Elwood v. Drescher

• Decision Date: 28 July 2006
• Docket Number: No. 04-55635.,04-55635.
• Citation: 456 F.3d 943
• Parties: Darla ELWOOD; Terri Elwood; Edward Elwood; Anthony Delaplane; Amy Meinke, Plaintiffs-Appellants, v. Robert DRESCHER; Robert W. Zakon; Valerie Skeba; John P. Farrell; Haig Kehiayan; William A. MacLaughlin; Judy Hutchinson, in her individual capacity; California Department of Justice, Defendants-Appellees.
• Court: U.S. Court of Appeals — Ninth Circuit

456 F.3d 943

Darla ELWOOD; Terri Elwood; Edward Elwood; Anthony Delaplane; Amy Meinke, Plaintiffs-Appellants, v. Robert DRESCHER; Robert W. Zakon; Valerie Skeba; John P. Farrell; Haig Kehiayan; William A. MacLaughlin; Judy Hutchinson, in her individual capacity; California Department of Justice, Defendants-Appellees.

No. 04-55635.

United States Court of Appeals, Ninth Circuit.

Argued and Submitted June 5, 2006.

Filed July 28, 2006.

Patricia J. Barry, Los Angeles, CA, for the appellants.

Robert E. Drescher, Newhall, CA, for appellee Drescher.

Anita Susan Brenner, Law Offices of Torres & Brenner, Pasadena, CA, for appellee Hutchinson.

Bill Lockyer, Attorney General of the State of California, and Sandra J. Barrientos, Deputy Attorney General, Los Angeles, CA, for appellees Zakon, Farrell, Kehiayan, MacLaughlin, Skeba and California Department of Justice.

Appeal from the United States District Court of the Central District of California; Lourdes G. Baird, District Judge, Presiding. D.C. No. CV-02-04656-LGB.

Before SIDNEY R. THOMAS and RONALD M. GOULD, Circuit Judges, and WILLIAM W SCHWARZER,^* Senior District Judge.

SCHWARZER, Senior District Judge.

These appeals arise out of litigation initiated by Darla Elwood over custody of two of her children. Elwood brought two § 1983 actions alleging conspiracies by various participants in state court proceedings to deprive her of custody of her children. The district court dismissed the actions and this Court affirmed. Elwood v. Morin, 84 Fed.Appx. 964 (9th Cir.2004); Elwood v. Morin, 87 Fed.Appx. 617 (9th Cir.2004); Elwood v. Drescher, 90 Fed. Appx. 501 (9th Cir.2004). The district court then ruled on applications for attorneys' fees under 42 U.S.C. § 1988. It found the underlying actions to have been frivolous and awarded fees to defendants. Elwood appeals from those awards. In this opinion we address the question whether the awards in Elwood v. Drescher, Appeal No. 04-55635, were proper as a matter of law. In a separate memorandum filed concurrently with this opinion, we address Elwood's appeals in Elwood v. Morin, Appeal No. 04-55630, and in consolidated proceedings to prevent enforcement of the fee awards, Nos. 05-55724 and 05-55727.

FACTUAL AND PROCEDURAL HISTORY

In Elwood v. Drescher, (Appeal No. 04-55635, D.C. No. 02-04656), Elwood appeals the award of attorneys' fees to defendants. This action was brought by Elwood, her son Anthony, her parents Terri and Edward, and her friend Amy Meinke (collectively, "Elwood"). The complaint named fourteen defendants, but only the following sought and were awarded fees: Robert Drescher, an attorney who represented Elwood's ex-husband Morin; Commissioner Robert W. Zakon of the Los Angeles Superior Court; Referee Valerie Skeba of the Juvenile Court; Superior Court Judges John P. Farrell, Haig Kehiayan, and William MacLaughlin; the California Department of Justice ("California DOJ"); and Judy Hutchinson, a child support enforcement attorney for Los Angeles county.¹ The complaint alleged a variety of conspiracy theories involving the defendants, including that the "[j]udges and commissioners of Superior Court of Los Angeles County have declared war on Darla Elwood and anyone associated with her."

The defendants moved to dismiss on several grounds. The district court dismissed the claims against Drescher for failure to allege the deprivation of a constitutional right and any meeting of the minds between Drescher and the other defendants. It dismissed the claims against the state court commissioner, referee, and judges as barred by either Younger abstention² or the Rooker-Feldman doctrine,³ and the claim against the California DOJ on the basis of the Eleventh Amendment.

After the dismissal was affirmed, the district court ruled on defendants' § 1988 motions for attorneys' fees. It found that the claims raised were frivolous, groundless, and generally without foundation, and awarded the state defendants $18,300, Drescher, who represented himself, $7875, and Hutchinson $4033. Elwood filed a timely notice of appeal.

