Tutor

Plaintiff Ronald N. Tutor (“Tutor”) filed this action after defendants denied him permission to land his Boeing Business Jet at Friedman Memorial Airport in Hailey, Idaho. Tutor brought several claims under 42 U.S.C. § 1983 . The district court granted defendants summary judgment on all claims, and defendants subsequently filed a post-judgment motion for attorney’s fees and costs under 42 U.S.C. § 1988 . The district court found that all but two of the bases of Tutor’s § 1983 claim were frivolous; it therefore granted defendants’ motion in part for fees and costs incurred in defending against Tutor’s frivolous claims, while denying the motion with respect to fees and costs incurred in defending against Tutor’s non-frivolous claims.

Tutor then moved to vacate the fee order, arguing that: (1) the district court applied an improper legal standard when evaluating the § 1988 motion for attorney’s fees and costs; (2) because the district court found that two bases of the § 1983 claim were not frivolous, the entire § 1983 cause of action was necessarily not frivolous; and (3) the district court’s fee allocation, including costs, was unreasonable and not supported by the record. The…