Ramos v. Lamm, s. 82-1531

• Decision Date: 15 June 1983
• Docket Number: Nos. 82-1531,82-1544,s. 82-1531
• Citation: 713 F.2d 546
• Parties: Fidel RAMOS, David Lee Anderson; Sadiki Lisimba Ajamu, a/k/a Eugene Collins; Alexander Ruses; Mark J. Menchetti; Lester Lazenby; and all persons who are now or in the future may be incarcerated in the Maximum Security Unit of the Colorado State Penitentiary at Canon City, Colorado, Plaintiffs-Appellees, Cross-Appellants, v. Richard D. LAMM, James G. Ricketts; Allen L. Ault; John Perko; Edgar Fox; William Wilson, Superintendent, Maximum Security Unit; Harold Henson, Housing Manager, Maximum Security Unit; Captain W. Fox, Cellhouse One Supervision, Maximum Security Unit, Colorado State Prison, Defendants-Appellants, Cross-Appellees.
• Court: U.S. Court of Appeals — Tenth Circuit

Page 546

713 F.2d 546

Fidel RAMOS, David Lee Anderson; Sadiki Lisimba Ajamu a/k/a Eugene Collins; Alexander Ruses; Mark J. Menchetti Lester Lazenby; and all persons who are now or in the future may be incarcerated in the Maximum Security Unit of the Colorado State Penitentiary at Canon City, Colorado Plaintiffs-Appellees, Cross-Appellants, v. Richard D. LAMM, James G. Ricketts; Allen L. Ault; John Perko; Edgar Fox; William Wilson, Superintendent, Maximum Security Unit; Harold Henson, Housing Manager, Maximum Security Unit; Captain W. Fox, Cellhouse One Supervision Maximum Security Unit, Colorado State Prison, Defendants-Appellants, Cross-Appellees.

Nos. 82-1531, 82-1544.

United States Court of Appeals, Tenth Circuit.

June 15, 1983.

Rehearing Denied Aug. 23, 1983.

David K. Rees, Asst. Atty. Gen., Denver, Colo. (J.D. MacFarlane, Atty. Gen., Richard F. Hennessey, Deputy Atty. Gen., and Mary J. Mullarkey, Sol. Gen., State of Colorado, Denver, Colo., with him on the briefs), for defendants-appellants, cross-appellees.

Edwin S. Kahn of Kelly, Haglund, Garnsey & Kahn, Denver, Colo. (ACLU Foundation of Colorado, Inc.), for plaintiffs-appellees, cross-appellants.

Before HOLLOWAY, BARRETT and LOGAN, Circuit Judges.

LOGAN, Circuit Judge.

This appeal involves the award of attorney's fees and expenses to the plaintiffs in a civil rights class action in which the district court held that conditions in the maximum security unit of the Colorado State Penitentiary at Canon City deprived prisoners of rights protected by the Eighth and Fourteenth Amendments. Ruling on applications submitted by the plaintiffs pursuant to 42 U.S.C. § 1988, the court awarded $709,933.50 in attorney's fees and $32,782.43 in expenses allowable as costs. The defendants have appealed that judgment, arguing that the court abused its discretion in awarding those amounts. The plaintiffs have cross-appealed, claiming that an additional $73,939.16 in out-of-pocket expenses should have been allowed.

Plaintiff Fidel Ramos filed a pro se complaint in November 1977 challenging the constitutionality of conditions in the maximum security unit of the penitentiary. The American Civil Liberties Union Foundation of Colorado, the National Prison Project, and the Colorado Coalition of Legal Services entered appearances as counsel for the plaintiff in March 1978 and obtained certification of the case as a class action on behalf of all maximum security prisoners. Following extensive discovery and a five-week trial, the district court ruled that the conditions at the facility deprived the prisoners of constitutional rights. Ramos v. Lamm, 485 F.Supp. 122 (D.Colo.1979). The district court held the following conditions at the prison to be unconstitutional: (1) an inadequate physical environment because of lack of sanitation, heat, ventilation, lighting, and plumbing; (2) lack of prisoner safety because of the physical layout of the prison and inadequate staff supervision; (3) idleness and lack of exercise; (4) inadequate medical attention; (5) an arbitrary classification system; (6) overly broad visitation restrictions; (7) excessive restrictions on correspondence; and (8) insufficient access to the courts because the law library was inadequate and insufficient time was permitted for library use.

The conditions at the maximum security unit had been the subject of inquiry prior to the filing of this suit. In 1973 the facility was found to be "outdated" and "unmanageable" by a task force of the American Correctional Association. A report by the Attorney General of Colorado in 1975 concurred in that finding. In February 1977 a plan submitted to the Colorado legislature recommended that use of the facility be phased out. Prior to commencement of this suit the legislature had made initial appropriations to build a new maximum security prison, which was to be completed in January or February 1981. The district court noted the steps that the state had taken toward building a new facility, but ruled that these steps did not eliminate the constitutional infirmity of the conditions under which the prisoners were being held. The court also noted that some of the violations would continue in the new facility. The court ordered that the prison be closed unless immediate steps were taken to remedy the existing constitutional violations.

