W. Va. Univ. Hosps. v. Casey

West Virginia University Hospitals (WVUH) as the plaintiff sued Robert Casey (defendant) who was the governor of Pennsylvania.

42 U.S.C. § 1988 only explicitly allowed attorneys' fee but not non-attorney expert fees.

Who pays attorneys' fees? Who pays the experts who gave testimony at a hefty fee for the winning party?

The plaintiff argued that the hospital as the winner of the suit should recover reasonable litigation costs against the government of Pennsylvania in a civil rights lawsuit.

The hospital contended the the state's Medicaid reimbursement rates were too low.

Using statutory interpretation, Justice John Paul Stevens inferred based on the legislative history that the omission of expert fees in the statute was an oversight.

Scalia and the majority asserted that expert fees wasn't written in the statute at the time.

Scalia rejected the purpose of the law articulated in the reports of the House and Senate.

Statutory interpretation

This is not the "Casey" decision about abortion.