How has the Court treated a request for attorney's fees on the grounds that they did not "prevail" in the litigation?

Thereafter, the district court refused appellants' request for attorney's fees on the grounds that they did not "prevail" in the litigation. Carroll v. Blinken, No. 83 Civ. 1272(RO), 1993 WL 478406 (S.D.N.Y.1993). On the second appeal, we held that the district court was correct in declining to award attorney's fees on the mandatory funding issue, but found that appellants had, in fact, prevailed on the automatic membership issue. Carroll v. Blinken, 42 F.3d 122, 130 (2d Cir.1994). We then remanded for a determination of reasonable fees on the membership claim.