Soto v. Romero-Barcelo

• Decision Date: 15 March 1983
• Docket Number: 82-350(PG).,Civ. No. 79-236(PG)
• Citation: 559 F. Supp. 739
• Parties: Pedro Juan SOTO, et al., Plaintiffs, v. Carlos ROMERO BARCELÓ, et al., Defendants.
• Court: U.S. District Court — District of Puerto Rico

559 F. Supp. 739

Pedro Juan SOTO, et al., Plaintiffs, v. Carlos ROMERO BARCELÓ, et al., Defendants.

Civ. Nos. 79-236(PG), 82-350(PG).

United States District Court, D. Puerto Rico.

March 15, 1983.

José Carreras, Pedro J. Varela, Hato Rey, P.R., Michael Avery, Boston, Mass., José A. Lugo, Michael Ratner, Center for Constitutional Rights, New York City, Peter Berkowitz, Rina Biaggi-Garcia, Luquillo, P.R., Roberto Armstrong, Jr., Dept. of Justice, San Juan, P.R., for plaintiffs.

Richard L. Cys and Mary Ann Clifford, Verner, Liipfert, Bernhard & McPherson, Washington, D.C., for defendants C. Romero Barcelo and Pedro Rivera Casiano.

Pedro A. Otero Fernández, Rio Piedras, and Hato Rey, P.R., for defendants Julio Cesar Andrades Cepeda and Julio Cesar Andrades.

Alex González, Dubón, González & Berrios, San Juan, P.R., for Roberto Torres González, Rafael Torres, Alejandro González Malavé and Desiderio Cartagena.

Hector Laffitte, Laffitte & Dominguez, Hato Rey, P.R., for Julio Andrades, Luis Reverón Martinez and José Rios Polanco.

A. Santiago Villalonga, San Juan, P.R., for Alejandro González Malavé.

Francis, Doval, Munõz, Acevedo, Otero & Trias, Arturo Trias, San Juan, P.R., for San Juan Star Co. and Overseas Press Club.

Rivera Cestero and Marchand Quintero, Juan R. Marchand Quintero, San Juan, P.R., for El Mundo, Inc.

Arturo Nieves Huertas, Bayamon, P.R., for La Asociacion de Periodistas de P.R.

José A. Nazario and Carlos A. Ortiz Morales, San Juan, P.R., for Miguel Hernández Agosto, Pres. of Senate.

OPINION AND ORDER

PEREZ-GIMENEZ, District Judge.

This case is before the Court on the Motion of Governor Carlos Romero Barceló, as a prevailing party, for an order awarding the amount of reasonable attorney's fees expended in his behalf.

The Complaint in this case, founded primarily upon 42 U.S.C. 1983 and 1985(3), was brought by the survivors of Carlos Soto Arriví and Arnaldo Darío Rosado against the Governor and several other defendants. The Complaint alleges (1) that the Governor, through his acts or omissions, was directly responsible for the deaths of Rosado and Soto; (2) that he participated in a conspiracy with the police to ambush and kill these two men, for his own political purposes; and (3) that he and other defendants were responsible for the deaths of Soto and Rosado because of their failure to properly train and supervise the police officers involved in the incident at Cerro Maravilla.

On July 22, 1982, after three and a half years of litigation, this Court granted the Governor's Motion for Summary Judgment and as a result, he now moves for an award of the attorney's fees expended in his behalf.

Having reviewed the entire record in this matter, and having presided over the case almost since its inception, this Court in its discretion finds that the reasonable attorney's fees expended on behalf of Carlos Romero Barceló should be awarded.

I. Summary of the Proceedings

The Complaint in this case, first filed in January of 1979 and subsequently amended in May of 1979, alleged that the Governor directly, and through his participation in a conspiracy with the police, caused the deaths of Soto and Rosado at Cerro Maravilla on July 25, 1978. The charges in the Complaint were extensive and detailed; they were not qualified by any language indicating that they were based upon "information and belief" or otherwise were facts established with less than certainty. Read in its entirety, the Complaint accused Romero Barceló of committing murder.

In July of 1979, the Governor instituted discovery to learn whatever facts plaintiffs could show in support of the serious allegations they had made against him. Plaintiffs' responses to these requests did not candidly state, as their counsel did at oral argument on this motion, that the basis of the Complaint was predicated upon suspicions drawn principally from the Puerto Rican media. Throughout discovery, in responding to Romero Barceló's discovery requests, plaintiffs restated and embellished the allegations in their Complaint without specific support or proper citation to material facts and proposed supporting testimony. Often they repeated allegations which undisputed record evidence had disproved.¹

An important milestone in this case was the deposition of the Governor on June 11, 1980, at which this Court presided. The substance of that proceeding developed facts which not only failed to support plaintiffs' claims, but also contradicted their main allegations and their content.

