McLindon v. Russell, 1:95CV00676.

• Decision Date: 16 December 1999
• Docket Number: No. 1:95CV00676.,1:95CV00676.
• Parties: W.C. MCLINDON, Plaintiff, v. Harry K. RUSSELL, et al., Defendants.
• Court: U.S. District Court — Southern District of Ohio

108 F.Supp.2d 842

W.C. MCLINDON, Plaintiff, v. Harry K. RUSSELL, et al., Defendants.

No. 1:95CV00676.

United States District Court, S.D. Ohio, Western Division.

December 16, 1999.

COPYRIGHT MATERIAL OMITTED

Alphonse Adam Gerhardstein, Laufman & Gerhardstein, Cincinnati, OH, Lynn D. Pundzak, Cincinnati, OH, for Plaintiff.

W.C. McLindon, Lebanon, OH, pro se.

Carol Anne Hamilton O'Brien, Ohio Attorney General, Corrections Litigation, Janet R. Hill Arbogast, Ohio Attorney General, Corrections Litigation, Columbus, OH, for Ohio Dept. of Rehab., Ohio Department of Rehabilitation and Correction, Harry Russell, G. Wyatt, Capt, Hoilette, Lt., Greg Gainey, James E. Guard, defendants.

ORDER

SHERMAN, United States Magistrate Judge.

This matter is before the Court on plaintiff's motion for award of attorney's fees and costs (Doc. 53), defendant Guard's objection thereto (Doc. 55), plaintiff's reply in support of the motion (Doc. 57), defendant's supplemental authorities and objection (Docs.58, 60), and plaintiff's supplemental memoranda. (Docs.61, 62).

Plaintiff initially brought this action pro se pursuant to 42 U.S.C. § 1983 against Lebanon Correctional Institution (LeCI) defendants James Guard, Greg Gainey, Warden Harry Russell, Captain Wyatt, and Lt. Hoilette alleging a violation of his constitutional rights. Plaintiff alleged that defendant Guard assaulted him while defendants Gainey, Russell, Wyatt, and Hoilette failed to protect him from this assault. Summary judgment was granted against plaintiff on his Eighth Amendment failure to protect claim against defendants Russell, Wyatt, and Hoilette. (Doc. 17). Summary judgment was also granted against plaintiff on his equal protection, due process, and state law claims. Id. However, summary judgment against plaintiff was denied as to his use of excessive force claim against defendant Guard and his failure to protect claim against defendant Gainey. Id. Thereafter, Lynn D. Pundzak was appointed counsel for plaintiff. (Doc. 18).

Defendants Guard and Gainey moved for summary judgment, which motion was denied by Order of December 8, 1998. (Doc.36). On February 18, 1999, after a three day jury trial, a verdict was returned for defendant Gainey on plaintiff's Eighth Amendment deliberate indifference claim. The jury returned a verdict for plaintiff against defendant Guard on plaintiff's Eighth Amendment excessive force claim. A judgment was entered against defendant Guard in the amount of $1.00 nominal damages and $200.00 punitive damages. (Docs.50, 51, 52). Plaintiff now moves for an award of $14,616.00 in attorney's fees and $870.28 in costs against defendant Guard as a prevailing party in this case pursuant to 42 U.S.C. § 1988. (Doc. 53). Plaintiff also moves for leave to file a supplemental petition for hours spent in preparing and arguing the fee application. Id.

Section 1988 provides, inter alia, that "[i]n any action or proceeding to enforce [various specified civil rights provisions], the court, in its discretion, may allow the prevailing party, other than the United States, a reasonable attorneys' fee as part of the costs." 42 U.S.C. § 1988(b). Defendant Guard does not contest the fact that, pending appeal, plaintiff is a prevailing party for purposes of 42 U.S.C. § 1988. In view of the above, the Court finds that plaintiff is a prevailing party within the meaning of § 1988. Hensley v. Eckerhart, 461 U.S. 424, 429, 103 S.Ct. 1933, 76 L.Ed.2d 40 (1983); Northcross v. Bd. of Ed. of Memphis City Schools, 611 F.2d 624, 633 (6th Cir.1979), cert. denied, 447 U.S. 911, 100 S.Ct. 2999, 64 L.Ed.2d 862 (1980).

Defendant does not challenge the reasonableness of plaintiff's request in terms of the hours or the hourly rate. Rather, defendant argues that plaintiff failed to achieve a sufficient degree of success to justify an award of fees under Farrar v. Hobby, 506 U.S. 103, 113 S.Ct. 566, 121 L.Ed.2d 494 (1992), and that plaintiff's motion seeks relief barred by the Prison Litigation Reform Act (PLRA), 42 U.S.C. § 1997e(d). If the Court determines that plaintiff's degree of success is de minimis and does not justify an award of attorney's fees, defendant's argument that an award of fees is barred by the PLRA is moot. The Court shall address each argument in turn.

