Mills v. U.S., 82-2583

• Decision Date: 18 July 1983
• Docket Number: No. 82-2583,82-2583
• Citation: 713 F.2d 1249
• Parties: Martha MILLS, Plaintiff-Appellant, v. UNITED STATES of America, Defendant-Appellee.
• Court: U.S. Court of Appeals — Seventh Circuit

Page 1249

713 F.2d 1249

Martha MILLS, Plaintiff-Appellant, v. UNITED STATES of America, Defendant-Appellee.

No. 82-2583.

United States Court of Appeals, Seventh Circuit.

Argued Feb. 16, 1983.

Decided July 14, 1983.

As Amended July 18, 1983.

Michael L. Shakman, Krupp & Miller, Chicago, Ill., for plaintiff-appellant.

Howard S. Scher, Dept. of Justice, Washington, D.C., for defendant-appellee.

Before COFFEY, Circuit Judge, and SWYGERT and FAIRCHILD, Senior Circuit Judges.

COFFEY, Circuit Judge.

The issue on this appeal is whether the Criminal Justice Act of 1964, 18 U.S.C. section 3006A (1976), grants the Judicial Council of the Seventh Circuit the statutory authority to increase the maximum hourly fees payable to court appointed counsel in the absence of a local bar association minimum fee scale. The district court for the Northern District of Illinois, 547 F.Supp. 116, found that the Judicial Council for the Seventh Circuit was without statutory authority to increase the maximum hourly fees. We affirm.

I.

The Criminal Justice Act of 1964, 18 U.S.C. section 3006A(d)(1), as amended by Congress in 1970, provides:

"Hourly rate.--Any attorney appointed pursuant to this section or a bar association or legal aid agency or community defender organization which has provided the appointed attorney shall, at the conclusion of the representation or any segment thereof, be compensated at a rate not exceeding $30 per hour for time expended in court or before a United States magistrate and $20 per hour for time reasonably expended out of court, or such other hourly rate, fixed by the Judicial Council of the circuit, not to exceed the minimum hourly scale established by a bar association for similar services rendered in the district. Such attorney shall be reimbursed for expenses reasonably incurred, including the costs of transcripts authorized by the United States magistrate or the court."

On December 18, 1981, the Judicial Council for the Seventh Circuit, acting on the recommendation of the Bar Association of the Seventh Federal Circuit, ¹ voted to increase the maximum fees payable to attorneys appointed under the Criminal Justice Act in the Seventh Circuit from $30 to $55 per hour for time spent in court or before a magistrate and from $20 to $45 per hour for out-of-court time, with the increased hourly rates to apply to legal work performed after January 1, 1982. ² At the time the Judicial Circuit voted to increase the hourly fees, there was no bar association minimum fee scale in effect in any of the federal judicial districts within the Seventh Judicial Circuit and none had been established subsequently.

The plaintiff Martha Mills, an attorney engaged in the private practice of law, was appointed pursuant to the Criminal Justice Act to represent a defendant in a criminal case in the district court for the Northern District of Illinois. At the conclusion of her representation of Dobbs, Attorney Mills submitted a bill for payment to the United States Magistrate in the amount of $127.50, computed on the basis of the new $55/45 per hour rate established by the Judicial Council. The Magistrate approved Mills' fee request, and the bill approved for payment was submitted to the Administrative Office of the United States Courts.

The Administrative Office refused to pay the full amount of Mills' fee request, stating in a letter:

"It is the position of this office that we do not have the authority to reimburse attorneys for services provided defendants proceeding under the Criminal Justice Act in excess of those maximum hourly rates prescribed by the Act. We are bound by the statutory maximum of $30 per hour for in-court service and $20 per hour for out-of-court service as specified in 18 U.S.C. 3006A(d)(1)."

Mills then filed suit in the district court seeking an order compelling the government to pay the $127.50 bill for services computed on the new $55/45 maximum hourly rates. Both the plaintiff and the defendant moved for summary judgment, and the court granted summary judgment in favor of the government, finding that in the absence of a bar association minimum fee scale, the Judicial Council was without statutory authority to increase the maximum hourly rates set forth in the Criminal Justice Act, 18 U.S.C. section 3006A(d)(1). The plaintiff Mills appeals from this determination.

II.

