Com. of Pennsylvania v. O'NEILL

431 F. Supp. 700, 16 Fair Empl. Prac. Cas. (BNA) 787, 1977 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 16143, 14 Empl. Prac. Dec. (CCH) 7699
CourtDistrict Court, E.D. Pennsylvania
DecidedApril 28, 1977
DocketCiv. A. 70-3500
StatusPublished
Cited by46 cases

This text of 431 F. Supp. 700 (Com. of Pennsylvania v. O'NEILL) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court, E.D. Pennsylvania primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Com. of Pennsylvania v. O'NEILL, 431 F. Supp. 700, 16 Fair Empl. Prac. Cas. (BNA) 787, 1977 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 16143, 14 Empl. Prac. Dec. (CCH) 7699 (E.D. Pa. 1977).

Opinion

MEMORANDUM AND ORDER

FULLAM, District Judge.

Plaintiffs have petitioned for an award of counsel fees and expenses in this long and complex litigation challenging the hiring and promotional practices of the Police Department of the city of Philadelphia on racial grounds. The action was filed in 1970. Plaintiffs sought preliminary injunctive relief against the use of the existing entrance examinations, background investigation processes and promotional examinations. After extensive preliminary proceed *702 ings, I concluded that significant disparate impact upon racial minorities had been shown in each category; since no attempt had been made to justify the discriminatory impact through validation of the testing procedures, I concluded that they could not form a basis for constitutionally permissible personnel decisions which would perpetuate the discriminatory consequences. A preliminary injunction was therefore entered, the effect of which was to require the City, if it wished to hire additional police officers, to eliminate the disparate impact of the tests by hiring at least one minority applicant for every two Caucasian applicants, that being roughly the proportionate distribution in the pool of applicants. Commonwealth of Pa. v. O’Neill, 348 F.Supp. 1084 (E.D.Pa. 1972). A similar injunction was entered with respect to promotions. On appeal, after en banc consideration, the injunctive order was affirmed by an evenly divided court, insofar as it related to hiring. Commonwealth of Pa. v. O’Neill, 473 F.2d 1029 (3d Cir. 1973).

In April of 1973, the parties agreed to the entry of a Consent Decree in this Court. Under the terms of the Decree, the defendants were to retain a reputable testing organization to prepare, and validate as job-related, an entirely new entrance examination and to assist in the preparation of criteria and procedures for evaluating the backgrounds of applicants so that such screening would be constitutionally and legally valid. Minority applicants who had previously, during an agreed-upon period, been rejected were to be notified of their right to be retested or rescreened; if found eligible under the new procedures, they would be given first priority in hiring, and would be awarded back pay to the date when they should have been hired initially. During the interim period until the new background investigation procedures were adopted, the rescreening would consist of review by a special panel, including one outside neutral expert.

I. FEES

The fee applications now before the Court cover the period from the filing of the lawsuit until March 26, 1976, and embrace services rendered in the litigation leading up to the entry and subsequent implementation of the April 1973 Consent Decree. (Litigation concerning the racial impact and validity of the new entrance examinations, the new promotional examinations, and the new background investigation procedures has just been concluded; briefs have not yet been filed.)

The applications now before the Court represent a composite of various petitions which have been filed from time to time seeking interim awards of counsel fees and costs. It is appropriate at the outset to note the circumstances which made it exceedingly difficult to deal appropriately with these applications as they were filed.

This action was originally filed under the Civil Rights Act, 42 U.S.C. § 1981. Title VII was made applicable to municipalities in 1972. Thereafter, all concerned treated the issues in light of the Title VII standards and the EEOC guidelines, but the Complaint was not formally amended to allege Title VII violations (and compliance with administrative right to sue requirements) until 1976. Until the decision of the Supreme Court in Alyeska Pipeline Service Co. v. Wilderness Society, 421 U.S. 240, 95 S.Ct. 1612, 44 L.Ed.2d 141 (1975), all concerned were proceeding on the assumption that counsel fees could be awarded under § 1981.

But in view of the Alyeska decision, the counsel fees issues., became unexpectedly complicated. If the Complaint were deemed amended retroactively (as it eventually was), counsel fees could presumably be awarded for the period from 1972 on, under Title VII. Irrespective of Title VII, counsel fees could presumably be awarded, to some extent, under one or more of the following possible theories: as sanctions under the discovery rules, to the extent that the services were rendered in compelling discovery; as penalties in connection with various contempt proceedings which have dotted the history of this litigation; and/or to the extent that the defendants’ conduct of- this litigation might properly be charac *703 terized as conducted in bad faith or with conscious racial animus. Fortunately, while the Court was wrestling with these problems and attempting to determine whether allocation of the fee claims on some such basis would be possible on the existing record, Congress, in October of 1976, enacted the Civil Rights Attorneys’ Fees Awards Act, which adds to 42 U.S.C. § 1988 the following language:

“. . .In any action or proceeding to enforce a provision of sections 1981 to 1983, 1985, and 1986 of this title, . the court, in its discretion, may allow the prevailing party, other than the United States, a reasonable attorney’s fee as part of the costs.”

42 U.S.C.A. § 1988 (Pamphlet No. 4, Part 3, 1976), amending 42 U.S.C.A. § 1988 (1970).

The legislative history leaves no doubt as to the applicability of the first provision to pending cases, 1 and I therefore conclude that the Court now undoubtedly has discretionary authority to award counsel fees in this case. At least to the extent of the Consent Decree, plaintiffs are clearly the prevailing party; the issue therefore is whether, and to what extent, attorney’s fees should properly be awarded in this case. While consideration of the nature of the particular services, and of the relative good faith or recalcitrance of the parties, still bear upon the exercise of discretion, precise categorization is no longer necessary. Lindy Bros. Builders, Inc. v. American Radiator & Standard Sanitation Corp., 540 F.2d 102 (3d Cir. 1976) (Lindy II); id., 487 F.2d 161 (3d Cir. 1973) (Lindy I).

Plaintiffs received legal assistance from three separate sources: Robert J. Reinstein, acting to some degree in his capacity as consultant to the Office of the General Counsel of the NAACP; various members of the Philadelphia law firm of Drinker Biddle & Reath (Drinker), but primarily Henry W. Sawyer, III, Alan Klein and Amy Davis; and Robert P. Vogel, Assistant Attorney General with the Community Advocate Unit of the Pennsylvania Department of Justice.

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Bluebook (online)
431 F. Supp. 700, 16 Fair Empl. Prac. Cas. (BNA) 787, 1977 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 16143, 14 Empl. Prac. Dec. (CCH) 7699, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/com-of-pennsylvania-v-oneill-paed-1977.