Amendatory Order

     [||bf1b3bfd-b83e-4d29-b9c3-6f7cf4efc848||] UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT ID 
NORTHERN DISTRICT OF MISSISSIPPI 

Post OFFICE DRAWER 190 

GREENVILLE, MISSISSIPPI 38701 

WiLLiaMm C. KEADY April 3, 1979 
CHIEF JUDGE   

Mrs. Katherine Butts 
Chief Deputy Clerk 
United States District Court 
Oxford, Miss. 

  

Re: Norwood v. Harrison 

No. WC 70-53-K 

Dear Katherine: 

For the jacket file I am enclosing Amendatory Order 
in the above case, which I have today signed. 

Copy is being sent to counsel listed below. 

Yours very truly, 

I INR TE 
William C. Keady 0) 

WCK/ fg J 
Enclosure 

CC: Hon. Bill Lann lee 

10 Columbus Circle 

New York, New York 10019 

Hon. Peter M. Stockett, Jr. 
Box 220 

Jackson, Miss. 39205 

  
  
 



ete Nl nba A ied iin 

  

IN THE UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT 
POR THE NORTHERN DISTRICT OF MISSISSIPPI 

WESTERN DIVISION 

DELORES NORWOOD, ET AL, Plaintiffs 

V. NO. WC 70-53-K 

D. L. HARRISON, SR,, ET AL, Defendants 

AMENDATORY ORDER 
  

The defendants in this cause, Governor Cliff Finch, 

Clarkes E. Holladay, Jean McCool, Larry Tynes, T. M. Stone and 

W. A. Matthews, have moved the court, pursuant to Rule 59(e), 

F. R, Civ. P., to alter or amend its judgment of March 12, 1979, 

ordering payment of costs and attorneys' fees, by deleting all 

provisions therein for payment of interest on the award of 

attorneys' fees and costs or, alternatively, by providing that 

the interest amounts ordered to be paid be placed in an escrow 

account under the control and supervision of the court. 

The grant of attorneys' fees in this action was made 

pursuant to the Emergency School Aid Act, 20 USC § 1617, and 

the Civil Rights Attorney's Fees Awards Act of 1976, 42 USC 

§ 1988. Each statute provides that the court has discretion 

to "allow the prevailing party, other than the United States, 

a reasonable attorney's fee as part of the costs." 

In support of their motion to delete interest on the 

award of attorneys' fees, defendants rely chiefly upon the 

Supreme Court's opinion in Hutto v. Finney, --- US ~---, 57 

L ed 2d 522 (1978), in which the Court analyzed the Attorney's 

Fees Awards Act strictly in terms of allowable costs rather 

than as a part of the judgment itself. Application of the Hutto 
  

analysis, defendants urge, compels the same result reached by the 

Pifth Clrcuit in Carpa, Inc. v. Ward Poods, Inc., 567 PF. 24 1316 

 



  

  

(5 Cir, 1978), where the court held that the attorney's fees 

proyision in the Clayton Act does not permit post-judgment 

interest on such awards since the Act classifies them as costs, 

a traditionally non-interest-bearing item under federal law. 

  

The Carpa, Inc., court reasoned that although Congress 

intended the Clayton Act to fulfill a remedial purpose, neither 

the statute itself nor its legislative history evidences an 

interest "to reverse the traditional practice of not awarding 

interest on court costs." Carpa, Inc., supra, at 1322. Noting 
  

that the Clayton Act's provision for both treble damages and 

attorneys' fees afford sufficient recompense to private enforcers, 

the court declined to extend its holding by implication to other 

attorneys‘ fees statutes; 

The language and history of a given statute 

might suggest that the public purposes under- 

lying the statutory authority for attorneys" 

fees would be materially advanced by allowance 

of interest, and the absence of a treble 

damage provisionwhich complements the attor- 

neys"' fee provision would also require con- 

- sideration. 

Carpa, Inc., supra, at 1323, 
  

While we are not prepared to rule, as defendants urge, 

that interest on an award of attorney's fees pursuant to the 

1976 Act is not a taxable item -- especially in view of the 

Act's purpose of encouraging enforcement of the civil rights 

acts which Congress has passed since 1866 -- we see no harm in 

ordering that the disputed interest award be paid into the 

registry of the court for deposit in an escrow account under 

the control and supervision of the court pending resolution of 

the issue on appeal. Accordingly, it is 

ORDERED 

That Governor Cliff Cinch, Charles E. Holladay, Jean 

McCool, Larry Tynes, T. M. Stone and W. A. Matthews, constitut- 

ing the members and executive secretary of the Mississippi State 

 



A iin a A 0 ren ERE A GR Bl I A IN A ALANIS 0 5 NT 0 pl el 

  

  

Textbook Purchasing Board, and their successors in office, be and 

they are hereby directed, within 20 days of this date, to pay 

into the registry of the court to be held in escrow under the 

control and supervision of the court pending resoltuion of the 

propriety of such award on appeal, the following amounts repre- 

senting interest on attorneys' fees heretofore awarded in this 

cause, to-wit: 

NAACP Legal Defense Fund/Melvyn R. Leventhal, 
interest on the award of $26,965.68, accruing 
at the rate of $4.84 per day from December 1, 
1978, until paid; 

NAACP Legal Defense Fund/James M. Nabrit III, 
interest on the award of $2,135.13, accruing 
at the rate of $0.38 per day from December 1, 

1978, until paid; 

NAACP Legal Defense Fund, interest on the award 
of $6,109.62, accruing at the rate of $1.10 per 

“day from December 1, 1978, until paid; 

Melvin R. Leventhal and Bill Lann Lee, interest 
on the award of $3,100, accruing at the rate 
of 8% per annum from January 26, 1979, until 
paid; and 

Melvin R. Leventhal and Bill Lann Lee, interest 
on the award of $553.50, accruing at the rate 
of 8% per annum from January 26, 1979, until 

paid. 

This, 3rd day of April, 1979. 

Le Cras 
  

Chief Judge (SB 
United States District Court [||bf1b3bfd-b83e-4d29-b9c3-6f7cf4efc848||]