Court Opinion

ID: 9472156
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-05 03:51:34.246812+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:42:46.813284
License: Public Domain

PER CURIAM:
General Camera Corp. appeals from an order of the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York, Thomas P. Griesa, J., awarding defendantappellee State of New York $4,000 in attorney’s fees. Judge Griesa found that plaintiff-appellant’s action under 42 U.S.C. § 1983 was “entirely groundless” and that, as a result, appellee was entitled to attorney’s fees under 42 U.S.C. § 1988.
We accept Judge Griesa’s conclusion that appellant’s section 1983 action was frivolous. Thus, following Harbulak v. County of Suffolk, 654 F.2d 194, 198 (2d Cir.1981), in which we held that the defendant should be awarded attorney’s fees where the plaintiff’s section 1983 action was “unreasonable and groundless, if not frivolous,” and Hughes v. Rowe, 449 U.S. 5, 14-16, 101 S.Ct. 173, 178-179, 66 L.Ed.2d 163 (1980) (per curiam), in which the Supreme Court reversed an award of attorney’s fees on the grounds that the section 1983 action was neither “groundless” nor “without foundation,” we find that the award of attorney’s fees here was proper, even though the district court made no finding on whether appellant brought its action in bad faith. See also Hensley v. Eckerhart, 461 U.S. 424, 103 S.Ct. 1933, 1937 n. 2, 76 L.Ed.2d 40 (1983) (dictum); Kostiuk v. Town of Riverhead, 570 F.Supp. 603, 612 (E.D.N.Y.1983); Munshi v. New York University, 528 F.Supp. 1088, 1093 (S.D.N.Y.1981).
*469We affirm the judgment of the district court.