| A California bankruptcy court has held that the right to seek attorneys’ fees for violations of the Civil Rights Act applies to fees incurred protecting a civil rights judgment in a bankruptcy proceeding. In the case of In re Harris, the bankruptcy court granted the creditor’s request for attorneys’ fees and costs incurred in the bankruptcy case because such fees and costs were for work performed while protecting and enforcing the creditor’s pre-petition civil rights judgment.
Rosalina Harris, a detective with the Los Angeles Sheriff’s Department, filed a voluntary chapter 11 petition. Prior to the bankruptcy filing, the creditor, Crystal Holmes, who had lived next door to Harris, filed a complaint in the U.S. District Court for the Central District of California against Harris and others, alleging malicious prosecution and deprivation of civil rights under 42 U.S.C. § 1983. On July 11, 2019, a judgment was entered against Harris in the amount of $2,265,952. Harris appealed the judgment, and the appeal is pending before the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit.
After the judgment was entered (and prior to any ruling on the appeal), in March 2020 Harris filed a chapter 11 bankruptcy petition. The court entered an order dismissing the case a few months later in May 2020 as a bad-faith filing. The court found that the basis for the filing was to avoid the requirement of posting a supersedeas bond in the pending appeal of the civil rights judgment.
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