H.E. v. Palmer Leadership Learning
Partners Charter school – 3d Cir. – October 11, 2017
Held: Success on a claim for procedural
relief can constitute a victory‘on the merits that confer ‘prevailing party’
status.
The
Individuals with Disabilities Education Act contains a fee-shifting provision,
which, provided that a parent of a child with a disability has emerged as “a
prevailing party” in administrative or judicial proceedings challenging
violations of the Act, renders the parent eligible for an award of attorneys’ fees.
20 U.S.C. § 1415(i)(3)(B).
The
parents in this case obtained a court order vindicating their right to an
administrative due process hearing under the Act, but the District Court denied
their request for attorneys’ fees, reasoning that they had received only
interlocutory procedural relief and, for that reason, were not prevailing
parties.
Because
that conclusion is contrary to this Court’s decisions in M.R. v. Ridley School
District, 868 F.3d 218 (3d Cir. 2017), and Bagby v. Beal, 606 F.2d 411 (3d Cir.
1979), where we explained that success on a claim for procedural relief can
constitute “a victory ‘on the merits’ that confer[s] ‘prevailing party’
status,” M.R., 868 F.3d at 226 (quoting Bagby, 606 F.2d at 415), we will
reverse the District Court’s denial of attorneys’ fees and remand for
proceedings consistent with this opinion.
