Lightfoot v. Walker

• Decision Date: 03 August 1987
• Docket Number: Nos. 86-2004,86-2184,s. 86-2004
• Citation: 826 F.2d 516
• Parties: Ralph LIGHTFOOT, LaCarttle Jones, Fred Jenkins, and Nelson Weaver, on behalf of themselves and all others similarly situated, Plaintiffs-Appellees, v. Daniel WALKER, Governor of the State of Illinois, et al. Defendants-Appellants.
• Court: U.S. Court of Appeals — Seventh Circuit

Page 516

826 F.2d 516

Ralph LIGHTFOOT, LaCarttle Jones, Fred Jenkins, and Nelson

Weaver, on behalf of themselves and all others

similarly situated, Plaintiffs-Appellees, v. Daniel WALKER, Governor of the State of Illinois, et al.

Defendants-Appellants.

Nos. 86-2004, 86-2184.

United States Court of Appeals, Seventh Circuit.

Argued Jan. 15, 1987.

Decided July 24, 1987.

As Amended Aug. 3, 1987.

James Prendergast, Richard J. Prendergast, Ltd., Chicago, Ill., for defendants-appellants.

Harvey Grossman, Roger Baldwin Foundation of ACLU, Chicago, Ill., for plaintiffs-appellees.

Before WOOD, FLAUM, Circuit Judges, and GRANT, Senior District judge. ^*

HARLINGTON WOOD, Jr., Circuit Judge.

Nearly fourteen years ago, several inmates at the Menard Correctional Center (Menard) filed an individual suit against the State of Illinois, ¹ under 42 U.S.C. Sec. 1983, seeking to improve conditions in segregation. Their case eventually mushroomed into a massive legal battle on behalf of all inmates at Menard, challenging conditions prison-wide as unconstitutional. After thirty-one days of trial, the district court found the substandard conditions violated the eighth and fourteenth amendments and, in February 1980, ordered extensive relief. Lightfoot v. Walker, 486 F.Supp. 504 (S.D.Ill.1980) (Lightfoot I ). By November 1984, the state had substantially complied with the remedial order. In the meantime, the inmates' attorneys, Harvey Grossman and Patrick Flynn, had petitioned for attorney's fees under 42 U.S.C. Sec. 1988. The issue of fees was hard-fought, and following seven days of trial in late 1984, the district court awarded $605,243.00 in fees to Grossman and Flynn. Lightfoot v. Walker, 619 F.Supp. 1481 (S.D.Ill.1985) (Lightfoot II ). The court subsequently awarded the inmates' attorneys an additional $60,120.50 in fees for their work in litigating the issue of fees. The state challenges the entire fee award, which now totals $710,501.10, as unreasonable. The state also requests us to reconsider our decision in Lightfoot v. Walker, 797 F.2d 505 (7th Cir.1986) (Lightfoot III ), in which we affirmed the district court's refusal to grant an unsecured stay pending this appeal.

I. BACKGROUND

The state claims that the underlying litigation was merely a "routine legal matter" that the plaintiffs' attorneys prolonged unnecessarily and unreasonably. See Argument of Patricia Chapin, Report of Proceedings at 54 (July 26, 1985). The district court, on the other hand, characterized this litigation as extremely complex and observed that no ground had been surrendered without a struggle. We therefore provide the following summary of that litigation in order to demonstrate the artificiality of the state's claim. See also Lightfoot I.

On October 2, 1973, public interest attorneys from the Land of Lincoln Legal Assistance Foundation filed an individual action on behalf of 38 black inmates confined to segregation at Menard, challenging the constitutionality of their conditions of confinement. These inmates were living in overcrowded cells and were surrounded by open sewers, standing water, flies, roaches, dried food, dirt and decaying garbage. They had no hot water for their once-a-week showers and some were deprived of exercise for months at a time. As the attorneys began to discover the extent of these disturbing conditions, they moved for the appointment of an independent medical panel to inspect the prison. In addition, they sought to amend the complaint to include as plaintiffs all inmates in segregation. The state resisted the plaintiffs' efforts in both regards, but in March 1976, the court granted the two motions.

Over the next six months, the medical panel inspected the prison, reviewed voluminous medical records and interviewed numerous staff members and inmates. On November 18, 1976, the panel issued its first report, revealing that unsafe and unsanitary conditions existed prisonwide. Problems ranged from improperly sterilized instruments in the medical unit to health-threatening plumbing in the food service area to improper treatment by untrained medical technicians resulting in unnecessary deaths. The panel report concluded that all prisoners were being denied even minimally adequate health care at Menard. As a result, the plaintiffs moved for and were granted, certification of the entire prison population of over 2,600 as a class in December 1976.

