Case Detail

FOIA Project Annotation: A federal court in Connecticut has ruled that the Connecticut Fair Housing Center is not eligible for attorney's fees because it did not obtain a judicial order that changed the relationship of the parties as required by Buckhannon Board & Care Home v. West Virginia Dept of Health & Human Resources, 532 U.S. 598 (2001). CFHC submitted a request by the Department of Housing and Urban Development on HUD's non-judicial foreclosure practices. After the agency failed to respond on time, CFHC filed suit. After approximately a year, the parties reported to the court that HUD had provided all responsive information. The court then administratively closed the case. CFHC then filed a motion for attorney's fees. The court indicated that "a party has 'substantially prevailed' for the purposes of awarding attorney's fees only after it has benefitted from a 'judicially sanctioned change in the legal relationship of the parties.'" The court cited Buckhannon, as well as Union of Needletrades, Industrial and Textile Employees v. INS, 336 F.3d 200 (2nd Cir. 2003), the Second Circuit decision adopting Buckhannon as the standard for analyzing attorney's fee awards under FOIA. The court explained that "here, the Connecticut Fair Housing Center argues that it 'substantially prevailed' where its lawsuit resulted in the eventual release of records and settlement of the case. Such a theory of recovery, however, has been precluded by Buckhannon and Needletrades, where the Court played no role in the settlement of the case. As a result, the Court cannot find that Plaintiff is entitled to attorney's fees and costs under FOIA."
Issues: Litigation - Attorney's fees - Prevailing party

Date Filed	Doc #	Docket Text
2020-11-25	1	COMPLAINT against United States Department of Housing and Urban Development ( Filing fee $400 receipt number ACTDC-6244209.), filed by Connecticut Fair Housing Ctr.(Gentes, Jeffrey) Modified on 11/25/2020 to correct party(Hushin, Z.). (Entered: 11/25/2020)
2020-11-25		Request for Clerk to issue summons as to United States Department of Housing and Urban Development. (Gentes, Jeffrey) (Entered: 11/25/2020)
2020-11-25		Judge Victor A. Bolden added. (Nuzzi, Tiffany) (Entered: 11/25/2020)
2020-11-25	2	Corporate Disclosure Statement by Connecticut Fair Housing Ctr. (Gentes, Jeffrey) (Entered: 11/25/2020)
2020-11-25	3	ELECTRONIC FILING ORDER FOR COUNSEL - PLEASE ENSURE COMPLIANCE WITH COURTESY COPY REQUIREMENTS IN THIS ORDER Signed by Judge Victor A. Bolden on 11/25/2020.(Fazekas, J.) (Entered: 11/30/2020)
2020-11-25	4	STANDING PROTECTIVE ORDER Signed by Judge Victor A. Bolden on 11/25/2020.(Fazekas, J.) (Entered: 11/30/2020)
2020-11-30	5	NOTICE TO COUNSEL/SELF-REPRESENTED PARTIES : Counsel or self-represented parties initiating or removing this action are responsible for serving all parties with attached documents and copies of 1 Complaint filed by Connecticut Fair Housing Ctr, 3 Electronic Filing Order, 2 Corporate Disclosure Statement filed by Connecticut Fair Housing Ctr, 4 Standing Protective Order Signed by Clerk on 11/25/2020.(Fazekas, J.) (Entered: 11/30/2020)
2020-11-30	6	ELECTRONIC SUMMONS ISSUED in accordance with Fed. R. Civ. P. 4 and LR 4 as to *United States Department of Housing and Urban Development* with answer to complaint due within *60* days. Attorney *Jeffrey S Gentes* *Connecticut Fair Housing Center / Yale Law School* *60 Popieluszko Court or PO Box 209090,* *New Haven CT 06520 Hartford, CT 06106*. (Fazekas, J.) (Entered: 11/30/2020)
2020-12-02	7	NOTICE of Appearance by John L. Pottenger, Jr on behalf of Connecticut Fair Housing Ctr (Pottenger, John) (Entered: 12/02/2020)
