Vaughns v. BOARD OF EDUC. OF PRINCE GEORGE'S CTY.

627 F. Supp. 837
CourtDistrict Court, D. Maryland
DecidedJanuary 8, 1986
DocketCiv. 72-325-K, K-81-2597
StatusPublished
Cited by3 cases

This text of 627 F. Supp. 837 (Vaughns v. BOARD OF EDUC. OF PRINCE GEORGE'S CTY.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court, D. Maryland primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Vaughns v. BOARD OF EDUC. OF PRINCE GEORGE'S CTY., 627 F. Supp. 837 (D. Md. 1986).

Opinion

MEMORANDUM AND ORDER

FRANK A. KAUFMAN, Chief Judge.

(1) On November 9, 1984, this Court in an opinion filed that date, awarded to plaintiff fees of $355,550.00 and expenses of $17,392.00, making a total award for fees and expenses of $372,942.00. Subsequently, the parties presented, as requested by the Court, their views as to a schedule of payment of the said $372,942.00 and the payment of interest therein.

*838 (2) In accordance with this Court’s said November 9, 1984 opinion, judgment is hereby entered for plaintiffs against defendants in the amount of $372,942.00.

(3) Interest will be at the rate provided in 28 U.S.C. § 1961(a), and not at the rate of 10% or any other fixed rate. This Court’s November 9, 1984 opinion (see 598 F.Supp. 1262, 1290) is accordingly so altered.

(4) Whether or not 28 U.S.C. § 1961(a) makes mandatory the allowance of interest on an award of attorney’s fees pursuant to 42 U.S.C. § 1988, see Preston v. Thompson, 565 F.Supp. 294 (N.D.Ill.1983), it is particularly appropriate that interest be so allowed in this case in view of the deferred payment schedule set forth infra.

(5) Appropriate deferment of payment of fees and expenses is, in a case of this type, within the discretionary authority of this Court. Hutto v. Finney, 437 U.S. 678, 692 n. 18, 98 S.Ct. 2565, 2574 n. 18, 57 L.Ed.2d 522 (1978); Stanwood v. Green, 559 F.Supp. 195, 201 (D.Or.1983). Herein, plaintiffs have requested that the $372,-942.00 be paid as follows:

$25,000.00 on January 10, 1985
$25,000.00 on April 10, 1985
Balance on July 1, 1985.

On the other hand, defendants have requested that the $372,942.00 be paid on a different schedule, namely—

$25,000.00 on January 10, 1985
$25,000.00 on April 10, 1985
$100,000.00 on July 10, 1985
$100,000.00 on July 10, 1986
Balance on July 10, 1987.

After consideration, this Court hereby establishes the following schedule for payment of the $372,942.00:

$25,000.00 on February 10, 1985
$25,000.00 on April 10, 1985
$161,471.00 on July 10, 1985
$161,471.00 on July 10, 1986.

That schedule will enable defendants to spread most of the payment of the $372,-942.00 over the School Board’s fiscal years commencing July 1, 1985 and July 1, 1986. Thus, the said schedule takes into account the budgetary problems which defendants have stressed. However, as plaintiffs have suggested, there is no indication in the record that counsel for defendants have been asked by defendants to await payment of fees and expenses on a delayed schedule. There would, on balance, seem little reason to ask counsel for plaintiffs to wait for as long in the future as July, 1987 for payment in full. On the other hand, delay of payment of the final $161,471.00 until the commencement of the School Board’s fiscal year 1986 is not unduly unfair to counsel for plaintiffs in view of the provision of interest.

(6) The question arises as to the date as of which interest shall commence to run on the judgment of $372,942.00. 28 U.S.C. § 1961(a) provides that “interest shall be calculated from the date of the entry of the judgment.” “Ordinarily interest on a judgment runs from the date of its entry but there have been exceptional cases in which interest has been allowed from the date when the judgment should have been entered if its actual entry was delayed. 11 C. Wright and A. Miller, Federal Practice and Procedure § 2785 at 18, 19 (footnote omitted). See also Lew Wenzel & Co., etc. v. London Litho Supply Co., Inc., 563 F.2d 1367 (9th Cir.1977); Perkins v. Standard Oil Company of California, 487 F.2d 672 (9th Cir.1973); Stanwood v. Green, 559 F.Supp. supra at 204; see generally Note, Interest on Judgments in the Federal Courts, 64 Yale L.J. 1019 (1955); Note, Interest on Verdicts and Judgments in the State and Federal Courts, 38 Notre Dame Law 58 (1962). There would appear to be little or no reason why the Congress would have desired to deny to a federal district court in connection with the payment of interest on an award of fees and expenses pursuant to 42 U.S.C. § 1988 — a remedial section of a remedial statute — the discretion to cause interest to run on the date the judgment would have been entered but for delay. However, in the within case, there has been no delay by the parties or the Court in the entry of the judgment of $372,942.00. In this Court’s *839 November 9, 1984 opinion, it required certain further submissions by the parties by November 23, 1984, with regard to the scheduling of payment of the $372,942.00 and the allowance of interest in connection therewith, so that this Court could enter a complete judgment order with regard to such principal and interest payments. Some of those submissions were not, in fact, received by this Court until December 19, 1984. Accordingly, interest will commence on the date hereof, namely, January 8, 1985, which is not only the date of entry of the judgment for $372,942.00, but is a date reasonably close to the first date upon which this Court could have completed its own work in connection with the issues involved in the within Memorandum and Order.

(7) All interest, with regard to the total amount of the within judgment unpaid from time to time, due and owing on each payment date upon which principal amounts of the within entered judgment are to be paid, namely on February 10, 1985; April 10, 1985; July 10, 1985 and July 10,1986, shall be paid in full and up to date on each such payment date.

SUPPLEMENTAL MEMORANDUM AND ORDER

(1) For the reasons set forth during a hearing held on June 7, 1985, which said hearing, in toto, was held on the record in open Court, defendants’ motion for a stay of consideration of plaintiffs’ supplemental motion for attorneys’ fees and expenses is hereby denied.

(2) For the reasons set forth on the record during the said June 7, 1985 hearing, the motion of the City of Bowie for leave to file a brief amicus curiae is hereby granted.

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Bluebook (online)
627 F. Supp. 837, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/vaughns-v-board-of-educ-of-prince-georges-cty-mdd-1986.