Based on all of the materials of record after the deposition,² the undisputed facts demonstrated that the Governor had played no role in any murder or conspiracy in the Cerro Maravilla matter. The facts showed that he had no specific advance knowledge either of the planned attack on communications towers in the Toro Negro area by Soto and Rosado or of the plans of the Police Department to respond to these activities. As a result of a meeting with then Police Superintendent Roberto Torres González on July 21, 1978, the Governor had only general knowledge of the proposed terrorist activity in the Toro Negro area on July 25, and he had no further communication about the matter before the shootout occurred at Cerro Maravilla on July 25. After the deposition of the Governor, although plaintiffs continued the litigation for two more years, they did not amend their Complaint or take any other affirmative action to tailor their allegations to the state of the evidence on record.

In April of 1982, plaintiffs responded to Romero Barceló's summary judgment motion filed in mid 1981 after the close of discovery. While conceding that they must either prove that Romero Barceló conspired to ambush and murder Soto and Rosado or lose their case, they produced no material facts to support their claims. It was apparent that the state of their record evidence had not changed at least since the deposition of the Governor almost two years earlier. As this Court observed in granting Romero Barceló's summary judgment motion, plaintiffs' recital of alleged material facts in issue was speculative, unsupported and self-serving.

Finally, the Court observes that creating publicity and obtaining political advantage have been part of plaintiffs' motivation in bringing this case. The Court makes this finding based upon the approach taken by plaintiffs' counsel from the outset and the Court's observations of these proceedings. For example, during the early stages of the case, plaintiffs' counsel sought to depose the Governor on July 24, 1979, at the Puerto Rico Bar Association, at a time obviously calculated to create maximum publicity since it was immediately before the first anniversary of the shootout at which Soto and Rosado were killed. In addition, their counsel have frequently publicized information obtained through discovery in these proceedings and have apparently been in frequent contact with reporters. At the same time, they refused to agree to a protective order which would have given them access to discovery materials in August 1979; and they have unsuccessfully challenged routine protective orders and restrictions on the dissemination of information obtained during discovery.³ Lastly, plaintiffs' motivation in bringing this suit against the Governor was patently manifested when they failed to appeal this Court's Final Judgment granting the Motion for Summary Judgment and dismissing the Complaint against the Governor on November 17, 1982.

II. Discussion

A. Principles of Law

Pursuant to the applicable civil rights statutes,⁴ a court may in its discretion award reasonable attorney's fees to a prevailing party. While prevailing plaintiffs are generally awarded their attorney's fees as a matter of course, the guidelines for determining whether to award attorney's fees to prevailing defendants are governed by the Supreme Court's recent pronouncements in Christiansburg Garment Co. v. EEOC, 434 U.S. 412, 98 S.Ct. 694, 54 L.Ed.2d 648 (1978).⁵

Under Christiansburg a court may award attorney's fees to a prevailing defendant "upon a finding that the plaintiffs' action was frivolous, unreasonable, or without foundation, even though not brought in subjective bad faith." Id., at 421, 98 S.Ct. at 700. In addition, under Christiansburg, a prevailing defendant is entitled to his attorney's fees upon a finding that "the plaintiff continued to litigate after his claim clearly became frivolous, unreasonable, or without foundation." Id., at 422, 98 S.Ct., at 700. Finally, where plaintiffs bring or continue this sort of claim in bad faith, "an even stronger basis" exists for assessing attorney's fees. Id., at 422, 98 S.Ct., at 700.

The Supreme Court in Christiansburg also cautioned that it is inappropriate to apply "hindsight logic" to conclude that "because the plaintiff did not ultimately prevail, his action must have been unreasonable or without foundation." Id., at 421, 98 S.Ct., at 700. The inquiry, therefore, must go beyond the end result and a retrospective view of how the litigation unfolded. This Court must view the situation as it appeared when the case moved through its various stages and determine whether there existed "material, admissible evidence" to support the plaintiffs' claim.⁶

The Court is also mindful that attorney's fees should not routinely be awarded to prevailing defendants in civil rights cases. Given the purposes of the civil rights laws, the Supreme Court in Christiansburg has carefully limited the circumstances in which an award of fees to a prevailing defendant is proper. It is not enough that plaintiffs have lost their case. Nevertheless, civil rights plaintiffs do not enjoy unfettered incentives to litigate against government officials. Id., at 419, 98 S.Ct., at 699. And the Court has recently emphasized that insubstantial cases against public officials should be dismissed without trial. Harlow v. Fitzgerald, ___ U.S. ___, ___, 102 S.Ct. 2727, 2736, 73 L.Ed.2d 396 (1982). Nor...