In Mateyko v. Felix (9th Cir. 1990) 924 F.2d 824, 828, the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals denied attorney's fees to a plaintiff who lost a federal civil rights claim and won a state negligence claim: "All circuits that have considered the issue have held that a plaintiff, like Mateyko, who loses on his federal claim and recovers only on a pendent state claim is not a prevailing party under section 1988 and may not be awarded fees. . .. . . Where, as here, there has been a decision adverse to plaintiff on the section 1983 claim, section 1988 does not authorize the award of attorney's fees. Both the statutory language and legislative history of section 1988 support this result. . . . The House Report accompanying section 1988 specifically contemplates a fee award if a plaintiff prevails on a substantial pendent state claim, but the court declines to reach the section 1983 claim. ' "In some instances . . . the claim with fees may involve a constitutional question which the courts are reluctant to resolve if the non-constitutional claim is dispositive." ' In such a case the denial of fees would be unfair and would frustrate section 1988's purpose to encourage private parties to vindicate their federal civil rights. But this is not such a case. In this case 'the district court did not avoid reaching the constitutional issue because the pendent claim was dispositive; it found that Mateyko had no constitutional claim at all.' "