Taylor v. Sterrett
| Decision Date | 25 March 1981 |
| Docket Number | No. 79-3851,79-3851 |
| Parties | Joseph TAYLOR et al., Plaintiffs-Appellees, Cross Appellants, v. W. L. STERRETT et al., Defendants-Appellees, Garry Weber, County Judge of Dallas Co., Jim Jackson, Nancy Judy, Jim Tyson, Roy Orr, etc., Defendants-Appellants, Cross Appellees. . Unit A |
| Court | U.S. Court of Appeals — Fifth Circuit |
Earl Luna, Thomas V. Murto, III, Dallas, Tex., for defendants-appellants, cross appellees.
Jordan, Rubin & Pace, John F. Jordan, Dallas, Tex., Joel Berger, Jack Greenberg, James M. Nabrit, III, Charles Stephen Ralston, New York City, Jarilyn Catherine Dupont, Dallas Legal Services Foundation, Inc., Dallas, Tex., for plaintiffs-appellees, cross appellants.
Appeals from the United States District Court for the Northern District of Texas.
Before BROWN, COLEMAN and GEE, Circuit Judges.
This case was originally brought as a challenge to conditions in the Dallas County, Texas, jail system. Once more it appears here after protracted litigation over a period of nearly ten years, including four previous appeals to this Court. After the final appellate decision on the merits, the District Court awarded fees to John Jordan, an attorney for the plaintiff class, for time spent on the case from June 11, 1974, to July 30, 1979. It denied an award of fees to Dallas Legal Services Foundation, Inc. (hereinafter DLSF) and to NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund, Inc. (hereinafter LDF), two organizations which had also participated to some extent in behalf of the plaintiff class.
The defendants, the Commissioners Court of Dallas County, challenge the award of fees to Jordan on grounds that (1) the District Court had no jurisdiction to award fees while the case was on appeal; (2) only supplemental enforcement proceedings were pending on the effective date of § 1988; (3) plaintiffs did not prevail in these proceedings; and (4) if plaintiffs could be considered to have prevailed in the supplemental proceedings, Jordan should only recover fees for time spent between June 11, 1974, and December 31, 1976. DLSF and LDF cross appeal, arguing that (1) non-profit legal service organizations, including federally-funded projects, may recover fees on the same basis as private attorneys; (2) the District Court failed to make findings on the criteria set forth in Johnson v. Georgia Highway Express, Inc., 488 F.2d 714 (5th Cir. 1974); and (3) there are no special circumstances warranting denial of fees.
We affirm the denial of fees to LDF and DLSF. We reverse and remand the award to Jordan for a reduction of amount allowed him.
This was a class action by inmates of the Dallas County Jail against the Dallas County Commissioners Court and other county officials, challenging the conditions there as violative of the Constitution and of Texas law. It initially filed on October 26, 1971. The complaint requested attorney's fees on behalf of John Jordan, an employee of DLSF (Jordan went into private practice in June, 1974, but the Court requested that he continue to represent the plaintiff class). After trial on the merits, the District Court in a memorandum opinion and judgment filed June 5, 1972, held that the jail did not comply with state law and ordered modification of the physical facilities and changes in jail procedure; attorney's fees were denied. Taylor v. Sterrett, 344 F.Supp. 411, 421, 423 (N.D.Tex.1972). Defendants appealed.
On appeal, the Fifth Circuit affirmed in part, vacated in part, and remanded for exercise of a retained jurisdiction. Taylor v. Sterrett, 499 F.2d 367, 369 (5th Cir. 1974), cert. denied sub nom. 420 U.S. 983, 95 S.Ct. 1414, 43 L.Ed.2d 665 (1975). On remand, the District Court entered an amended judgment containing the required changes. Defendants again appealed. On this appeal, the Fifth Circuit modified and affirmed part of the amended judgment and vacated and remanded part of it. Taylor v. Sterrett, 532 F.2d 462, 484 (5th Cir. 1976). On July 20, 1976, the District Court entered an amended order conforming to the appellate decision. There was no appeal from this amended judgment. The denial of attorney's fees in the original judgment was not questioned either on the first or the second appeal. The two amended judgments neither reserved the question nor altered the denial of fees.
Enforcement proceedings began on June 24, 1974. The defendants were ordered to file reports on their progress at specified intervals. At times, plaintiffs would respond, the Court would hold hearings on the reports, and would issue an order commenting on the report and identifying topics to be discussed in the next report. On August 15, 1974, Jordan filed a motion for attorney's fees for time spent in preparation for defendants' August 15, 1974, report and for subsequent proceedings. Apparently, this motion was never acted upon by the District Court.
In 1976, two groups of property owners protesting the proposed conversion of a vacant hospital into a minimum security jail sought intervention in the federal court case. Plaintiffs opposed this intervention. The District Court denied intervention, but, upon defendants' motion, joined both as third-party defendants. The Fifth Circuit vacated this order of joinder. The challenges were then tried in state court with the county officials prevailing. Oak Lawn Preservation Society v. Bd. of Mgrs. of Dallas Cty. Hosp., 566 S.W.2d 315, 318 (Tex.Civ.App.1978), writ ref'd n. r. e.
