Opinion ID: 766070
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: proper forum

Text: 4 Claimants moved under the EAJA in this court, seeking fees and costs only on appeal. In their reply brief, claimants sought to supplement their claim by including fees incurred in the district court, asserting that this request had been omitted in error and was still timely. See 28 U.S.C.S 2412(d)(1)(B) (1994) (applicationsfor fees must be made within thirty days of final judgment). We need not decide the timeliness issue because we will not ordinarily consider matters on appeal that are not specifically and distinctly raised and argued in [the] opening brief. Officers for Justice v. Civil Serv. Comm'n, 979 F.2d 721, 726 (9th Cir. 1992) (quoting International Union of Bricklayers v. Martin Jaska, Inc., 752 F.2d 1401, 1404 (9th Cir. 1985)). Because we see no reason to depart from this principle here, we treat the claim as limited to attorneys' fees on appeal. 5 The EAJA states that a court  shall award fees to a prevailing party. 28 U.S.C. S 2412(d)(1)(A). In the absence of a statutory specification of what court is to make the award, we see no reason to read court to exclude the court of appeals. We assume that in the usual case in which fees are sought for the entire litigation, the determination of whether the government was substantially justified--and therefore not liable for fees under EAJA provision 28 U.S.C. S 2412(d)(1)(A)--is for the district court to make. See Pierce v. Underwood, 487 U.S. 552, 559 (1988); Hammock v. Bowen, 879 F.2d 498, 504 (9th Cir. 1989). But when fees are sought on appeal only, the court of appeals may be in as good a position if not a better one than the district court to make the determination. In United States v. 329.73 Acres , 704 F.2d 800, 811 (5th Cir. 1983) (en banc), the court remanded the EAJA fee request to the district court although only fees on appeal were sought, reasoning that the en banc court was not well suited to determine if the government was substantially justified and that, while remand to the initial panel of the court of appeals might have been appropriate, remand to the district court would in any event be required to fix the rate of interest on the judgment. The court went on to discuss the relevant considerations bearing on whether the court of appeals or the district court is better situated to make the initial EAJA determination, leaving the matter to case-by-case determination, but observing: 6 In some, perhaps many, appeals, the appellate court deciding the appeal may most readily decide also whether the government's appeal was substantially justified, and the most efficient and expeditious method of deciding the issue may be for the appellate court itself to determine them and (if able to do so without remand as to amount at issue) also fix the litigation expenses to be awarded the private litigant if he is found entitled to them. 7 Id. The EAJA requires that [w]hether or not the position of the United States was substantially justified shall be determined on the basis of the record. See 28 U.S.C. S 2412(d)(1)(B). The government has not urged a remand to the district court and no reason appears why we are not equally if not better suited than the district court to evaluate the record to determine whether the government's position on the appeal was substantially justified.