The recent federal district court decision in Deferio v. Bd. of Tr. of State Univ. of New York presents an example of the seemingly paradoxical instance of a plaintiff being granted attorney fees in a civil rights action in which he was awarded only nominal damages. The Deferio court, quoting the Supreme Court’s opinion in Farrar v. Hobby that “‘[n]ominal relief does not necessarily a nominal victory make,’”1 awarded plaintiff in excess of $34,000 in attorney fees and costs despite granting him only $1 in damages. Deferio thus recognized that a party may be deemed to have ‘prevailed’ despite being denied meaningful compensatory damages.
‘Prevailing Party’?
James Deferio, a Christian evangelist, brought a U.S.C. §1983 action, alleging a free-speech claim under the First Amendment and a due process claim under the Fourteenth Amendment, arising from his unsuccessful attempt to freely express his religious beliefs on the campus of the State University of New York at Albany on two separate occasions. Deferio sought a declaratory judgment and a preliminary injunction enjoining defendants from applying the challenged policies so as to prevent him or other speakers from “engaging in their desired and constitutionally protected speech activities.”
