Lyden v. Howerton

• Decision Date: 02 February 1990
• Docket Number: 84-0237-Civ,84-0897-Civ and 84-0898-Civ.,84-0246-Civ,No. 83-2682-Civ,84-0239-Civ,84-0241-Civ,84-0154-Civ to 84-0156-Civ,84-0244-Civ,83-2682-Civ
• Citation: 731 F. Supp. 1545
• Parties: Dewey LYDEN, et al., Plaintiffs, v. Joe D. HOWERTON, etc., et al., Defendants.
• Court: U.S. District Court — Southern District of Florida

731 F. Supp. 1545

Dewey LYDEN, et al., Plaintiffs, v. Joe D. HOWERTON, etc., et al., Defendants.

Nos. 83-2682-Civ, 84-0154-Civ to 84-0156-Civ, 84-0237-Civ, 84-0239-Civ, 84-0241-Civ, 84-0244-Civ, 84-0246-Civ, 84-0897-Civ and 84-0898-Civ.

United States District Court, S.D. Florida.

February 2, 1990.

COPYRIGHT MATERIAL OMITTED

Alfred K. Frigola, Frigola, DeVane & Wright, P.A., Marathon, Fla., for plaintiffs.

Robert Kendall, Jr., Office of Immigration Litigation, Civ. Div., U.S. Dept. of Justice, Washington, D.C., for defendants.

FINAL ORDER GRANTING MOTION FOR ATTORNEY'S FEES

JAMES LAWRENCE KING, Chief Judge.

This cause comes before the court upon a motion opening the last chapter in the suit arising from the transportation of aliens into the United States during the Cuban Refugee Freedom Flotilla in 1980. After over six years of litigation before this court, the Eleventh Circuit, and the Immigration and Naturalization Service, the plaintiff timely moves for attorney's fees pursuant to Title 28, United States Code, § 2412(b) and/or § 2412(d).

I. PROCEDURAL HISTORY

The plaintiffs in this consolidated action are boat owners and captains who participated in the Mariel boatlift from Cuba in the spring of 1980. After bringing Cuban refugees to this country without visas, in violation of 8 U.S.C. § 1323, the United States seized their boats, and the Immigration and Naturalization Service levied substantial fines. The boat captain and owner plaintiffs followed Immigration and Naturalization Service procedures, but obtained no relief. Thereafter, plaintiffs filed separate actions in this court for injunctive and declaratory relief so that they could recover their boats and prevent the United States from imposing fines upon them.

In those actions, this court found that the INS was estopped from enforcing 8 U.S.C. § 1323, that duress was a proper defense to actions under that section, and that plaintiffs had established duress as a matter of law. See Lyden v. Howerton, No. 84-0154-Civ-King (S.D.Fla. June 29, 1984). The INS then appealed to the United States Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit. Lyden v. Howerton, 783 F.2d 1554 (11th Cir.1986). The Eleventh Circuit affirmed this court's determination that duress constitutes a defense to 8 U.S.C. § 1323, but concluded that this court's "factual findings were premature" and directed a remand from this district court to INS "for action consistent with the Eleventh Circuit opinion." Id. at 1556-57.

This court then entered an order of remand to INS "for individual evidentiary hearings for factual determinations under the correct legal principles." Lyden v. Howerton, No. 82-2682-Civ-King (consolidated) (S.D.Fla. May 15, 1986) (order on mandate). Subsequently, INS, in the various cases, either settled, concluded that it would impose no fine, or failed to afford an individual evidentiary hearing, as directed by this court. Lyden v. Howerton, No. 83-2682-Civ-King (consolidated) (S.D.Fla. March 31, 1989) (final judgment). This court entered an order of final judgment in these consolidated cases on March 31, 1989. Id.

Having carefully considered all the foregoing materials and argument, pertinent portions of the record, applicable law, and being otherwise fully advised with the substance, procedure, and nuances of this litigation, the court makes the following rulings.

II. THE EQUAL ACCESS TO JUSTICE ACT ("EAJA")

A. Plaintiffs Were Prevailing Parties

The first step to resolving any claim for attorney's fees under the EAJA is to determine if the plaintiffs were in fact prevailing parties. Our circuit employs the same test to determine whether an applicant for EAJA fees is a "prevailing party" as is used to resolving "prevailing party" eligibility for attorney's fees under 42 U.S.C. § 1988. Jean v. Nelson, 863 F.2d 759, 765 (11th Cir.1988).

