53 A.D.2d 1057 | N.Y. App. Div. | 1976
—Judgment unanimously affirmed, without costs. Memorandum: Petitioners —appellants are six residents of Monroe Community Hospital who successfully applied to Special Term, Supreme Court, Monroe County in a class action for declaratory judgment requiring respondent commissioners to register and enroll them and all residents of publicly supported institutions who establish their voting residences in such institutions under section 151 of the Election Law. In granting such judgment Special Term denied attorneys’ fees to petitioners; and petitioners appeal from the judgment only insofar as it denied such fees. At the time the judgment was granted and entered CPLR 909 was effective. It provides that, "If a judgment in an action maintained as a class action is rendered in favor of the class, the court in its discretion may award attorneys’ fees to the representatives of the class based on the reasonable value of legal services rendered and if