v. Morton, 514 F.2d 897, 900 (9th Cir.1975) (“the use of a disjunctive in a statute indicates alternatives and requires that they be treated separately”).
The Court itself refers to the three distinct standards as “these criteria.” Christiansburg, 434 U.S. at 421, 98 S.Ct. at 700. The Court later cautions against automatically labeling an unsuccessful plaintiff’s claim as “unreasonable or without foundation.” Id. The Court upholds the district court’s finding that the defendant’s action “cannot be characterized as unreasonable or meritless.” Id. In short, the Court gives three distinct bases on which attorney’s fees may be awarded. The majority’s decision in the present case goes squarely against the criteria authoritatively set down.
The district court did not make express findings of fact as to why it considered Thomas’s case unreasonable or without foundation. A reading of its grant of summary judgment would convince most unbiased persons that one or another such finding was amply justified. This ringleader of the skimmers had been kicked out of gambling in Nevada. Inferentially, he was mad and wanted to harass the officials who had enforced the law against him. He brought an action that all agree was meritless. Nonetheless, to remove all doubt it would be appropriate to follow what we have laid down for a case where such findings are not made and the record is not completely obvious as to the reason for the fee award, and remand to the district court to “make findings of fact and conclusions of law supporting its decision so that there is a basis for appellate review.” Patton v. County of Kings, 857 F.2d 1379, 1381 (9th Cir.1988).
Elementary respect for the district court calls for such a remand. It is difficult to understand why the present majority is unwilling to follow the standards set by the Supreme Court and the supplementary rule laid down by our court.