Thompson v. Gomez

45 F.3d 1365 63 USLW 2465 Maurice S. THOMPSON, Charles A. Green, John Gzikowski, Keith D. Williams, Ronald E. Lanphear, Chol Soo Lee, and Andrew E. Robertson, Individually and on behalf of all others similarly situated, Plaintiffs-Appellants, v. James GOMEZ, Director, California Department of Corrections; George Sumner, Warden, California State Prison at San Quentin, Defendants-Appellees. No. 93-16650. United States Court of Appeals, Ninth Circuit. Argued and Submitted Jan. 11, 1995. Decided Jan. 25, 1995. Sanford Jay Rosen, Rosen, Bien & Asaro, San Francisco, CA, for plaintiffs-appellants. James M. Humes, Deputy Atty. Gen., San Francisco, CA, for defendants-appellees. Appeal from the United States District Court for the Northern District of California. Before: ALDISERT * , GOODWIN, and SCHROEDER, Circuit Judges. GOODWIN, Circuit Judge: 1 Title 42 U.S.C. Sec. 1988 ("Fees Act") provides that in federal civil rights actions "the court, in its discretion, may allow the prevailing party, other than the United States, a reasonable attorney's fee as part of the costs." Recoverable attorney's fees may include fees incurred while doing work on the underlying merits of the action…