Rhodes v. Stewart

After entry of a judgment for the plaintiffs in a suit by two prisoners under 42 U. S. C. § 1983, the District Court for the Southern District of Ohio, Eastern Division, ordered the defendants to pay the plaintiffs’ attorney’s fees pursuant to 42 U. S. C. § 1988. There is no entitlement to attorney’s fees, however, unless the requesting party prevails; and by the time the District Court entered its judgment in the underlying suit one of the plaintiffs had died and the other was no longer in custody. In this posture, the plaintiffs were not prevailing parties under the rule we set forth in…