Plaintiffs Want State To Pay Legal Fees In Gay Marriage Challenge

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TALLAHASSEE (CBSMiami/NSF) - Plaintiffs in the challenge to Florida's ban on same-sex marriage fired back this week in a dispute about whether the state should pay their attorneys' fees for work in a federal appeals court.

The state last week filed a document in the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals arguing that attorneys' fees should not be awarded to plaintiffs in the appellate portion of the case, which was short-circuited when the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in June that same-sex couples have a fundamental right to marry.

Last November the state took the issue to the appeals court after U.S. District Judge Robert Hinkle ruled that Florida's ban on same-sex marriage was unconstitutional.

The state ultimately gave notice in July that it was dismissing the appeal after the Supreme Court ruling in a case involving gay-marriage bans in Kentucky, Michigan, Ohio and Tennessee.

In the document filed last week, Florida attorneys pointed to the dismissal in arguing that the state should not be required to pay the plaintiffs' fees.

But in a reply filed Monday, Jacksonville lawyer William Sheppard and other attorneys who represented plaintiffs disputed the state's arguments.

"It was the appellants (state officials) themselves who initiated an appeal to the 11th Circuit, in response to which, the (plaintiffs) spent substantial time and resources briefing and defending their favorable ruling (from Hinkle),'' the document said. "Additionally, time and resources were expended resisting appellants' attempt to stay the district court's mandated relief both in this court and in the United States Supreme Court. Now, after their position has become untenable, the appellants seek to end the litigation and deny the (plaintiffs) fees for the appeal that the appellants themselves requested."

The News Service of Florida contributed to this report.