Armstrong v. Davis

318 F.3d 965, 2003 WL 262329
Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit·Decided February 10, 2003·No. No. 01-15779·Published·Cited by 26 cases

Opinion

REINHARDT, Circuit Judge:

Defendants, state officials responsible for the operation of the California Department of Corrections (“CDC”) and the California Board of Prison Terms (“BPT”), appeal an award of attorney’s fees to Plaintiffs, a class of present and future California state prisoners and parolees with disabilities, who prevailed in their action under the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990, 42 U.S.C. § 12101 (“ADA”) and Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973, 29 U.S.C. § 794 (“RA”). We affirm the decision of the district court.1

Background

Plaintiffs brought this action in 1994 to challenge California’s treatment of disabled inmates and parolees. In 1996 all defendants except the officials of the BPT stipulated that adequate emergency evacuation plans for disabled prisoners were lacking in some facilities, that a smaller range of vocational programs was available to disabled prisoners than to non-disabled prisoners, and that sentence reduction credits had been improperly denied to some disabled prisoners. Armstrong v. Wilson, 124 F.3d 1019, 1021 (9th Cir.1997). These defendants (“CDC defendants”) asserted, however, in a summary judgment motion, that the ADA and RA did not apply to state prisoners, and that the defendant state officials were immune from liability under the Eleventh Amendment. The district court denied the motion, Armstrong v. Wilson, 942 F.Supp. 1252, 1264 (N.D.Cal.1996), and issued a remedial order and injunction. The CDC defendants appealed, and we affirmed, holding that “the ADA and RA apply to inmates and parolees in the state penal system and that this suit may proceed in federal court under the doctrine of Ex parte Young [209 U.S. 123, 28 S.Ct. 441, 52 L.Ed. 714 (1908)],” which provides an exception to Eleventh Amendment immunity. Armstrong, 124 F.3d at 1026. Under the remedial order and injunction, the CDC defendants evaluate their programs and develop remedial plans, while Plaintiffs monitor Defendants’ compliance.

The remedial order and injunction provides that Plaintiffs are the prevailing party and are entitled to attorney’s fees, litigation expenses, and costs, for litigation as well as for monitoring for compliance. The procedure for collecting fees is set forth in a 1997 stipulation and order for periodic collection of attorney’s fees, which was agreed upon by the parties. Disputes regarding the periodic fees are resolved through negotiation or, where negotiation fails, through a motion to compel.

The CDC defendants filed a petition for writ of certiorari, seeking review of our decision in Armstrong and our decision in a related case, Clark v. California Department of Corrections, 123 F.3d 1267 (9th Cir.1997). While the petition was pending, two other petitions were filed raising the issue whether the ADA applies to state prisoners. See Amos v. Md. Dep’t of Pub. Safety, 126 F.3d 589 (4th Cir.1997) (holding ADA does not apply to state prisons), cert, granted, judgment vacated, case remanded by 524 U.S. 935, 118 S.Ct. 2339, 141 L.Ed.2d 710 (1998); Yeskey v. Penn. Dep’t of Corr., 118 F.3d 168 (3d Cir.1997) (holding ADA does apply to state prisons), aff'd 524 U.S. 206, 118 S.Ct. 1952, 141 L.Ed.2d 215 (1998).

Counsel for the plaintiff in Yeskey asked the Prison Law Office, which was counsel for Plaintiffs in Armstrong, whether, if certiorari were granted in Yeskey, rather than in Armstrong, that Office would rep[969] resent the Yeskey plaintiff before the United States Supreme Court. Because a Supreme Court decision on the application of the ADA to prison inmates would affect the Armstrong Plaintiffs with equal force regardless of which case the Court chose as its vehicle to address the issue, the Prison Law Office agreed to represent the Yeskey plaintiff in such circumstance.

The Supreme Court granted certiorari in Yeskey, and the Prison Law Office appeared on behalf of the Yeskey plaintiff. The Court then held that the ADA does apply to state prisoners, as Yeskey and Armstrong had both concluded. Yeskey, 524 U.S. at 213, 118 S.Ct. 1952. One week later the Court denied the petition for certiorari in Armstrong and Clark. Wilson v. Armstrong, 524 U.S. 937, 118 S.Ct. 2340, 141 L.Ed.2d 711 (1998). Thus, Plaintiffs’ counsel successfully protected the Armstrong decision of this court by prevailing in Yeskey in the Supreme Court.

The BPT portion of the original case went to trial. During discovery, Plaintiffs deposed a number of BPT officials and one expert, and arranged for their own experts to inspect certain prison facilities and to conduct other types of investigation. Before trial, the BPT defendants filed two motions to dismiss, a motion for summary judgment, and a motion for continuance of trial. Shortly before trial, the district court permitted Plaintiffs to add a claim for due process violations under § 1983. After pre-trial motions were resolved, a ten-day bench trial was held. The district court then found the BPT hable for violations of the ADA, the RA, and the Due Process Clause of the Constitution. After further post-trial proceedings, the court issued a permanent injunction requiring the BPT to bring its policies and practices into compliance with the law. The BPT defendants appealed, and we affirmed the main elements of the district court’s decision and injunction. Armstrong v. Davis, 275 F.3d 849, 879 (9th Cir.2001).

District Court’s Award of Attorney’s Fees

Defendants appeal from four orders by the district court awarding Plaintiffs fees and costs for litigation and for monitoring Defendants’ compliance with the injunctions.

Order of March 19, 2001 Awarding Attorney’s Fees and Costs Incurred in Yes-key

In October 1999, Plaintiffs sought attorney’s fees from Defendants for the work performed in litigating Yeskey before the Supreme Court. Plaintiffs argued that their attorneys’ work in Yeskey was reasonably necessary to further their interests in their litigation against the Armstrong Defendants. Defendants objected that they cannot be compelled to pay fees in a case that did not involve them.

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Armstrong v. Davis, 318 F.3d 965, 2003 WL 262329 (9th Cir. 2003).

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