Holland v. Steele

92 F.R.D. 58, 33 Fed. R. Serv. 2d 1039, 1981 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 15600
CourtDistrict Court, N.D. Georgia
DecidedOctober 21, 1981
DocketCiv. A. No. C81-I74R
StatusPublished
Cited by5 cases

This text of 92 F.R.D. 58 (Holland v. Steele) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court, N.D. Georgia primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Holland v. Steele, 92 F.R.D. 58, 33 Fed. R. Serv. 2d 1039, 1981 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 15600 (N.D. Ga. 1981).

Opinion

ORDER

HAROLD L. MURPHY, District Judge.

In this civil rights action plaintiff seeks an order prohibiting defendant from restricting plaintiff’s access to counsel and to the courts in civil matters.

Pending before the Court is plaintiff’s motion for class certification pursuant to Rule 23(a) and (b)(2), Fed.R.Civ.P. Plaintiff seeks to have certified as a class all persons who are or will be detained in the Dade County Jail in Trenton, Georgia.

I. As a preliminary matter, defendant questions the eligibility of any class to be represented by attorneys who are employees of a grantee of the Legal Services Corporation. 42 U.S.C. § 2996. Defendant argues that, inasmuch as the plaintiff class may contain members who are not qualified in their own right to receive legal assistance from the grantee, Georgia Legal Services, Inc., the class may not therefore be represented by the grantee. In addition, defendant cites a similar statutory prohibition against a Legal Services’ grantee accepting any “fee-generating” employment. 42 U.S.C. § 2996f(b). Since attorney’s fees are allowable in civil rights cases, 42 U.S.C. § 1988, defendant contends that plaintiff’s attorneys are therefore ineligible in this case.

These assertions are without merit in that this is neither the proper forum nor appropriate proceeding to voice such objections. Under 42 U.S.C. § 2996e(b)(l)(B), the determination of the propriety of grantee representation of specific litigants is within the jurisdiction of the Legal Services Corporation.

No question of whether representation is authorized under this subchapter, or the rules, regulations, or guidelines promulgated pursuant to this subchapter, shall be considered in, or affect, the final disposition of any proceeding in which a person is represented by a recipient or an employee of a recipient. A litigant in such proceeding may refer any such question to the Corporation which shall review and dispose of the question promptly, and take appropriate action. This subparagraph shall not preclude judicial review available under applicable law. (emphasis supplied).

That this represents more than a hollow statutory pronouncement is evidenced by Congress’ delegation of authority to the Corporation to take appropriate steps to [61]*61combat improper representations by its grantees (recipients). At 42 U.S.C. § 2996e(b)(l)(A), the Corporation is given authority to insure compliance with the statute and regulations promulgated thereby by terminating “after a hearing in accordance with section 2996j of this title, financial support to a recipient which fails to comply.”

The conclusion that this challenge is one which the Court is without authority to hear in the first instance is affirmed by legislative history. In 1977, Congress amended the Legal Services Corporation Act to include subsection (b)(1)(B) to prevent a challenge such as the one raised by the defendant. As the House Report stated:

[T]he Corporation is charged with insuring compliance of recipients and their employees with the Act, and, after a hearing, may terminate financial assistance to the recipient. In addition, a recipient may take appropriate remedial or disciplinary action against an employee who has violated the Act, rules, regulations, or guidelines. Therefore, an internal mechanism exists for complaints about operations of local programs, including the eligibility of specific clients. Also, programs are monitored several times a year by the Corporation.
However, since the inception of federally funded legal services, parties to lawsuits in which the opponent is represented by a legal services program have, from time to time, sought to avoid resolution of the issues in the suit by challenging the authority of the legal services program to provide representation in the particular case or to the particular client. Courts that have been asked to rule upon which questions have been uniform in holding that such issues should be taken up with the agency providing funding. [The amendment] is thus declaratory of existing law as it has been announced by the courts. The Committee believes that repetitive litigation of this issue is a needless drain of federal funds provided for the representation of poor people, and the section has been added to discourage further frivolous litigation of the issue.

H.R.Rep.No. 95-310, 95th, Cong., 1st Sess. [1977] reprinted in U.S.Code Cong. & Admin.News pp. 4503, 4510.

In spite of the clear language of the statute, defendant argues that the final sentence of subsection (b)(1)(B) pertaining to judicial review of Corporation action authorizes his present challenge. A similar objection was raised in Anderson v. Redman, 474 F.Supp. 511 (D.Del.1979). In that case, the court interpreted that clause as showing Congressional intent to filter any such representational questions through the Corporation itself, reserving any judicial review to simple review of agency action, id at 519. Moreover, the court cited the legislative history of the conference bill (found at H.R.Rep.No. 95-825, 95th Cong. 1st Sess. [1977] reprinted in U.S.Code Cong. & Admin.News pp. 4530, 4532), and concluded that the “statute apparently bars any collateral litigation of the propriety of a recipient’s representation decisions.” Anderson v. Redman, supra at 520.

Other cases have ruled consistently on this point. In Martens v. Halls, 444 F.Supp. 34 (S.D.Fla.1977), the court held that “the determination of ‘eligibility’ is an administrative decision within the scope of decision of the Corporation and its recipients.” 444 F.Supp. at 35. Likewise, in McManama v. Lukhard, 616 F.2d 727 (4th Cir. 1980), the court held that the district court erred in requiring plaintiff to respond to a propounded interrogatory as to whether the legal aid society had referred plaintiff to a lawyer referral service, in compliance with the statutory provision against a grantee accepting fee-generating cases. Although finding the error harmless, the court held that “[t]his is precisely the sort of question that the Legal Services Corporation Act and its implementing regulations require to be submitted to the Corporation, subject to judicial review.” 616 F.2d at 730. See also, Brame v. Ray Bills Finance Corporation, 76 F.R.D. 25, 27 (N.D.N.Y.1977) (“A number of courts have indicated that the decision of a legal services organization to represent a particular individual is not a proper matter to be reviewed by the courts”).

[62]*62In addition, defendant asserts that certification should be withheld pending a “showing by the plaintiff’s attorneys that they have complied with” 42 U.S.C. § 2996e

Free access — add to your briefcase to read the full text and ask questions with AI

Related

CARBAJAL-RAMIREZ v. Bland Farms, Inc.
234 F. Supp. 2d 1353 (S.D. Georgia, 2001)
In re Control Data Corp. Securities Litigation
116 F.R.D. 216 (D. Minnesota, 1986)
In re Tetracycline Cases
107 F.R.D. 719 (W.D. Missouri, 1985)
Lake v. Speziale
580 F. Supp. 1318 (D. Connecticut, 1984)

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
92 F.R.D. 58, 33 Fed. R. Serv. 2d 1039, 1981 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 15600, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/holland-v-steele-gand-1981.