Chonko v. Commissioner of Social Sec. Admin.
| Decision Date | 22 April 2008 |
| Docket Number | Master File: No. 06-CV-1647 (WJM). |
| Citation | 624 F.Supp.2d 357 |
| Parties | Nicholas CHONKO, Plaintiff, v. COMMISSIONER OF SOCIAL SECURITY ADMINISTRATION, Defendant. |
| Court | U.S. District Court — District of New Jersey |
Agnes S. Wladyka, Agnes S. Wladyka, LLC, Jon C. Dubin, Rutgers School of Law-Newark, Urban Legal Clinic, Newark, NJ, for Plaintiff.
Gina N. Shin, Social Security Administration, Office of General Counsel, Sandra M. Grossfeld, Office of the U.S. Attorney, Social Security Administration, New York, NY, for Defendant.
Chonko files this motion seeking attorney's fees under the Equal Access to Justice Act. These fees resulted from his appeal of a decision by the Commissioner of Social Security denying Chonko social security disability insurance benefits. The Commissioner presents only two objections. First, the Commissioner argues that the amount Chonko requests is not reasonable. Second, the Commissioner argues that any award should go to Chonko, not Chonko's pro bono counsel. The Court finds that Chonko's request is reasonable. The Court further holds that EAJA fees are properly awarded to Chonko, not his counsel. Accordingly, Chonko's motion is GRANTED.
This motion requires only a cursory description of the facts and proceedings. Chonko applied for social security disability benefits. The Commissioner denied the application. Chonko appealed the Commissioner's decision to this Court, which affirmed. Chonko then appealed to the Third Circuit. Before the Third Circuit heard Chonko's appeal, however, the parties jointly stipulated to remand the case back to the Commissioner.
During his appeal to the Third Circuit, Chonko was represented pro bono by a team from the Rutgers Law School Urban Legal Clinic. The team was lead by Rutgers Law Professor Jon Dubin, the Director of Clinical Programs at the law school. The other two team members were third-year Rutgers Law School students Michael McGillion and Safia Hussain.1
Chonko now moves under the Equal Access to Justice Act (EAJA), 28 U.S.C. § 2412, for attorney's fees representing the Rutgers team's work for the Third Circuit appeal.2 Chonko seeks $15,182.96 in fees for work performed by Dubin, McGillion, and Hussain. He moves the Court to award these fees directly to the Rutgers Urban Legal Clinic.
The Commissioner opposes Chonko's request. The Commissioner concedes that Chonko is entitled to attorney's fees under EAJA for the Rutgers team's work on appeal and objects to the award on only two grounds. First, the Commissioner claims that Chonko's fee request is unreasonably high. Specifically, the Commissioner argues that the number of hours the Rutgers team spent litigating the appeal was excessive. Second, the Commissioner claims that any award of attorney's fees under EAJA should go to Chonko, not his attorneys.
The Equal Access to Justice Act ("EAJA") provides as follows:
Except as otherwise specifically provided by statute, a court shall award to a prevailing party other than the United States fees and other expenses, in addition to any costs awarded pursuant to subsection (a), 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 in any court having jurisdiction of that action, unless the court finds that the position of the United States was substantially justified or that special circumstances make an award unjust.
Equal Access to Justice Act (EAJA), 28 U.S.C. § 2412(d)(1)(A). EAJA requires a district court to award a "prevailing party" reasonable attorney's fees resulting from the appeal of an adverse decision of the Social Security Administration Commissioner. See Kadelski v. Sullivan, 30 F.3d 399 (3d Cir.1994).
The Commissioner concedes that Chonko is entitled to reasonable attorney's fees but claims that the fees Chonko requests are unreasonably high. The Court disagrees.
EAJA permits awards of attorney's fees only to the extent they are reasonable. See Hensley v. Eckerhart, 461 U.S. 424, 433, 103 S.Ct. 1933, 76 L.Ed.2d 40 (1983). "Although counsel are entitled to full compensation for their efforts, `[i]t does not follow that the amount of time actually expended is the amount of time reasonably expended.'" Bunn v. Bowen, 637 F.Supp. 464, 469 (E.D.N.C.1986) (quoting Copeland v. Marshall, 641 F.2d 880, 891 (D.C.Cir.1980) (en banc)). If attorney hours are unnecessary, redundant, or inefficient, the court should reduce the hours claimed to reflect a reasonable award. Ashton v. Pierce, 580 F.Supp. 440, 442 (D.D.C.1984). The prevailing party's attorneys may assist the court in this regard and indeed should make a good faith effort to exclude fee requests that are excessive. See Hensley, 461 U.S. at 434, 103 S.Ct. 1933.
Chonko has set forth for the Court the hours that the Rutgers team spent litigating the appeal. He asserts that Dubin spent 86.25 hours litigating the Third Circuit appeal. Of this, Dubin allegedly spent 55.5 hours initially litigating the appeal, 15.75 hours drafting and filing a reply brief for this motion, and 15 hours working on a surreply to the Commissioner's opposition. (Pl.'s Pet. for Att'y Fees ¶ 10; Supplemental Decl. of Jon C. Dubin ¶ 10; Second Supplemental Decl. of Jon C. Dubin; Third Supplemental Decl. of Jon C. Dubin.) Chonko also asserts that Hussain spent 61.25 hours litigating the matter and that McGillion spent 68.5 hours. (Aff. of Safia Hussain ¶ 4; Aff. of Michael McGillion ¶ 4.)