Along with its findings, the panel also made specific recommendations for remedying the deficiencies. Although the state was not quick to implement the panel's sound recommendations, the report apparently prompted the state to initiate settlement talks. The talks, however, were fruitless. The state never offered a comprehensive plan for remedying the deficiencies, instead making only "piecemeal" proposals. See, e.g., Discussion between Court and Patricia Chapin, Report of Proceedings at 39-40 (July 26, 1985). The state did not rely upon the advice of any doctors in formulating its proposals, see Testimony of Fred Montgomery, Report of Proceedings at 138-40 (Dec. 13, 1984), and the proposals therefore reflected a lack of understanding regarding the extent of the prison's massive deficiencies. Moreover, the state refused to admit to its constitutional violations despite the growing reality to the outside world of the frightening conditions that existed within the prison's walls. As a result of these inadequacies, settlement was never reached.

The state's failure to offer an acceptable settlement required the continual updating of discovery since it became clear that at trial the plaintiffs would be required to prove ongoing constitutional violations with timely facts. Thirty-one days of trial began in August 1977. Although the state had consistently tried to thwart their discovery attempts and had refused to even commit to the findings of the panel, the plaintiffs were able to prove at trial that, for instance, there was no hot water until 1977; extremely poor sanitation still existed in segregation; housekeeping in the medical unit remained unacceptable (e.g., clean and soiled linen stored together, improperly sterilized instruments, no ventilation in isolation rooms); the food services area was still a health hazard (e.g., insects and rodent droppings in the bakery area, no fire extinguishing equipment near the deep fat fryers or elsewhere, obnoxious odors emanating from the workers' toilet, inadequate handwashing and shower facilities for workers); the number of physicians and scheduled medical hours remained insufficient; and, preventable deaths occurred even during the trial. And the list goes on.

Despite the plaintiffs' evidence, the state was not ready to give up its fight. It attempted to show, through the testimony of six expert witnesses, that the plaintiffs' claims were largely moot. To further support its mootness argument, the state requested a second panel investigation which was conducted midway through the trial. Unfortunately, the second panel report merely bolstered the plaintiffs' case. The panel concluded that, not only had its original recommendations been largely ignored, but an increased prison population (despite its recommendation against it) had cancelled any progress that might have been made.

Trial ended in November 1977 and, in March 1980, the court entered an order finding that the conditions in the prison were so substandard as to lead to unnecessary suffering in violation of the eighth and fourteenth amendments and that these conditions existed even at the time of trial. Lightfoot I, 486 F.Supp. at 524-25. The order detailed specific, extensive relief and specified time periods for compliance. The court found that, "absent the prosecution of this lawsuit and the consequential input of the medical panel even the limited improvements noted by the Court's experts on reinspection, would not have been made." Id. at 525. The state had continued to ignore the deficiencies despite "the numerous instances where conditions and problems [had] been brought to the attention of the administration, both at the institution and at the department level." Id. at 513. The state's obvious indifference to the prisoners' unnecessary suffering led the court to appoint a master to oversee compliance with its order.

Far from cooperative even after trial, the state initially filed a mandamus action in an unsuccessful attempt to bar the newly-appointed master from entering Menard. Four and one-half years later, however, the court found that the state had substantially complied with its February 1980 order. In the meantime, the plaintiffs' attorneys who tried the case, Grossman and Flynn, had petitioned for costs, expenses and attorney's fees, under 42 U.S.C. Sec. 1988, in October 1981.

Although the plaintiffs' attorneys maintained that a hearing on the fee petition was unnecessary, the state requested one. The court set a hearing for June 6, 1984, and a month before the hearing, the state moved for a continuance. Following seven days of trial on the fee petition in November 1984, the court awarded Grossman and Flynn $605,243.00 in attorney's fees for their work in the underlying litigation. Lightfoot II.

In calculating the fee award, the court initially considered the state's argument, based upon Marek v. Chesny, 473 U.S. 1, 105 S.Ct. 3012, 87 L.Ed.2d 1 (1985), that the attorneys were not entitled to fees incurred after the plaintiffs unreasonably refused to accept the state's settlement offers. Rejecting this argument, the court detailed the inadequacy of the state's offers as compared to the final relief obtained, concluding that the court had "ordered a systematic delivery of health care, but the defendants offered a few 'nuts and bolts' asking the plaintiffs to place their trust in the expertise of the defendants, who even after the second medical panel report, failed to rectify gross deficiencies in the delivery of medical care." Lightfoot II, 619 F.Supp. at...