Jackson v. Illinois Prisoner Review Bd., 87-2312

• Decision Date: 02 September 1988
• Docket Number: No. 87-2312,87-2312
• Citation: 856 F.2d 890
• Parties: William JACKSON, Plaintiff-Appellee, v. ILLINOIS PRISONER REVIEW BOARD, et al., Defendants-Appellants.
• Court: U.S. Court of Appeals — Seventh Circuit

Page 890

856 F.2d 890

William JACKSON, Plaintiff-Appellee, v. ILLINOIS PRISONER REVIEW BOARD, et al., Defendants-Appellants.

No. 87-2312.

United States Court of Appeals, Seventh Circuit.

Argued April 1, 1988.

Decided Sept. 2, 1988.

Rita M. Novak, Office of Illinois Atty. Gen., Chicago, Ill., for defendants-appellants.

Barry L. Kroll, Williams & Montgomery, Ltd., Chicago, Ill., for plaintiff-appellee.

Before BAUER, Chief Judge, POSNER and FLAUM, Circuit Judges.

FLAUM, Circuit Judge.

In 1985, William Jackson brought an action against the Illinois Prisoner Review Board (the "Board") under 42 U.S.C. Sec. 1983. Jackson, a prisoner at Stateville Correctional Center, claimed that he was denied due process of law at his parole hearing when the Board failed to follow its own rules regarding access to documents it considered in deciding whether to grant Jackson parole. Plaintiff sought a declaration that his rights were violated and a new hearing. The Board amended its rules in May of 1985; Jackson amended his complaint, contending in part that under the amended rule he was entitled to notice of which documents the Board considered. The district court agreed with Jackson's argument that the Board was required by its own rules to give such notice, and awarded Jackson attorneys' fees of $15,180.57 under 42 U.S.C. Sec. 1988. The Board appeals only from the fee award. We affirm in part and reverse in part.

I.

Jackson filed a pro se complaint on May 15, 1985 challenging the Board's procedures related to his May 1984 parole hearing (the "1984 hearing"). ¹ The court appointed counsel, who filed a two-count complaint under 42 U.S.C. Sec. 1983 alleging: 1) that the Board denied Jackson due process by failing to provide him copies of documents in his file (specifically two psychological reports) which the Board considered in denying him parole; and 2) that deferring his hearing to a quorum of the entire Parole Board violated the ex post facto clause of article 1 of the Constitution. The district court denied the Board's motion to dismiss the first count of the complaint, ruling that under Walker v. Prisoner Review Bd., 694 F.2d 499 (7th Cir.1982) the Board's Rule IV-C ² gave parole candidates a due process entitlement of access to parole files regardless of whether the prisoner requested such access. Jackson v. Illinois Prisoner Review Bd., 631 F.Supp. 150 (N.D.Ill.1986).

The court granted the Board's motion to dismiss the ex post facto claim, however. This claim was based on the fact that when Jackson was sentenced in December 1977, Ill.Rev.Stat. ch. 38, p 1003-3-2 ("Paragraph 1003-3-2") required "a panel of at least 3 members" to make all parole decisions. Paragraph 1003-3-2(a)(2) was amended, effective September 1984, to reflect a February 1984 policy change requiring a vote of the majority of the Board ³ for parole decisions of all prisoners serving a sentence of 20 years or more. ⁴ Jackson's 1984 parole hearing was conducted by the en banc Board. The court rejected Jackson's argument that it was unconstitutional to apply the en banc review procedure to him. The relevant statutory language in effect at the time of Jackson's sentencing, the court held, was "purely procedural," and thus even if the adoption of a new policy were viewed as a change, and even if this change disadvantaged Jackson, it did not violate the ex post facto clause. Id. at 153.

Both parties then moved for summary judgment on the due process claim. The Board asserted, despite the district court's earlier ruling based on Walker, that Jackson's failure to request any documents defeated his due process argument. The court again rejected this contention. The Board also argued that a rule change subsequent to Jackson's 1984 parole hearing had mooted his claim. In October 1985 Rule IV-C was replaced by 20 Ill.Admin. Code Sec. 1610.30, ⁵ which exempts from the disclosure requirement any evidence whose disclosure might harm any person, the prison, or the relationship between the inmate and a mental health professional. The new provision prohibits the Board from directly providing an inmate with any document signed by a mental health professional, but allows the inmate to request such a document from the Department of Corrections.

