Kenneth Grabarczyk v. Joshua Stein, No. 21-1209 (4th Cir. 2022)
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Plaintiff prevailed before the district court on his Section 1983 claim that North Carolina’s sex-offender registration system deprived him of procedural due process. That judgment was vacated and his case dismissed as moot after the legislature, because of the district court’s ruling, amended its statute to provide procedural protections to offenders like Plaintiff. When Plaintiff sought attorney’s fees, Defendant, state officials, argued that Plaintiff could not be a “prevailing party” under Section 1988 because the judgment in his favor had been vacated. The district court held that Plaintiff was entitled to attorney’s fees.
The Fourth Circuit affirmed the district court’s ruling that under 42 U.S.C. Section 1988, Plaintiff is a prevailing party entitled to attorney’s fees because the legislative change mooting his case came both after and in response to an award of judicial relief. The court reasoned that Plaintiff was a “prevailing party” under Section 1988 because he won a final judgment on the merits in the district court. He also obtained substantial judicial relief on his claim, including entry of a final injunction requiring that class members be removed from the registry and prohibiting their prosecution for offenses relating only to registered sex offenders. Further, the court found no abuse of discretion in the district court’s calculation of the fee award because the court properly concluded that Plaintiff was “fully successful,” and thus entitled to all the injunctive relief he requested.
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