On February 1, 1977, the plaintiffs filed a § 1988 motion for attorney's fees for time spent on the case from October 19, 1976 to the end of the case. On February 8, 1977, the District Court, disappointed with defendants' progress, appointed a special master to gather information concerning jail facilities and operations. The special master's report was filed April 15, 1977. The county responded, pointing out that Texas had established an agency to promulgate and enforce jail standards, and requested the Court to decline to retain further jurisdiction of the case. The Court's April 27 order (entered as a separate order May 12 upon defendants' request) approved the special master's report, ordered the Commissioners' Court to buy land and adopt a plan for a new jail within three months, and directed the sheriff not to accept new inmates when the present jail was full to capacity. Defendants then appealed from these two orders. During the pendency of this appeal, the enforcement procedure continued as before.
Jordan, Stanley Bass, LDF staff attorney, and Betsy Julian, DLSF staff attorney, filed an amended motion for attorney's fees on July 3, 1979, requesting fees for services rendered from October 26, 1971, future services, and past and future appeals. Each attorney filed affidavits and memoranda detailing time spent on the case and discussing application of the Johnson factors. The hearing on the motions was held August 29, 1979.
On August 16, 1979, the Fifth Circuit rendered its opinion on the county's latest appeal. Convinced that the District Court's role in improving the Dallas County jail had been completed and that control of the jail system should be returned to state and local officials, the Court vacated the April 27 and May 12 orders and all other orders and stays still in effect. The case was remanded "with directions to the district court to discontinue the further exercise of its retained jurisdiction and to dismiss the cause." Taylor v. Sterrett, 600 F.2d 1135, 1141, 1145-46 (5th Cir. 1979).
On October 23, 1979, the District Court found that the case had been pending on the effective date of § 1988, that the plaintiff class had prevailed, and awarded fees of $26,417.50 to John Jordan for all time spent on the case from June 11, 1974, to July 30, 1979, and denied fees to DLSF and LDF. DLSF was denied fees because the Court found, inter alia, that there was no need for its services in that period because Jordan was capable of and did continue as plaintiffs' primary counsel at the Court's request. No reason was given for denying fees to LDF. The mandate pursuant to our August 19 opinion reached the District Court on October 25 and the case was dismissed on October 29.
On appeal of the April 27 and May 12 orders, the Court held that these orders were appealable under 28 U.S.C. § 1292(a)(1) (1976) as interlocutory orders modifying the 1972 injunction and, "necessarily" construing the orders as denying defendants' request that the district court decline to retain jurisdiction, as refusals to dissolve or modify an injunction. 600 F.2d at 1140, 1140 n.10. Under this construction, it appears the appeal of the April 27 and May 12 orders involved only those orders and subsequent ones; previous orders were not involved in the appeal. It is the general rule that a district court is divested of jurisdiction upon the filing of the notice of appeal with respect to any matters involved in the appeal. 9 Moore's Federal Practice P 203.11, at 3-44 (2d ed. 1980). However where an appeal is allowed from an interlocutory order, the district court may still proceed with matters not involved in the appeal. 9 Moore's Federal Practice, supra, at 3-54 (2d ed. 1980). Therefore, the District Court was divested of jurisdiction only as to matters relating to the April 27 and May 12 orders and subsequent orders and, for that reason, fees cannot be recovered for work relating to these orders. The Court still had jurisdiction as to previous orders and could award fees for work relating to these prior orders.
42 U.S.C. § 1988, as amended October 19, 1976, provides in pertinent part:
... In any action or proceeding to enforce a provision of sections 1981, 1982, 1983, 1985, and 1986 of this title, Title IX of Public Law 92-318, or in any civil action or proceeding, by or on behalf of the United States of America, to enforce, or charging a...
To continue reading
Request your trial
-
Filipino Accountants' Assn. v. State Bd. of Accountancy
...but that petitioners "prevailed" in the instant litigation in which they "acquired the primary relief sought." (Taylor v. Sterrett (5th Cir.1981) 640 F.2d 663, 669, approved in Hensley v. Eckerhart, supra, 461 U.S. at p. ----, fn. 8, 103 S.Ct. at p. 1939, fn. 8, 76 L.Ed.2d at p. 50, fn. 8; ......
-
Frazier v. Board of Trustees of Northwest Mississippi Regional Medical Center
...1939, 76 L.Ed.2d 40 (1983); Roadway Express, Inc. v. Piper, 447 U.S. 752, 100 S.Ct. 2455, 2462, 65 L.Ed.2d 488 (1980); Taylor v. Sterrett, 640 F.2d 663, 669 (5th Cir.1981). The nature of "prevailing party" status has been expressed in a variety of ways, depending on the context in which the......
-
United Nuclear Corp. v. Cannon
...United Nuclear Corporation v. Cannon, 696 F.2d 141 (1st Cir.1982).2 The Court believes that the reasoning expressed in Taylor v. Sterrett, 640 F.2d 663 (5th Cir.1981) is persuasive on this point. In Taylor, the Fifth Circuit held that time expended in connection with opposition to intervent......
-
Kirchberg v. Feenstra
...ordinarily recover attorney's fees under section 1988 unless special circumstances would render such an award unjust. Taylor v. Sterrett, 640 F.2d 663, 669 (5th Cir.1981); Riddell, 624 F.2d at 543. We have interpreted this to mean that absent special circumstances, a prevailing plaintiff sh......