Robert McGRATH, Et Al., Plaintiffs-Appellees, v. COUNTY OF NEVADA; And Bill Heafey, Sheriff, Defendants-Appellants

Defendants Nevada County and Nevada County Sheriff, Bill Heafey (collectively “the County”), appeal the district court’s award to plaintiffs of $38,061 in attorney’s fees pursuant to 42 U.S.C. § 1988 . Having jurisdiction over this timely appeal pursuant to 28 U.S.C. § 1291 , we affirm the district court’s award of costs to plaintiffs, but vacate and remand the attorney’s fee award.

I.

In the underlying action filed on December 4, 1989, prisoners in California’s Nevada County jails (“plaintiffs”) brought a civil rights class action pursuant to 42 U.S.C. § 1983 , alleging that conditions in the jails violated their rights under the First, Fourth, Eighth, and Fourteenth Amendments of the United States Constitution. Plaintiffs broadly alleged that the jails were overcrowded and that prisoners in the jails had been deprived of the following essentials: beds, seating at meals, clothing, medical, dental, and mental health care, safety, access to attorneys, reasonable visitation, prompt determination of probable cause for detention, and prompt bail determinations. The County concedes that the Nevada County Jail was overcrowded and that it had installed three triple bunk beds in the…