2021-01-08	8	NOTICE of Appearance by Julie G. Turbert on behalf of United States Department of Housing and Urban Development (Turbert, Julie) (Entered: 01/08/2021)
2021-01-08	9	ANSWER to 1 Complaint with Affirmative Defenses by United States Department of Housing and Urban Development.(Turbert, Julie) (Entered: 01/08/2021)
2021-03-08	10	MOTION for Leave to Appear Law Student Interns NOTICE of Appearance by Jeffrey S Gentes on behalf of Connecticut Fair Housing Ctr Law Student Appearance Forms for Shannon Eddy, Morgan Savige, and Jeffrey Schroeder (Gentes, Jeffrey) Modified on 3/9/2021 to add motion relief (Perez, J.). (Entered: 03/08/2021)
2021-03-09	11	ORDER granting 10 Motion to Appear as to Law Student Appearance Shannon Eddy, Morgan Savige, and Jeffrey Schroeder. Signed by Judge Victor A. Bolden on 3/9/2021. (Perez, J.) (Entered: 03/09/2021)
2021-11-08	12	ORDER. The parties shall, by November 19, 2021 , file a status report updating the Court on the progress of the case. Signed by Judge Victor A. Bolden on 11/8/2021. (Dalton, A.) (Entered: 11/08/2021)
2021-11-19	13	Joint STATUS REPORT by United States Department of Housing and Urban Development. (Turbert, Julie) (Entered: 11/19/2021)
2021-11-22	14	ORDER. The parties shall, by January 7, 2022 , file a status report updating the Court on the progress of the case. Signed by Judge Victor A. Bolden on 11/22/2021. (Dalton, A.) (Entered: 11/22/2021)
2022-01-07	15	Second STATUS REPORT by United States Department of Housing and Urban Development. (Turbert, Julie) (Entered: 01/07/2022)
2022-01-10	16	ORDER. The parties shall, by February 11, 2022 , file a status report updating the Court on the progress of the case. Signed by Judge Victor A. Bolden on 1/10/2022. (Dalton, A.) (Entered: 01/10/2022)
2022-02-11	17	Joint STATUS REPORT by United States Department of Housing and Urban Development. (Turbert, Julie) (Entered: 02/11/2022)
2022-02-13	18	ORDER. Based on the most recent status report, ECF No. 17, the last category of responsive information in this case under the Freedom of Information Act has been provided, and no further relief from this Court may be necessary. As a result, rather than keep this case open, the Court will administratively close it, and by March 11, 2022 , the parties shall file a stipulation of dismissal or a motion to reopen the case, to the extent further action is required. The Clerk of Court is respectfully directed to close this case. Signed by Judge Victor A. Bolden on 2/13/2022. (Dalton, A.) (Entered: 02/13/2022)
2022-02-13		JUDICIAL PROCEEDINGS SURVEY - FOR COUNSEL ONLY: The following link to the confidential survey requires you to log into CM/ECF for SECURITY purposes. Once in CM/ECF you will be prompted for the case number. Although you are receiving this survey through CM/ECF, it is hosted on an independent website called SurveyMonkey. Once in SurveyMonkey, the survey is located in a secure account. The survey is not docketed and it is not sent directly to the judge. To ensure anonymity, completed surveys are held up to 90 days before they are sent to the judge for review. We hope you will take this opportunity to participate, please click on this link: https://ecf.ctd.uscourts.gov/cgi-bin/Dispatch.pl?survey (Nuzzi, Tiffany) (Entered: 02/14/2022)
2022-03-11	19	Joint MOTION for Extension of Time until April 11, 2022 to file a Stipulation of Dismissal or Motion to Reopen 18 Order,, by United States Department of Housing and Urban Development. (Turbert, Julie) (Entered: 03/11/2022)
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