Royer v. Adams

The issue in this case is whether a plaintiff, who prevailed on a 42 U.S.C. § 1983 claim in State court, may recover attorney’s fees under 42 U.S.C. § 1988 when he filed a motion for fees approximately two months after the trial court entered its final decree. We hold that attorney’s fees are recoverable and reverse the Trial Court (Batchelder, J.).

On October 9, 1974, the plaintiff filed a “Bill in Equity and Petition for Declaratory Relief” in the Hillsborough County Superior Court. He claimed that the department of employment security’s practice of terminating unemployment compensation…