Crest Street Community Council, Inc. v. North Carolina Dept. of Transp.

• Decision Date: 15 August 1985
• Docket Number: No. 85-1008,85-1008
• Parties: CREST STREET COMMUNITY COUNCIL, INC.; Residents of Crest Street Community; Save Our Church & Community Committee, Appellants, v. NORTH CAROLINA DEPARTMENT OF TRANSPORTATION; North Carolina Board of Transportation; James E. Harrington, Secretary of the North Carolina Department of Transportation and Chairman of the North Carolina Board of Transportation, Appellees.
• Court: U.S. Court of Appeals — Fourth Circuit

Page 1025

769 F.2d 1025

54 USLW 2132

CREST STREET COMMUNITY COUNCIL, INC.; Residents of Crest

Street Community; Save Our Church & Community Committee, Appellants, v. NORTH CAROLINA DEPARTMENT OF TRANSPORTATION; North Carolina

Board of Transportation; James E. Harrington, Secretary of

the North Carolina Department of Transportation and Chairman

of the North Carolina Board of Transportation, Appellees.

No. 85-1008.

United States Court of Appeals, Fourth Circuit.

Argued June 7, 1985.

Decided Aug. 15, 1985.

Michael D. Calhoun, Durham, N.C. (North Cent. Legal Assistance Program on brief), for appellants.

James B. Richmond, Sp. Deputy Atty. Gen., Raleigh, N.C. (Lacy H. Thornburg, Atty. Gen., Raleigh, N.C., on brief), for appellees.

Before WINTER, Chief Judge, and WIDENER and CHAPMAN, Circuit Judges.

HARRISON L. WINTER, Chief Judge:

The prevailing parties in a federal administrative action involving Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 sought to recover attorney's fees under 42 U.S.C. Sec. 1988 in an independent action in federal district court. The district court denied their request. We reverse.

I.

Plaintiffs represent residents of Crest Street community, a well-established, predominantly black neighborhood in Durham, North Carolina. ¹ Prior to late 1976, the City of Durham had requested, and defendant North Carolina Department of Transportation (NCDOT) had planned, extension of the East-West Freeway through the Crest Street community. The proposed extension was a federal-aid highway project, with approximately 75% of its costs to be paid by federal funds. The proposed highway extension would have destroyed much of the community, including its church and park, and would have splintered the remainder into isolated sectors likely to undergo commercial development. The lengthy planning period for construction of the freeway discouraged public and private development and maintenance in the Crest Street community for many years.

NCDOT's plans for the extension remained dormant for several years, but active planning resumed in 1976. In March 1977, plaintiffs retained the North Central Legal Assistance Program as counsel to represent them concerning the defendants' planning and constructing of the freeway and remedial efforts to mitigate the adverse impact of the project. During 1977 and 1978, the residents and organizations of the Crest Street community expressed their opposition to construction of the freeway through the Crest Street community, but defendants proceeded with issuing a revised draft Environmental Impact Statement for the project.

Plaintiffs responded to defendants' new plans and revised Environmental Impact Statement by filing an administrative complaint in September 1978 with the United States Department of Transportation (DOT), as authorized by 49 C.F.R. Sec. 21.11(b) (1977). Plaintiffs sought an investigation of whether NCDOT's practices complied with Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and other federal laws. ² The administrative complaint sought prohibition of further planning or construction of the freeway and rejection of NCDOT's Environmental Impact Statement until the freeway project was brought into compliance with applicable laws.

As required by its regulations, 49 C.F.R. Sec. 21.11(c), DOT investigated the freeway proposals and the allegations of the administrative complaint. On February 20, 1980, after the field investigation, the DOT Director of the Office of Civil Rights informed NCDOT of DOT's preliminary finding of reasonable cause to believe that construction according to the NCDOT proposal would constitute a prima facie violation of Title VI and of DOT's implementing regulations, particularly 49 C.F.R. Sec. 21.5(b)(3). ³ The parties then took the next step in DOT's Title VI compliance process and began extensive negotiations to resolve their differences through "voluntary means." ⁴ Representatives from DOT, the Federal Highway Administration, and the City of Durham, as well as defendants, plaintiffs, and other opponents of the freeway, participated in these negotiations. In February 1982, plaintiffs, the City of Durham, and NCDOT reached a preliminary agreement for the freeway design, relocation assistance benefits, and other assistance in mitigation of the adverse impact of the project, but negotiations continued on a final assistance plan and ultimate resolution of all issues raised by the administrative complaint.

