Opinion ID: 78032
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 4

Heading: Whether Reeves' EAJA Award could be offset by the Department of the Treasury for payment of Reeves' unpaid child support debt.

Text: Having concluded the award of attorney's fees belongs, in the first instance, to Mr. Reeves, we must now decide whether the award could be offset by the Treasury Department. Reeves does not challenge the Treasury's statutory authority for offsetting his EAJA award. [3] Instead, Reeves challenges the lawfulness of the offset on the basis that no mutuality of debt exists between him and the government. Mutuality of debt exists where each party owes a debt to the opposing party. See Capuano v. United States, 955 F.2d 1427, 1429-30 (11th Cir.1992). In principle, the party owed the greater debt is due the remainder of the debt owed him after offset of the debt he owes to the other party. It goes without saying that neither party may offset moneys in its hands belonging to some other party. Id. at 1430. Reeves argues no mutuality of debt exists here, because the government did not owe a debt to him personally; rather, the government owed a debt to his attorney. Reeves argument is foreclosed by our earlier conclusion that the EAJA award is paid to the party. Since we have concluded the government owed the EAJA award to Reeves, no mutuality of debt concerns have been identified by the Appellant. Thus, Reeves' mutuality of debt argument must fail and we conclude Reeves has raised no other arguments that lead us to question the propriety of the offset in this case.