The Criminal Justice Act (CJA) as originally enacted in 1964 provided that attorneys be compensated at a rate not exceeding $15 an hour for time spent in court and not exceeding $10 an hour for out-of-court time. In 1970, Congress amended the CJA by increasing the maximum hourly rates and by granting judicial councils the authority to set hourly rates "not to exceed the minimum hourly scale established by a bar association for similar services rendered in the district." Five years later, however, the Supreme Court in Goldfarb v. Virginia State Bar, 421 U.S. 773, 95 S.Ct. 2004, 44 L.Ed.2d 572 (1975) held that a minimum fee schedule promulgated and enforced by a bar association constitutes unlawful price fixing in violation of the Sherman Act. In the wake of the Goldfarb decision, minimum fee schedules have been abolished in the states encompassed within the Seventh Circuit. Therefore, the issue in this case is whether the Judicial Council for the Seventh Circuit had the authority to raise the hourly rates payable under the CJA to levels above those prescribed in the statute, in the absence of local bar association fee schedules.

A.

In interpreting a statute, we first look to the language of the statute itself. Greyhound v. Mt. Hood Stages, Inc., 437 U.S. 322, 330, 98 S.Ct. 2370, 2375, 57 L.Ed.2d 239 (1978). Both parties in this lawsuit argue that the language "not to exceed the minimum hourly scale established by a bar association for similar services rendered in the district", is clear and unambiguous. However, the parties come to opposite conclusions as to what the "plain language" of the statute means. The plaintiff contends that the clear language of the statute demonstrates that a local bar association fee scale is not a condition precedent to a judicial council raising the hourly rates under the Criminal Justice Act. On the other hand, the defendant asserts that the clear language of the statute mandates an opposite conclusion, namely that before the Judicial Council could act to modify the hourly rates payable under the Act, a local bar association minimum hourly fee schedule must exist. While the statutory language does clearly state that if a bar association minimum fee scale exists, the Judicial Council may not set hourly rates higher than those provided in the bar association schedule, we believe the language of the statute itself does not definitively answer the question presented in this case. Although we find more persuasive the defendant's argument that the statutory language contemplates the existence of a minimum fee schedule before the Judicial Council is empowered to raise or lower the hourly rates, we believe that the language of the statute requires interpretation.

Having determined that the language of the statute itself leaves something to be desired and fails to categorically set forth whether a judicial council is authorized to raise hourly rates under the CJA in the absence of a local bar association minimum fee schedule, we next turn to the legislative history of the Act. "When faced with two possible interpretations of a statute, it is appropriate for a court to rely on the legislative history of the statute." United States v. Noe, 634 F.2d 860 (5th Cir.), cert. denied, 454 U.S. 876, 102 S.Ct. 355, 70 L.Ed.2d 186 (1981).

The statutory language authorizing judicial councils to adjust the hourly rates payable under the Criminal Justice Act was added to the Act by the House Committee on the Judiciary. Generally, committee reports represent the most persuasive indicia of Congressional intent (with the exception, of course, of the language of the statute itself). Housing Authority of Omaha v. U.S. Housing Authority, 468 F.2d 1 (8th Cir.1972), cert. denied, 410 U.S. 927, 93 S.Ct. 1360, 35 L.Ed.2d 588 (1973); United States v. Curtis-Nevada Mines, Inc., 611 F.2d 1277 (9th Cir.1980). The Judiciary Committee's report stated in part:

"The Committee amendment accordingly authorizes judicial councils to establish alternative maximums not to exceed the minimum hourly scale established by a bar association for similar services rendered in the district. These could be set by the judicial council of the circuit where the $30 and $20 maximums are grossly disproportionate. By the same token, the reference to minimum rates set locally by bar associations should serve to remind judicial council that, in setting rates within the $30 and $20 maximums, lower local rates set by bar associations should be taken into account."

H.R.Rep. No. 1546, 91st Cong., 2nd Sess., reprinted in 1970 U.S.Code Cong. & Ad.News 3982, 3990. In urging the bill's passage in the House of Representatives, Representative Kastenmeier stated:

"Nothing in the legislation delegates the authority of Congress to determine rates of compensation to local bar associations. Rates of compensation and maximum amounts of compensation are to be fixed by the judicial councils within maximums prescribed by Congress .... If in a particular case the judicial council feels that the hourly maximums are inadequate, it is nevertheless limited to minimum rate, if any, set by a bar association.

"Comparably, where bar association minimums are lower than the $30 to $20 maximums, these bar association minimums should serve to remind the judicial council that in setting appropriate rates within the $30 to $20 maximums, the lower bar association rates are relevant."

116 Cong.Rec. 34811 (1970). In response to Kastenmeier's statements, Representative Gross asked, "Why do you set up $30 an hour, $20 an hour, and then turn around and say in the same breath that the judicial...