Teresa Diane P., Through Her Parent and Next Friend, Marilyn J.P., and Marilyn J.P. v. Alief Independent School District

744 F.2d 484, 1984 U.S. App. LEXIS 17485, 20 Educ. L. Rep. 389
CourtCourt of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit
DecidedOctober 22, 1984
Docket82-2443
StatusPublished
Cited by13 cases

This text of 744 F.2d 484 (Teresa Diane P., Through Her Parent and Next Friend, Marilyn J.P., and Marilyn J.P. v. Alief Independent School District) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Teresa Diane P., Through Her Parent and Next Friend, Marilyn J.P., and Marilyn J.P. v. Alief Independent School District, 744 F.2d 484, 1984 U.S. App. LEXIS 17485, 20 Educ. L. Rep. 389 (5th Cir. 1984).

Opinions

JERRE S. WILLIAMS, Circuit Judge:

This is an appeal from an award of attorney’s fees in an action brought to obtain an appropriate public education for a handicapped child, and to redress alleged violations of the rights of the child and her mother. Plaintiffs asserted claims for monetary, injunctive, and declaratory relief based on the Education of All Handicapped Children Act (EAHCA), 20 U.S.C. § 1401 et seq., the Rehabilitation Act of 1973, 29 U.S.C. § 794, and 42 U.S.C. § 1983.

After securing preliminary injunctive relief, plaintiffs dismissed their original attorneys and secured new counsel. Subsequently, plaintiffs agreed to a settlement which was approved by the court. At this point, the original attorneys made a motion to the court for attorney’s fees.

Conceding that attorney’s fees are not awardable under EAHCA, the district court awarded fees based on plaintiffs’ allegations of violations under the Rehabilitation Act and under § 1983, both of which do provide for attorney’s fees. Defendants appealed from this award. We deferred resolution of whether attorney’s fees were appropriate pending the Supreme Court’s decision in Smith v. Robinson, — U.S. -, 104 S.Ct. 3457, 82 L.Ed.2d 746 (1984). In light of Smith, we find erroneous that portion of the award compensating the attorneys for their efforts in securing substantive relief which alternatively could have been provided by resort to the administrative avenues of EAHCA. Any com[487]*487pensation for efforts expended in pursuit of remedies not inconsistent with EAHCA, however, we find to have been correctly granted. Accordingly, we remand for an appropriate reconsideration of the attorney’s fees award on this basis.

I. FACTS

Teresa Diane P. (Diane) is a multiply handicapped child with severe behavioral problems. When this proceeding began in 1980, Diane was 10 years old. Diane entered defendant Alief Independent School District in 1974, at age 3, and progressed through a series of special education placements. In 1977, defendant placed Diane with Angie Nall Children’s Hospital in Beaumont, Texas. In May 1979, however, Diane was expelled from this placement due to her parents’ failure to pay the hospital bills. Diane’s parents disputed their responsibility for these bills.

Subsequently, during the fall of 1979, defendants attempted to mainstream Diane with other special education students within the school district, but these efforts were unsuccessful due to Diane’s behavioral problems. Plaintiffs alleged that during this period, no individualized education plan was written for Diane. Plaintiffs further alleged that the defendants failed to afford sufficient notice of school district meetings during which Diane’s placement was arranged, and that they failed to arrange meetings at mutually agreed upon times and places.

In November 1979, defendants placed Diane at the Therapeutic Intervention Program School (T.I.P.S.), a private day school facility in Houston. Diane’s mother, Mrs. Marilyn P., was opposed to the placement at T.I.P.S., but ultimately agreed to register Diane at the school.

When Mrs. Marilyn P. registered Diane with the T.I.P.S. program, she was informed that Diane’s continued enrollment was contingent on parental attendance at a weekly group psychotherapy session. Subsequently, however, Mrs. Marilyn P.1 refused to attend the sessions. Because of her mother’s refusal to participate in the psychotherapy sessions, Diane was discharged from the program. The school district informed Mrs. Marilyn P. that no alternative placement was planned for Diane at that time.

Following Diane’s discharge, Mrs. Marilyn P., through her counsel Sarah Scott and Reed Martin, invoked a due process hearing pursuant to EAHCA. A hearing was held on March 25 and 27, 1980.2 The hearing officer concluded that Diane was entitled to special education services and recommended that the school district place her in a private institution. At the same time, however,' the hearing officer concluded that Mrs. Marilyn P. did not have a legal right to refuse to attend the group therapy sessions and recommended that she cooperate with the school district in this respect. Plaintiffs appealed this decision to the Commissioner of Education of the State of Texas. The Commissioner adopted the hearing officer’s proposal.

At this point, on June 19, 1980, plaintiffs filed a complaint and motion for preliminary injunctive relief in federal district court. Plaintiffs alleged that defendants3 had denied Diane a “free, appropriate public education” in violation of.the Education of All Handicapped Children Act (EAHCA), 20 U.S.C. § 1401 et seq., the Rehabilitation Act of 1973, 29 U.S.C. § 794, and 42 U.S.C. § 1983; that defendants failed to respect Diane’s procedural due process rights in [488]*488violation of the Fourteenth Amendment and the above statutes; that defendants conditioned Diane’s education upon parental performance of a requirement that parents of non-handicapped students do not have to assume, in violation of the equal protection clause and § 1983; that defendants expelled Diane from educational services because of the acts or omissions of her parents in violation of substantive due process and § 1983; and that defendants conditioned Diane’s education upon compulsory attendance by Mrs. Marilyn P. at group psychotherapy sessions in violation of Mrs. Marilyn P.’s constitutional right to privacy and § 1983.

On July 11, 1980, the district court held a conference with the parties in chambers, and on July 15, entered an order granting plaintiffs’ motion for preliminary relief. The court ordered that defendants immediately provide Diane with home instruction and that they continue such instruction at no cost 'until Diane was situated in an appropriate residential placement.

On August 10, 1981, plaintiffs filed a motion to withdraw Ms. Scott and Mr. Martin as their attorneys of record and requested that Ken Douglas be substituted as counsel. At the same time, attorneys Scott and Martin filed a motion to intervene as plaintiffs, seeking to assert their claim for attorney’s fees.

On August 17, 1981, the court suggested that plaintiffs’ original attorneys (appellees in the present case) submit affidavits in support of their claim to fees. This was done. At this same conference, plaintiffs’ new attorney and defendants’ counsel announced that the case had been settled.

On July 30, 1982, the district court awarded plaintiffs’ original counsel $16,-848.45 in attorney’s fees. The court based this award on 42 U.S.C. § 1988, which provides for attorney’s fees for claims filed pursuant to § 1983, and on 29 U.S.C. § 794a

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Bluebook (online)
744 F.2d 484, 1984 U.S. App. LEXIS 17485, 20 Educ. L. Rep. 389, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/teresa-diane-p-through-her-parent-and-next-friend-marilyn-jp-and-ca5-1984.