DISCUSSION

The district court's award of fees is reviewed for abuse of discretion. See Sea Coast Foods, Inc. v. Lu-Mar Lobster & Shrimp, Inc., 260 F.3d 1054, 1058 (9th Cir.2001). If an exercise of discretion is based on an erroneous interpretation of the law, the ruling should be overturned. In re Arden, 176 F.3d 1226, 1228 (9th Cir.1999). We consider two issues: (1) whether Drescher, as a pro se attorney-defendant, is entitled to a fee award, and (2) whether the state defendants are entitled to a fee award when the claims against them were dismissed based on Younger abstention, the Rooker-Feldman doctrine, or the Eleventh Amendment. While the district court found Elwood's claims to be frivolous, normally authorizing an award of fees to prevailing defendants, see Karam v. City of Burbank, 352 F.3d 1188, 1195 (9th Cir.2003), we conclude that fees may not be awarded to a pro se attorney-defendant, or to defendants dismissed on Younger abstention or Rooker-Feldman grounds. However, based on our precedents, we conclude that the state defendants dismissed on the basis of the Eleventh Amendment are entitled to recover attorneys' fees. Accordingly, we vacate the fee awards to Drescher and to the state court commissioner, referee, and judges. We affirm the award of fees to Hutchinson and the California DOJ, but remand for a recalculation of the fee award to the state defendants in conformity with this opinion.

I. ATTORNEYS' FEES AWARD TO DRESCHER

Elwood argues that Drescher, as a pro se attorney-defendant, is not entitled to an award of attorneys' fees under § 1988. This issue requires us to determine whether Ellis v. Cassidy, 625 F.2d 227, 230-31 (9th Cir.1980), in which we upheld the award of fees to a pro se attorney-defendant, remains good law in light of the Supreme Court's decision in Kay v. Ehrler, 499 U.S. 432, 111 S.Ct. 1435, 113 L.Ed.2d 486 (1991).

In Kay, a pro se attorney-plaintiff sought attorney's fees under § 1988 for the successful prosecution of a civil rights claim. It was undisputed that "a pro se litigant who is not a lawyer is not entitled to attorney's fees," and the question therefore was whether an attorney who represents himself should be treated differently. Id. at 435, 111 S.Ct. 1435. The statutory text did not provide a clear answer, because "[o]n the one hand, petitioner is an `attorney' . . . . On the other hand, the word `attorney' assumes an agency relationship, and it seems likely that Congress contemplated an attorney-client relationship as the predicate for an award under § 1988." Id. at 435-36, 111 S.Ct. 1435.

The Court turned to the purpose of the statute, and found that "the overriding statutory concern" of § 1988 was to promote "independent counsel for victims of civil rights violations." Id. at 437, 111 S.Ct. 1435. Independent counsel would help filter out meritless civil rights claims, but more importantly, the Court found that the statute was intended to ensure "the effective prosecution of meritorious claims." Id. "The statutory policy of furthering the successful prosecution of meritorious claims is better served by a rule that creates an incentive to retain counsel in every such case." Id. at 438, 111 S.Ct. 1435. Accordingly, the Court held that § 1988 did not authorize the award of fees to pro se litigants, even if they were attorneys. Id. at 437-38, 111 S.Ct. 1435.

Here, the district court distinguished Kay, noting that the facts in that case dealt with a pro se attorney-plaintiff, while Drescher was a pro se attorney-defendant, stating:

The [Supreme] Court's analysis centered around the policy reasons for providing attorney's fees to a prevailing plaintiff— i.e. an interest in obtaining independent counsel for victims of civil rights violations. The Court found that "Congress was interested in ensuring the effective prosecution of meritorious claims."

These same policy considerations do not exist when the pro per attorney litigant is a prevailing defendant rather than a prevailing plaintiff. Ensuring that a defendant-attorney obtains counsel does [not]⁴ help to filter meritless claims nor ensure vigorous prosecution of meritorious ones. In contrast, awarding attorneys fees to prevailing defendants protects them from burdensome litigation with no legal or factual basis.

While we recognize that the policy considerations affecting a pro se attorney-defendant differ from those relevant to a pro se attorney-plaintiff, we find Kay to be controlling here for several reasons. First, although the facts of Kay involved a pro se attorney-plaintiff, the decision sweeps broadly, appearing to apply to pro se litigants generally. See, e.g., id. at 435, 111 S.Ct. 1435 ("We granted certiorari to resolve . . . whether a pro se litigant who is also a lawyer may be awarded attorney's fees under § 1988."); id. at 438, 111 S.Ct. 1435 ("A rule that authorizes awards of counsel fees to pro se litigants—even if limited to those who are members of the bar . . . ."). Nothing in the Kay opinion suggests that it was intended to apply only to pro se attorney-plaintiffs; instead, it appears to deny attorneys' fees generally to all pro se litigants, including pro se litigants who are attorneys.

Second, this broad reading is consistent with the decisions we have found on this issue. While there are no published appellate decisions applying Kay to deny § 1988 fees to a pro se attorney-defendant, two district court opinions have done so. Copus v. City of Edgerton, 959 F.Supp. 1047, 1052 (W.D.Wis.1997) (denying attorney's fees for pro se attorney-defendant under § 1988), rev'd on other grounds, 151 F.3d 646 (7th Cir.1998); Prewitt v. Alexander, 173 F.R.D. 438, 440 (N.D.Miss.1996) ("only those defendants represented by counsel may recover attorney's fees under 42 U.S.C. § 1988"), aff'd, 114 F.3d 1183 (5th Cir.1997) (unpublished). In Prewitt, the court, while acknowledging that the policy...