Opinion ID: 549855
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: general prerequisites to obtaining an eaja fee award

Text: 30 The EAJA requires the district court to award to a prevailing party other than the United States fees and other expenses ... incurred by that party in any civil action (other than cases sounding in tort), including proceedings for judicial review of agency action, brought by or against the United States ..., unless the court finds that the position of the United States was substantially justified or that special circumstances make an award unjust. 28 U.S.C. Sec. 2412(d)(1)(A). The EAJA was enacted as a Congressional response to remedy the unfortunate economic reality that many individuals lack the financial resources to defend themselves against obdurate government action. By allowing individuals to recover their attorney's fees in cases in which the government's position was not substantially justified, Congress sought to ensure that individuals would not be forced to sit idly when confronted with unreasonable governmental conduct. See Sullivan v. Hudson, 490 U.S. 877, ----, 109 S.Ct. 2248, 2253, 104 L.Ed.2d 941 (1989). Instead, Congress envisioned that the EAJA's fee-shifting mechanism would allow individuals to overcome the financial barriers that might otherwise preclude vindication of individual rights; such individual action, Congress believed, would both ensure that the rights of citizens were protected from governmental abuse and would ultimately stem inequitable and irresponsible abuses of authority by governmental agencies. See Taylor v. Heckler, 778 F.2d 674, 676 (11th Cir.1985) (citing H.R.Rep. No. 1418, 96th Cong., 2d Sess. 12, reprinted in 1980 U.S.Code Cong. & Admin.News 4953, 4984, 4991); see also Watford v. Heckler, 765 F.2d 1562, 1566 (11th Cir.1985) (The purpose of the EAJA was to alleviate economic deterrents to contesting unreasonable government action by shifting the burden of attorneys' fees from the private litigant to the government where the government's position is substantially unjustified.) (emphasis in original). 31 Since the EAJA's enactment, the vast majority of EAJA awards have gone to claimants who succeeded in challenging contrary benefits decisions made by the Secretary of Health and Human Services. See Pierce v. Underwood, 487 U.S. 552, 564, 108 S.Ct. 2541, 2549, 101 L.Ed.2d 490 (1988). In such suits, this court has recognized that three statutory conditions must be satisfied before a district court can award EAJA attorney's fees. See Taylor, 778 F.2d at 676. First, the claimant must file an application for fees within thirty days of final judgment in the action. 28 U.S.C. Sec. 2412(d)(1)(B). This requirement is jurisdictional in nature, see Haitian Refugee Center v. Meese, 791 F.2d 1489, 1494 (11th Cir.), vacated in part on other grounds on reh'g, 804 F.2d 1573 (11th Cir.1986); thus, a claimant's failure to file an EAJA application within this time constraint precludes a district court from considering the merits of the fee application. United States v. J.H.T., Inc., 872 F.2d 373 (11th Cir.1989). 32 Second, assuming the fee application was timely filed, the claimant must qualify as a prevailing party. To be a prevailing party in a Social Security case, it is not sufficient for a claimant merely to obtain a court-ordered remand for additional administrative proceedings. See Guglietti v. Sullivan, 900 F.2d 397, 399 (1st Cir.1990); Paulson v. Bowen, 836 F.2d 1249, 1252 (9th Cir.1988); Cook v. Heckler, 751 F.2d 240, 241 (8th Cir.1984); Brown v. Secretary of Health & Human Services, 747 F.2d 878, 880-81 (3d Cir.1984); McGill v. Schweiker, 712 F.2d 28, 32 (2d Cir.1983), cert. denied, 465 U.S. 1068, 104 S.Ct. 1420, 79 L.Ed.2d 745 (1984); Miller v. Schweiker, 560 F.Supp. 838 (M.D.Ala.1983); see Sullivan v. Hudson, 490 U.S. at ----, 109 S.Ct. at 2255 (We think it clear that ... a Social Security claimant would not, as a general matter, be a prevailing party within the meaning of the EAJA merely because a court had remanded the action to the agency for further proceedings.). Rather, the claimant must establish actual entitlement to some relief on the merits of his or her claims. Jean v. Nelson, 863 F.2d 759, 766 (11th Cir.1988), aff'd on other grounds, --- U.S. ----, 110 S.Ct. 2316, 110 L.Ed.2d 134 (1990). A claimant can satisfy this test either by obtaining a judgment from a federal court ordering the Secretary to provide some of the requested relief to the claimant, see, e.g., Martindale v. Sullivan, 890 F.2d 410 (11th Cir.1990); Jefferson v. Bowen, 837 F.2d 461 (11th Cir.1988), or by establishing entitlement to benefits in administrative proceedings conducted subsequent to a court-ordered remand. See, e.g., Hudson v. Secretary of Health and Human Services, 839 F.2d 1453 (11th Cir.1988), aff'd, 490 U.S. 877, 109 S.Ct. 2248, 104 L.Ed.2d 941 (1989); Stratton v. Bowen, 827 F.2d 1447 (11th Cir.1987). 33 Finally, if the claimant is a prevailing party who timely filed an EAJA fee application, then the claimant is entitled to receive attorney's fees unless the government can establish that its positions were substantially justified or that there exist special circumstances which countenance against the awarding of fees. If the district court concludes that the government's positions were substantially justified--i.e., all of the government's arguments 5 possessed a reasonable basis both in law and fact, Jean v. Nelson, 863 F.2d at 767, quoting Pierce v. Underwood, 487 U.S. at 565, 108 S.Ct. at 2550--then, notwithstanding the fact that the claimant ultimately prevailed in the litigation, the claimant is not entitled to receive attorney's fees. See, e.g., Reeves v. Bowen, 841 F.2d 383 (11th Cir.) (per curiam), order on reh'g, 860 F.2d 1009 (11th Cir.1988); Jefferson v. Bowen, 837 F.2d 461 (11th Cir.1988) (per curiam). 34