Muscare v. Quinn
Decision Date | 13 February 1980 |
Docket Number | No. 77-1907,77-1907 |
Citation | 614 F.2d 577 |
Parties | Francis MUSCARE, Plaintiff-Appellee, v. Robert J. QUINN, Individually and as Commissioner of the Chicago Fire Department, Defendant-Appellant. |
Court | U.S. Court of Appeals — Seventh Circuit |
Edmund Hatfield, Corp. Counsel, Chicago, Ill., for defendant-appellant.
Linda R. Hirshman, Chicago, Ill., for plaintiff-appellee.
Before PELL and WOOD, Circuit Judges, and HARPER, Senior Judge. *
This appeal involves a supplementary proceeding for an award of plaintiff's attorney's fees pursuant to 42 U.S.C. § 1988, in a civil rights case brought under 42 U.S.C. § 1983.
On March 11, 1974, plaintiff, Francis Muscare, filed his complaint in the United States District Court for the Northern District of Illinois. Muscare was at that time a lieutenant in the Chicago Fire Department. He sought a declaratory judgment that a departmental grooming regulation restricting facial hair on firefighters was unconstitutional. He also sought a determination that the disciplinary procedure utilized by the fire department in suspending him for twenty-nine days for violating the grooming regulation deprived him of due process. Muscare requested preliminary and permanent injunctive relief, prohibiting the enforcement of the grooming regulation, and back pay.
The district court denied plaintiff relief, holding that the grooming regulation was justified as a reasonable safety measure and hence constitutionally valid. The grooming regulation was instituted as a safety measure to promote the effective use of firefighter's gas masks. The district court did not expressly rule on the plaintiff's claim of a denial of procedural due process. The district court's order was appealed to this Court.
On May 21, 1975, this Court filed its per curiam opinion. Muscare v. Quinn, 520 F.2d 1212 (7th Cir. 1975). Therein this Court declined to resolve the issue of the constitutionality of the facial hair regulation, but held that Muscare had been suspended without procedural due process. Public employees facing temporary suspension for less than thirty days were found to be entitled under due process to a hearing prior to suspension where they would be fully informed of the reason for the proposed suspension and where they could challenge its sufficiency. Muscare v. Quinn, supra at 1215. Muscare had been afforded only a post-suspension review before the Civil Service Commission of the charges against him, which he did not utilize.
On July 24, 1975, the defendant filed a petition for certiorari in the United States Supreme Court, which was granted on October 14, 1975.
In August of 1975, the Civil Service Commission of the City of Chicago revised its suspension procedures, providing an opportunity for a pre-suspension hearing to most Chicago civil service employees, including those in the fire department.
On May 3, 1976, the Supreme Court dismissed the writ of certiorari as improvidently granted. Quinn v. Muscare, 425 U.S. 560, 96 S.Ct. 1752, 48 L.Ed.2d 165 (1976). Therein the Court stated, 425 U.S. at 562-63, 96 S.Ct. at 1753-1754:
On December 6, 1976, the district court entered judgment for Muscare. It found that the suspension of the plaintiff violated his right to due process and ordered that Muscare be paid damages in the amount of one month's salary plus all benefits with legal interest from the date of the deprivation. Plaintiff's request for costs and attorney's fees was taken under advisement.
On December 28, 1976, plaintiff filed a memorandum in support of his motion for attorney's fees. Attached to this memorandum as Exhibit C was a schedule representing an estimate of hours spent on the case by plaintiff's counsel. Therein plaintiff requested $41,012.50 in attorney's fees for 820.25 hours spent at the rate of $50.00 per hour, plus $3,677.67 in expenses. Plaintiff later filed an addendum to his petition for fees and costs in the amount of $1,257.73 for the cost of printing briefs in the United States Supreme Court.
Thereafter plaintiff filed a motion to reconsider, asserting that the statement of hours, hourly rate, and costs, was true and accurate. Defendant also filed a motion to reconsider. These motions were denied by the District Court. This appeal followed.
We have previously set out a method of analysis to assist in determining the amount of attorney's fees under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, 42 U.S.C. § 2000e et seq. Waters v. Wisconsin Steel Works, 502 F.2d 1309, 1322 (7th Cir. 1974), cert. denied, 425 U.S. 997, 96 S.Ct. 2214, 48 L.Ed.2d 823 (1976). The Court said:
These eight factors set out in the Code of Professional Responsibility, as adopted by the American Bar Association, are pertinent and to be considered in an award of attorney's fees under 42 U.S.C. § 1988. See, King v. Greenblatt, 560 F.2d 1024, 1027 n. 6 (1st Cir. 1977), cert. denied, 438 U.S. 916, 98 S.Ct. 3146, 57 L.Ed.2d 1161 (1978); Rainey v. Jackson State College, 551 F.2d 672, 676 (5th Cir. 1977).
The determination of reasonable attorney's fees under ...
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