For this work, Chonko seeks $15,182.96 in EAJA fees. He calculated this number in two steps. First, Chonko billed Dubin's time at a rate of $167.23 per hour and Hussain's and McGillion's time at a rate of $100 per hour. (Pet. ¶¶ 10, 11.) Second, Chonko reduced some of the hours he claimed for the Rutgers team, recognizing that a reduced number of hours might be more reasonable. (Pet. ¶ 12.) He reduced Hussain's and McGillion's hours by 50%, claiming only 64.5 hours between them. (Pet. ¶ 12.) Also, Chonko reduced the 55.5 hours that Dubin initially spent litigating the appeal to 26.75 hours and further reduced Dubin's 15 hours working on a surreply to 8.5 hours. (Pet. ¶ 12; Second Dubin Decl.; Third Dubin Decl.)
The Court finds these claimed hours to be reasonable in light of Chonko's reductions. Even before a detailed exploration of how Dubin, McGillion, and Hussain spent their time, the total amount of hours billed—roughly 35 hours by Dubin and roughly 65 hours by McGillion and Hussain together—appears a reasonable amount of time to draft and file an appeal of a social security case with the Third Circuit. Indeed, several courts have found that such an appeal may require roughly the same amount of work as that billed here. See, e.g., Walton v. Massanari, 177 F.Supp.2d 359, 363-65 (E.D.Pa.2001); McCauley v. Barnhart, No. 01-4953 (D.N.J. Sep. 21, 2005) ().
The Commissioner argues that courts generally approve only 20-40 hours of legal work in the average disability case (Opp'n to Mot. 2-3), but the cases cited in support are not persuasive. The cases the Commissioner cites deal with the reasonable legal expenditure in a social security case before a district court. See, e.g., Harden v. Comm'r Soc. Sec. Admin., 497 F.Supp.2d 1214, 1215-16 (D.Or.2007); Pribek v. Sec'y, Dep't of Health & Human Servs., 717 F.Supp. 73, 75 (W.D.N.Y.1989). But as the Commissioner admits, the appellate portion of a social security case may reasonably require more time than the portion before the trial court. (Opp'n 6-7.)
Furthermore, a more detailed examination of the Rutgers Team's billing confirms that Chonko's requested legal fees are reasonable, particularly given that Chonko requests roughly half of the hours actually billed. The majority of the research and drafting was performed by Hussain and McGillion. McGillion reported spending roughly 17 hours reviewing the case materials, roughly 9 hours performing legal research, and roughly 35 hours drafting and editing the brief. (McGillion Aff.) The remainder of McGillion's 68.5 hours were spent on miscellaneous tasks such as "Preparing appendices" and "Researching In Forma Pauperis motion." (McGillion Aff.) Hussain's time allocation was similar although it is a bit more difficult to precisely determine how much time she spent on each task since she often grouped tasks such as "Researching" and "drafting brief" together.3 (Hussain Aff.) Notwithstanding Dubin's reply brief and surreply, he spent roughly 8 hours reviewing the case materials, roughly 27 hours performing research, and roughly 13 hours meeting with and supervising McGillion and Hussain. (Dubin Decl.) He spent the remainder of the 55.5 hours initially billed on miscellaneous tasks such as "Preparation of draft retainer" and "Preparation of time records." (Dubin Decl.) While the Court finds that the total amount of time the Rutgers team spent on these tasks a bit excessive, Chonko's proposal to bill only half of this time is a reasonable accommodation. See Ashton, 580 F.Supp. at 442.
The Court finds the Commissioner's specific complaints unpersuasive. The Commissioner complains that Dubin spent too much time on certain tasks, such as 7 hours reviewing the administrative transcript and 6.75 hours preparing time records and the EAJA fee application. (Opp'n 4-6.) But these are time consuming activities; reviewing the full administrative transcript could easily take a day's work, and the EAJA fee application requires many pages of documentation and briefing. The Commissioner also complains that the Rutgers team spent too much time working together, such as the 13 hours Dubin spent reviewing the briefs and the time McGillion and Hussain spent conferring. (Opp'n 4-6.) But...
To continue reading
Request your trial
-
Morris v. Astrue
...the record while writing a brief, and might record the time spent on those tasks together. See, e.g., Chonko v. Comm'r of Soc. Sec. Admin., 624 F. Supp. 2d 357, 361 & n.3 (D.N.J. 2008) (holding that time itemizations that group together tasks such as legal research and brief writing are per......
-
Levyash v. Colvin
...reply, motions, and filings, including 42 hours on subjects in which Plaintiff was of great expertise); Chonko v. Comm'r of Soc. Sec. Admin., 624 F. Supp. 2d 357, 361 (D.N.J. 2008) (awarding $15,182.96, after voluntary reduction, for 55.5 hours of initial litigation, 15.75 hours drafting an......
-
Beattie v. Colvin
...court level). In fact, "reviewing the full administrative transcript could easily take a day's work." Chonko v. Comm'r of Soc. Sec. Admin. , 624 F.Supp.2d 357, 361 (D.N.J. 2008). Moreover, the claimant in this case has been found to suffer from serious communicative and interpersonal challe......
-
Bluford v. Comm'r of Soc. Sec., Civil No. 10-cv-04928 (DMC)
...an EAJA application is "time consuming" and "requires many pages of documentation and briefing." See Chonko v. Comm'r of Soc. Sec. Admin., 624 F. Supp. 2d 357, 361 (D.N.J. 2008) (finding that 6.75 hours spent on preparing time records and on the EAJA application was not unreasonable). In th......