I. An Award of Attorney's Fees is not Barred by Farrar v. Hobby.

As a prevailing party, plaintiff is entitled to recover a "reasonable" attorney's fee. Northcross, 611 F.2d at 636. The reasonableness of the fee bears a direct relationship to the degree of success obtained. Hensley, 461 U.S. at 438, 103 S.Ct. 1933. In determining what is a reasonable fee, "the most critical factor is the degree of success obtained." Farrar v. Hobby, 506 U.S. 103, 114, 113 S.Ct. 566, 121 L.Ed.2d 494 (1992). See also Cramblit v. Fikse, 33 F.3d 633, 635 (6th Cir.1994). Defendant argues that the limited degree of success achieved by plaintiff in this case is not sufficient to justify an award of attorney's fees under Farrar.

In Farrar, the Supreme Court upheld the denial of attorney's fees in a case where the plaintiff sought $17 million in compensatory damages, but received only a one dollar nominal judgment. The Supreme Court stated that courts must "give primary consideration to the amount of damages awarded as compared to the amount sought." 506 U.S. at 114, 113 S.Ct. 566, quoting Riverside v. Rivera, 477 U.S. 561, 585, 106 S.Ct. 2686, 91 L.Ed.2d 466(1986)(Powell, J., concurring). Citing the "technical" nature of the victory, the high court stated, "When a plaintiff recovers only nominal damages because of his failure to prove an essential element of his claim for monetary relief, the only reasonable fee is usually no fee at all." 506 U.S. at 115, 113 S.Ct. 566, internal citations omitted. The Court noted that plaintiff received only nominal damages in a litigation that "accomplished little beyond giving petitioners `the moral satisfaction of knowing that a federal court concluded that [their] rights had been violated' in some unspecified way." Id. at 114, 113 S.Ct. 566, quoting Hewitt v. Helms, 482 U.S. 755, 762, 107 S.Ct. 2672, 96 L.Ed.2d 654 (1987). Courts must consider "the relationship between the extent of success and the amount of the fee award." Id. at 116, 107 S.Ct. 2672, quoting Hensley, 461 U.S. at 438, 103 S.Ct. 1933. In her concurring opinion in Farrar, Justice O'Connor set forth three oft-cited factors for determining the degree of success: (1) the extent of relief; (2) the significance of the legal issue on which the plaintiff prevailed; and (3) the public purpose served. Farrar, 506 U.S. at 122, 113 S.Ct. 566 (O'Connor, J., concurring). Lower courts have followed this three step analysis in considering attorney's fees claims. See, e.g., Phelps v. Hamilton, 120 F.3d 1126, 1132 (10th Cir.1997); Jones v. Lockhart, 29 F.3d 422, 424 (8th Cir.1994); Cartwright v. Stamper, 7 F.3d 106, 110 (7th Cir.1993). Both parties agree that these three factors control. (Doc. 55 at 6; Doc. 57 at 4).

A. Difference Between Recovery and Relief Sought

Defendant cites the disparity between the amount of damages sought in plaintiff's pro se complaint, $400,000, and the amount he was actually awarded in this case, $201.00. At first blush, the $1.00 in nominal and $200.00 in punitive damages appears disproportionate to the damages initially sought by plaintiff for the violation of his rights. (Doc. 2, Complaint). However, once counsel was appointed to represent plaintiff, it became clear that his primary objective in the underlying § 1983 action was not to obtain monetary damages, but rather to vindicate his Eighth Amendment right to be free from cruel and unusual punishment and to deter misconduct of prison guards in the future. Excerpts from counsel's closing argument bear this out:

[W]hat in the world would compensate somebody for getting the heck beat out of them? I don't know. And I'm really not even going to suggest a number to you, because that's something that I think is within your province. But I will tell you this: Mr. McLindon doesn't care if you give him one dollar or a hundred dollars. He wants you, with your verdict, to send a message to the guards at the Lebanon Correctional Facility and, in a broader sense, to all of the prison guards who work in the Ohio system. He wants you to tell these people by your verdict: The Constitution of the United States means something in Ohio and we're going to make sure that those provisions of the Constitution are upheld. ... So, whether you award Mr. McLindon one dollar or a hundred dollars, doesn't matter. What matters is that you tell people like Officer Guard and Officer Gainey and every other C.O. that they cannot beat up, use excessive force against inmates, that those inmates have certain minimal rights when they're in that institution, and that we're not going to allow those minimal rights to be violated.

(Doc. 56 at 2-3). Clearly, the jury did just that when they found defendant Guard used excessive force against plaintiff in violation of his Eighth Amendment rights and awarded plaintiff $200.00 in punitive damages. Viewed in this light, the difference between the amount recovered, $201.00, and damages sought was not dramatic. See, e.g., Jones, (recovery of $2 in damages of $860,000 sought paled in comparison to discrepancy of $1 recovered of $17,000,000 sought in Farrar). Moreover, the plaintiff in Farrar achieved only nominal damages, evidencing merely a "technical" victory. Here, plaintiff received not only nominal, but punitive damages as well. The clear import of the punitive damages award was to send a message to corrections officers and deter future misconduct, and distinguishes this case from Farrar. In terms of the extent of relief obtained, the verdict in plaintiff's favor vindicated plaintiff's constitutional rights and was not de minimus.

B. Significance of Legal Issue

The vindication of plaintiff's "right to be free from cruel and unusual punishment is a...