In August 1982, NCDOT moved to dissolve a 1973 order which had been entered in ECOS, Inc. v. Brinegar, No. C-352-D-72 (M.D.N.C.), enjoining construction of the freeway. ⁵ Plaintiffs and Willie Patterson, a resident of the Crest Street community, filed a proposed complaint and moved to intervene in the ECOS action on October 15, 1982. Their obvious purpose was to contest dissolution of the injunction until their interests were fully protected. While this motion for intervention was pending, the parties concluded their negotiations and prepared the Final Mitigation Plan, and the City of Durham and NCDOT prepared a complementary Municipal Agreement that accompanied the Final Mitigation Plan. The district court never formally ruled on the motion to intervene, but the applicants for intervention were parties to a December 14, 1982 Consent Judgment dissolving the injunction and dismissing the ECOS action. ⁶ On the following day, plaintiffs NCDOT, and the City of Durham executed the Final Mitigation Plan in a public ceremony.

The Final Mitigation Plan recites that the Crest Street Community Council, Inc. "agreed to withdraw its administrative complaint if the City and NCDOT agreed to implement these mitigation efforts," and that plaintiffs agreed to support dissolution of the injunction in the ECOS case. In return for allowing construction of the freeway extension to proceed, plaintiffs were accorded substantial relief under the terms of the Plan. The Plan sets out in a comprehensive fashion steps that the City and NCDOT agreed to take to mitigate the detrimental impact of the freeway on the Crest Street community. The defendants moved the proposed highway right-of-way and modified an interchange so as to preserve the community church and park. Plaintiffs state that defendants estimated the cost of implementing their major direct responsibilities under the Plan to be $3,072,000, and as part of the settlement NCDOT released the City of Durham from its obligation to pay an estimated $2,750,000 towards right-of-way costs for the freeway. A new community site will be developed in the same area and will allow the residents to remain intact as a community, and the quality of the housing, streets, and recreational facilities in the new community will be much better than conditions in the existing community.

The Plan recited that the City and NCDOT denied any liability for plaintiffs' attorney's fees, and that plaintiffs preserved their right to claim such fees. In August 1983, plaintiffs' counsel sent defendants a detailed request for attorney's fees. NCDOT adhered to its position that it was not liable for such fees, and plaintiffs filed this action on November 30, 1983. The parties filed cross-motions for summary judgment, and on November 29, 1984, the district court granted defendants' motion and dismissed the action. 598 F.Supp. 258 (M.D.N.C.1984).

The district court first separated the hours that plaintiffs' counsel worked into those connected with the administrative and the ECOS proceedings. It concluded that the 1,224.25 hours worked before the motion to intervene could not be attributed to the ECOS action because "to retroactively declare that efforts done over a five year period would have been required in the course of litigation later initiated would result in a highly speculative, uncertain, and unfairly surprising award of fees." Id. at 263. The district court then held that Sec. 1988 does not authorize an award of attorney's fees for administrative proceedings to enforce Title VI, and that plaintiffs could not recover any fees incident to the ECOS litigation because they were not prevailing Title VI parties in that action. Id. at 263-67. Plaintiffs appealed.

II.

The Civil Rights Attorney's Fees Awards Act of 1976 added the following sentence to 42 U.S.C. Sec. 1988, which previously had no provision for such fees:

In any action or proceeding to enforce a provision of sections 1981, 1982, 1983, 1985, and 1986 of this title, title IX of Public Law 92-318, or title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, the court, in its discretion, may allow the prevailing party, other than the United States, a reasonable attorney's fee as part of the costs.

We think that the wording of Sec. 1988 explicitly covers plaintiffs' claim: They were "prevailing parties" in a "proceeding to enforce ... title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964."

If we approach the statutory language in reverse order, the threshold requirement for this and other similar statutes is that the attorney's fees claimant be a "prevailing party, other than the United States." Defendants concede that plaintiffs gained substantial relief that was causally related to their administrative complaint and that plaintiffs therefore are "prevailing parties." ⁷

The next statutory requirement is that the underlying legal complaint have been brought in an "action or proceeding to enforce a provision of" one of the listed laws. Defendants argue that plaintiffs' administrative complaint was not an "action or proceeding" within the meaning of Sec. 1988. The natural or usual meaning of the words "action or proceeding" connotes "civil" action and "administrative" proceeding. Of course, "proceeding" alone may be read broadly enough to include "civil" action. We see no reason to depart from those meanings here. Some of the substantive provisions listed in Sec. 1988 explicitly contemplate civil actions in state or federal court, and some, such as Title VI, explicitly contemplate initial administrative proceedings...