The defendants appealed the judgment and order of the district court. This Court affirmed the judgment with regard to: (1) the physical environment--including considerations of shelter, sanitation, and food preparation; (2) prisoner safety because of physical layout and staff supervision; (3) medical care; (4) correspondence; and (5) access to the courts. We vacated the district court's conclusion regarding visitation and the portions of the court's remedial order relating to idleness, motility, and classification. We remanded for reconsideration of the remedy in light of the progress being made on the new facility. Ramos v. Lamm, 639 F.2d 559 (10th Cir.1980). Both the plaintiffs and the defendants unsuccessfully petitioned for writs of certiorari from the Supreme Court. 450 U.S. 1041, 101 S.Ct. 1759, 68 L.Ed.2d 239 (1981). On remand, in August 1981, the district court affirmed its order of closure, noting that the facility remained unfit for human habitation. The court also issued an order approving the stipulations of the parties concerning remedies for the shelter, sanitation, safety, and medical care violations. Ramos v. Lamm, 520 F.Supp. 1059, 1062 (D.Colo.1981). No appeal was taken from this order.

In December 1979, immediately after the original trial, the plaintiffs submitted a request for an interim allowance of attorney's fees; the request was updated several times before the court made its award in March 1982. In this appeal the defendants claim that the trial court abused its discretion by awarding fees for too many hours and by applying an excessive rate of compensation. They also claim that certain of the expenses allowed by the district court were improper. The plaintiffs assert in their cross-appeal that they should have been reimbursed all out-of-pocket expenses.

In its opinion the district court extensively reviewed Tenth Circuit and other decisions involving attorney's fees. It criticized the opinions for being inconsistent and pleaded for specific guidelines for district courts to apply in setting fee awards. Ramos v. Lamm, 539 F.Supp. 730 (D.Colo.1982). We agree that more specific guidelines are necessary, and we proceed to set forth standards for district courts to follow in this and similar cases. In this endeavor we are aided by the Supreme Court's recent decision in Hensley v. Eckerhart, --- U.S. ----, 103 S.Ct. 1933, 76 L.Ed.2d 40 (1983).

I

At the outset we dispose of two of the defendants' main contentions in this appeal. First, the defendants argue that fee awards to public interest lawyers, those employed by public interest organizations or those in private practice who donate their services to such organizations, should be calculated differently than awards to lawyers in private practice who would personally receive the benefit of the awards. We reject this contention. We agree with most courts that have considered the issue that calculating attorney's fees for public interest lawyers and private firm lawyers in the same manner furthers the legislative intent underlying 42 U.S.C. § 1988. See, e.g., Copeland v. Marshall, 641 F.2d 880, 899-900 (D.C.Cir.1980) (en banc); Palmigiano v. Garrahy, 616 F.2d 598, 601-03 (1st Cir.), cert. denied, 449 U.S. 839, 101 S.Ct. 115, 66 L.Ed.2d 45 (1980); Reynolds v. Coomey, 567 F.2d 1166, 1167 (1st Cir.1978); Torres v. Sachs, 538 F.2d 10, 13-14 (2d Cir.1976); see also New York Gaslight Club, Inc. v. Carey, 447 U.S. 54, 70 n. 9, 100 S.Ct. 2024, 2034 n. 9, 64 L.Ed.2d 723 (1980); Love v. Mayor of Cheyenne, 620 F.2d 235, 237 (10th Cir.1980) (citing Reynolds v. Coomey ). When Congress enacted § 1988 it made no distinction between the compensation to be awarded to private lawyers and that to be awarded to lawyers working in public interest law firms. The Senate Report accompanying the bill cited with approval two cases holding that the fees should be calculated in the same manner. Sen.Rep. No. 1011, 94th Cong., 2d Sess. 6, reprinted in 1976 U.S.Code Cong. & Ad.News 5908, 5913 (citing Swann v. Charlotte-Mecklenburg Board of Education, 66 F.R.D. 483 (W.D.N.C.1975); Davis v. County of Los Angeles, 8 Empl.Prac.Dec. (CCH) p 9444 (C.D.Cal.1974)). The court in Swann noted that reasonable fees should be awarded in civil rights cases without regard to the lawyer's status as a "salaried employee[ ] of a legal aid agency." 66 F.R.D. at 486. The court in Davis was even more explicit:

"In determining the amount of the fees to be awarded, it is not legally relevant that plaintiffs' counsel ... are employed by the Center of Law In The Public Interest, a privately funded nonprofit public interest law firm. It is in the interest of the public that such law firms be awarded reasonable attorneys' fees to be computed in the traditional manner when its counsel perform legal services otherwise entitling them to the award of attorneys' fees."

8 Empl.Prac.Dec. p 9444, at 5049.

Section 1988 contemplates that both public interest lawyers and private law firms be provided with incentive to prosecute civil rights actions; the fee awards provide this incentive by increasing the ability and willingness of both groups to finance litigation they would otherwise be unable or unwilling to afford. To pay public interest firms less than private firms could frustrate the prosecution of civil rights litigation. Potential liability for full value fee awards can deter violations of the civil rights laws, especially in situations in which the fee award represents a significant portion of a defendant's financial exposure. Establishing a lower fee when public interest lawyers represent plaintiffs will reduce the...