DISCLAIMER: Any unofficial case summaries below are prepared by the clerk's office
as a courtesy to the reader. They are not part of the opinion of the court.
143058P.pdf 03/04/2016 Shirley Phelps-Roper v. Chris Koster
U.S. Court of Appeals Case No: 14-3058
and No: 14-3266
and No: 15-1102
U.S. District Court for the Western District of Missouri - Jefferson City
[PUBLISHED] [Bye, Author, with Riley, Chief Judge, and Gruender, Circuit
Judges]
Civil case - Civil rights. For the court's prior opinion in the matter,
see Phelps-Roper v. Koster, 713 F.3d 942 (8th Cir. 2013). The State of
Missouri repealed the statutes in controversy while plaintiff's due
process claim remained pending in the district court, and because the
challenged statutes ceased to exist, there was no case or controversy to
decide, and her challenge became moot; the district court's judgment on
the due process claim is vacated and the matter remanded with directions
to dismiss the due process count as moot; where the district court granted
plaintiff 14% of her remaining fees because she only prevailed on two of
her 14 claims, the court engaged in an arithmetically simplistic fee
calculation that did not accurately reflect plaintiff's overall degree of
success on her interrelated claims; even if the court accepted the
district court's mathematical approach, the district court applied it
incorrectly because it did not address whether it counted consent
judgments, mooted claims and dismissed claims as prevailing, neutral or
unsuccessful in making its award.