Cite as: 532 U. S. 598 (2001)
Ginsburg, J., dissenting
Finding no likelihood that West Virginia would reenact the self-preservation rule, the District Court agreed that the State's action had rendered the case moot. Turning to plaintiffs' application for attorney's fees, the District Court followed Fourth Circuit precedent requiring the denial of fees unless termination of the action was accompanied by a judgment, consent decree, or settlement.2 Plaintiffs did not appeal the mootness determination, and the Fourth Circuit affirmed the denial of attorney's fees. In sum, plaintiffs were denied fees not because they failed to achieve the relief they sought. On the contrary, they gained the very change they sought through their lawsuit when West Virginia repealed the self-preservation rule that would have stopped Buckhannon from caring for people like Dorsey Pierce.3
Prior to 1994, every Federal Court of Appeals (except the Federal Circuit, which had not addressed the issue) concluded that plaintiffs in situations like Buckhannon's and
attorney's fees provisions contained in Titles II and VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, 42 U. S. C. §§ 2000a-3(b) and 2000e-5(k), and § 402 of the Voting Rights Act Amendments of 1975, 42 U. S. C. § 1973l(e)." Hensley v. Eckerhart, 461 U. S. 424, 433, n. 7 (1983) (citing Hanrahan v. Hampton, 446 U. S. 754, 758, n. 4 (1980) (per curiam)). In accord with congressional intent, we have interpreted these fee-shifting provisions consistently across statutes. The Court so observes. See ante, at 603, n. 4. Notably, the statutes do not mandate fees, but provide for their award "in [the court's] discretion."
2 On plaintiffs' motion, the District Court sanctioned defendants under Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 11 for failing timely to notify plaintiffs "that the proposed [repeal of the self-preservation rule] was progressing successfully at several stages . . . during the pendency of [the] litigation." App. 144. In their Rule 11 motion, plaintiffs requested fees and costs totaling $62,459 to cover the expense of litigating after defendants became aware, but did not disclose, that elimination of the rule was likely. In the alternative, plaintiffs sought $3,252 to offset fees and expenses incurred in litigating the Rule 11 motion. The District Court, stating that "the primary purpose of Rule 11 is to deter and not to compensate," awarded the smaller sum. App. 147.
3 Pierce remained a Buckhannon resident until her death on January 3, 1999.
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