Deakins et al. v. Monaghan et al. (484 U.S. 193)
U.S. Supreme Court · decided January 12, 1988 · Supreme Court Database (Spaeth)
- Citation
- 484 U.S. 193 · 108 S. Ct. 523
- Decided
- January 12, 1988
- Term
- October Term 1987
- Vote
- 8–0
- Majority author
- Justice Blackmun
- Issue area
- Judicial Power
- Disposition
- Affirmed and reversed (or vacated) in part and remanded
- Outcome
- Petitioning party won
- Ideological direction
- Liberal
Opinion excerpt
Justice Blackmun delivered the opinion of the Court. This case presents questions concerning a federal court’s obligation to abstain from the adjudication of federal claims arising out of an ongoing state grand jury investigation. We granted certiorari, 479 U. S. 1063 (1987), to consider whether the District Court, under Younger v. Harris, 401 U. S. 37 (1971), was required to abstain from adjudicating respondents’ claims for injunctive relief, and, if so, whether the court had the discretion to dismiss, rather than to stay, respondents’ additional claims for damages and attorney’s fees. Because we have concluded that the first issue is now moot, we vacate that portion of the Court of Appeals’ judgment and remand with directions to dismiss all claims for equitable relief. We affirm, however, the remaining portion of the Court of Appeals’ judgment reversing the District Court’s dismissal of respondents’ claims for monetary relief. Respondents William Monaghan, Theodore DeSantis, and John James are in the construction business together. They jointly own respondents Foundations & Structures, Inc. (F & S), and MJD Construction Company, Inc., New Jersey corporations, and William E. Monaghan Associates, a New Jersey general partnership. On October 4, 1984, petitioner Albert G. Palentchar, a criminal investigator for the State of New Jersey, applied to the Honorable Samuel T. Lenox,…
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