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Civil rights Keyed to Jeffries, 5th Ed.
City of Burlington v. Dague
Citation:
505 U.S. 557 (1992)Facts
Ernest Dague owned land in Vermont adjacent to a landfill owned and operated by the City of Burlington. Represented by attorneys retained on a contingent-fee basis, Dague sued Burlington over its operation of the landfill. The District Court ruled that Burlington had violated provisions of the Solid Waste Disposal Act and Clean Water Act, and ordered Burlington to close the landfill. The court determined that Dague was a “substantially prevailing party” entitled to an award of attorney’s fees under these statutes. In calculating the fee award, the court first established a lodestar amount of $198,027.50 based on reasonable hourly rates and hours expended. The court then enhanced this amount by 25% ($49,506.87) because Dague’s “risk of not prevailing was substantial” and “absent an opportunity for enhancement, [Dague] would have faced substantial difficulty in obtaining counsel of reasonable skill and competence in this complicated field of law.” The Court of Appeals affirmed, concluding that the issue of contingency enhancement remained open after the Supreme Court’s fractured decision in Delaware Valley II.
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