On May 7, 1986, during the pendency of his suit over the 1984 hearing, Jackson was given a new parole hearing (the "1986 hearing") under the new rules. He amended his complaint, asserting that even under the new provision, the Board should have provided him with psychological reports it considered, or alternatively, should have at least informed him that such reports were part of the file considered in denying him parole. The district court agreed with the Board that a declaratory judgment action as to the policy in effect at the 1984 hearing could afford no prospective relief, and that the claim was therefore moot. Jackson v. Illinois Prisoner Review Bd., 657 F.Supp. 823 (N.D.Ill.1987). The court ruled that Sec. 1610.30(b)(2) and (b)(1)(a) authorized withholding the psychological reports, and that "the need to correct possible inaccuracies in psychological reports" did not amount to a due process requirement that they be provided to each parole candidate. However, the court agreed with Jackson that under Mathews v. Eldridge, 424 U.S. 319, 96 S.Ct. 893, 47 L.Ed.2d 18 (1976), due process required the Board to notify Jackson that it had considered psychological reports in denying him parole. Otherwise, the court held, the right under Sec. 1610.30(b)(2) to request review of psychological reports from the Department would be meaningless.

Jackson thus succeeded to the extent that he received a declaratory judgment that the Board had denied him due process in 1986 by not informing him that it considered psychological reports. The court ordered the Board in the future to notify Jackson "in connection with each scheduled parole release hearing (a) of the extent, if any, to which any document submitted to Board for its consideration bears the signature of a mental health or clinical services employee of Department and (b) of the procedure for requesting Department to afford him access to such document." Jackson, 657 F.Supp. at 831. Although the district court dismissed Jackson's 1984 ex post facto claim, ruled that the 1984 due process claim was moot, and held that Jackson was not entitled to be provided with the documents under Sec. 1610.30, it awarded Jackson the full amount of attorneys' fees he requested, with the exception of $101.25 for paralegal time. In explaining its decision, the court stated:

This was not a case of unsuccessful claims, ... but rather one of partial success--partial lack of success--on theories that would support a single claim. In this case there was one theory ... that was arguable but unsuccessful [the ex post facto argument], whereas the other one [the due process claim] was totally successful in the face of an empty argument that had been made by the defendants. It's really, in the context of this case, I have to say frivolous of defendants to have argued as though the plaintiff were unsuccessful on his claim regarding the 1984 hearing.... [T]he claim was a valid one.... [D]efendants proceeded to moot that claim by having changed their own rule. It wasn't a matter in which the plaintiff lost his claim somehow.

Jackson v. Illinois Prisoner Review Bd., No. 85-C-4545 (N.D.Ill. July 20, 1987) (transcript of proceedings). The Board did not dispute below, and does not raise now, the reasonableness of the number of hours spent or the rate charged. It contends, however, that the district court should only have awarded fees for hours spent on the ultimately successful argument regarding the Sec. 1610.30 requirement.

We find that the unsuccessful ex post facto claim was unrelated to the due process claim on which Jackson partially prevailed, and that the hours expended on that claim are therefore not compensable under Sec. 1988. We also find that the district court abused its discretion in failing to reduce the fee to reflect the fact that the plaintiff was only partially successful on his 1986 due process claim. We agree with the district court in all other respects, and therefore affirm the award of sanctions as modified herein.

II.

A.

The standards for determining a proper fee award to a "prevailing party" under Sec. 1988 were set forth by the Supreme Court in Hensley v. Eckerhart, 461 U.S. 424, 103 S.Ct. 1933, 76 L.Ed.2d 40 (1983). A district court should first multiply the hours reasonably expended by a reasonable hourly rate to arrive at the "lodestar"--"an initial estimate of the value of a lawyer's services." Id. at 433, 103 S.Ct. at 1939. The Board does not dispute this aspect of the district court's fee calculation. A court must then adjust the lodestar to reflect the results obtained. "A partially prevailing plaintiff should be compensated for the legal expenses he would have borne if his suit had been confined to the ground on which he prevailed plus related grounds within the meaning of Hensley." Ustrak v. Fairman, 851 F.2d 983, 988 (7th Cir.1988). Time spent on claims for relief that are unsuccessful and unrelated to the ultimate result achieved are not compensable. A claim is unrelated if it is "distinct in all respects," Hensley, 461 U.S. at 440, 103 S.Ct. at 1943, and "based on different facts and legal theories." Spanish Action Comm. of Chicago v. City of Chicago, 811 F.2d 1129, 1133 (7th Cir.1987). Claims that "involve a common core of facts or [are] ... based on related legal theories ... [such that] counsel's time will be devoted generally to the litigation as a whole" are related and compensable even if not ultimately successful. Hensley, 461 U.S. at 435, 103 S.Ct. at 1940. See Lenard v. Argento, 808 F.2d 1242, 1245-46 (7th Cir.1987).

Having eliminated all unsuccessful, unrelated claims, the district court should tailor the compensable hours for related claims to reflect "the...