Until recently, the prevailing party test was whether he or she has received substantially the relief requested or has been successful on the central issue, or, stated another way, whether plaintiffs' lawsuit was a catalyst motivating defendants to provide the primary relief sought in a manner desired by litigation. Martin v. Heckler, 773 F.2d 1145, 1149 (11th Cir.1985) (en banc) (emphasis added) (citations omitted).¹

The Eleventh and Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals were the only two circuits requiring that a party succeed on the "central issue" in the litigation and achieve the "primary relief sought" to be eligible for an award of attorney's fees under § 1988. See, e.g., Martin v. Heckler, 773 F.2d 1145 (11th Cir.1985); Simien v. San Antonio, 809 F.2d 255 (5th Cir.1987). On the other hand, most federal courts have applied a less demanding standard, requiring only that a party succeed on a significant issue and receive some of the relief sought in the lawsuit. See, e.g., Lampher v. Zagel, 755 F.2d 99 (7th Cir.1985); Nephew v. Aurora, 766 F.2d 1464, 1466 (10th Cir.1985).

Recognizing this split among the circuits and the importance of the definition of the term "prevailing party" to the application of § 1988 and other federal fee-shifting statutes, the Supreme Court recently disagreed with and modified the Eleventh and Fifth Circuits' standard in favor of the following:

If the plaintiff has succeeded on "any significant issue in the litigation which achieved some of the benefit the parties sought in bringing the suit," the plaintiff has crossed the threshold to a fee award of some kind.... Thus, at a minimum, to be considered a prevailing party within the meaning of § 1988 the plaintiff must be able to point to a resolution of the dispute which changes the legal relationship between itself and the defendant.... Where the plaintiff's success on a legal claim can be characterized as purely technical or de minimus a district court would be justified in concluding that even the "generous formulation" we adopt today has not been satisfied.... The touchstone of the prevailing party inquiry must be the material alteration of the legal relationship of the parties in a manner which Congress sought to promote in the fee statute. Where such a change has occurred, the degree of the plaintiff's overall success goes to the reasonableness of the award under Hensley, not to the availability of a fee award vel non.

Texas State Teachers' Assoc. v. Garland Indep. School Dist., ___ U.S. ___, 109 S.Ct. 1486, 103 L.Ed.2d 866 (1989) (emphasis in original, citations omitted).

With or without the benefit of this new and less stringent standard, the court easily finds plaintiffs to be "prevailing parties." Plaintiffs obtained the primary relief sought, succeeded on the central issue in the suit, namely establishing duress as a defense, and derived a great benefit by having their vessels released from seizure and the fines dropped.

B. 28 U.S.C. § 2412(b)

This portion of the EAJA provides that:

Unless expressly prohibited by statute, a court may award reasonable fees and expenses of attorneys ... to the prevailing party in any civil action brought by or against the United States.... The United States shall be liable to the same extent that any other party would be liable under the common law or under the terms of any statute which specifically provides for such an award.

"This statute permits a court to make a discretionary award of attorney's fees in accordance with the longstanding common-law exceptions to the `American Rule' that each party must bear its own costs. Thus, the United States is liable for attorney's fees in those instances where the `bad faith,' `common fund,' and `common benefit,' exceptions to the `American Rule' would apply to any other civil litigant." U.S. v. Certain Real Estate Property, 838 F.2d 1558, 1565 (11th Cir.1988).

The "common benefit" exception to the "American Rule" is clearly applicable here. In Hall v. Cole, 412 U.S. 1, 93 S.Ct.1943, 36 L.Ed.2d 702 (1973), the Supreme Court established the "common benefits" rationale for awarding fees when the plaintiff's successful litigation confers "a substantial benefit on the members of an ascertainable class, and where the court's jurisdiction over the subject matter of the suit makes possible an award that will operate to spread the costs proportionately among them." Such "fee shifting" was found justified in those cases, not because of any "bad faith" of the defendant but, rather, because to "allow the others to obtain full benefit from the plaintiff's efforts without contributing equally to the litigation expenses would be to enrich others unjustly at the plaintiff's expense." The ascertainable class consists of all the boat owners and captains who participated in the Mariel Boatlift from Cuba in the spring of 1980. The plaintiffs in this consolidated action are clearly members of that class. The attorneys obtained a very successful result for the plaintiffs in these consolidated cases. The cases were ultimately resolved in favor of the boat captains and owners, with a waiver by the government of between $800,000 to $1 million in fines, with payment to the government of $3,500 on only two boats. This was a total victory for the plaintiffs after they established through litigation in these cases their right to defend against the government's fines and forfeitures. Not only was a substantial benefit conferred upon the plaintiffs in these cases, by the successful outcome of this litigation, but a substantial benefit was conferred upon all of the class of litigants in the Mariel Boatlift fine/forfeiture cases. This litigation established as a matter of law that estoppel is a defense and that the individual boat owners and captains had the absolute right to contest with defenses (i.e., duress, compulsion, etc.) the levying of administrative fines by the Immigration and Naturalization Service. This was a very valuable benefit not only to the boat owners but to the public generally in that it resulted in the cessation of the filing of illegal administrative fines by the...