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Court Error – Damages Awarded

By: Derek Hawkins//August 1, 2017//

Court Error – Damages Awarded

By: Derek Hawkins//August 1, 2017//

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7th Circuit Court of Appeals

Case Name: Charles Murphy v. Robert Smith, et al.

Case No.: 15-3384

Officials: BAUER, MANION, and HAMILTON, Circuit Judges.

Focus: Court Error – Damages Awarded

This appeal is before us once more, this time not on the merits but on plaintiff Charles Murphy’s petition for an award of attorney fees on appeal as a prevailing party pursuant to 42 U.S.C. § 1988(b). We deny the petition. Plaintiff prevailed on only one issue on appeal, an issue of only state law that could not have affected the judgment in his favor on federal-law claims that allowed a fee award. He lost on the federal matters at issue on appeal. While he remains a prevailing party in the lawsuit as a whole, a fee award on this appeal is not justified.

Murphy argues that he actually prevailed on appeal on his federal claims because the defendants’ sovereign immunity argument threatened all of the damages he had won in the district court, including those awarded under federal law. See Ustrak, 851 F.2d at 990 (prevailing federal plaintiff-appellee is entitled to fees incurred on appeal to defend his federal victory in district court). We acknowledge that the scope of the defendants’ attack may not have been apparent in the early stages of the appeal. It was sufficiently clear from defendants’ opening brief on appeal, though, that defendants were challenging only damages awarded under state law. Only those damages could be affected by the state-law sovereign immunity arguments the defendants made. Those arguments did not threaten damages awarded on an independent federal-law basis that was not challenged on appeal. Accordingly, Murphy’s only success on appeal came on a purely state-law issue affecting damages awarded only under state law. We conclude that a § 1988(b) award is not appropriate for that work. Plaintiff has already won—in the district court—both damages and a fee award for all of his attorney’s successful efforts thus far under federal law.

Denied

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Attorney Derek A. Hawkins is the managing partner at Hawkins Law Offices LLC, where he heads up the firm’s startup law practice. He specializes in business formation, corporate governance, intellectual property protection, private equity and venture capital funding and mergers & acquisitions. Check out the website at www.hawkins-lawoffices.com or contact them at 262-737-8825.

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