Hayes v. Heckler, 85-3879

• Decision Date: 04 April 1986
• Docket Number: No. 85-3879,85-3879
• Citation: 785 F.2d 1455
• Parties: , Unempl.Ins.Rep. CCH 16,791 Robert S. HAYES, Plaintiff-Appellant, v. Margaret M. HECKLER, Secretary of Health and Human Services, Defendant-Appellee.
• Court: U.S. Court of Appeals — Ninth Circuit

Page 1455

785 F.2d 1455

13 Soc.Sec.Rep.Ser. 88, Unempl.Ins.Rep. CCH 16,791

Robert S. HAYES, Plaintiff-Appellant, v. Margaret M. HECKLER, Secretary of Health and Human Services Defendant-Appellee.

No. 85-3879.

United States Court of Appeals Ninth Circuit.

Argued and Submitted March 4, 1986.

Decided April 4, 1986.

Mike Stebbins, Hayner, Waring, Stebbins & Coffey, North Bend, Or., for plaintiff-appellant.

Richard H. Wetmore, Asst. Regional Atty., Seattle, Wash., for defendant-appellee.

Appeal from the United States District Court for the District of Oregon.

Before FLETCHER, ALARCON and WIGGINS, Circuit Judges.

PER CURIAM:

Robert Hayes appeals the district court's denial of his motion and petition for attorneys' fees and expenses under the Equal Access to Justice Act (EAJA), 28 U.S.C. Sec. 2412. The district court found that the position of the Secretary of Health and Human Services (Secretary) during the proceedings was substantially justified, precluding an EAJA award.

We remand the case to the district court to articulate its reasons for finding that the Secretary's position was substantially justified.

In October 1981, Robert Hayes was injured in a car accident. He filed an application for social security disability insurance benefits, alleging total disability due to a spinal cord injury. The Administrative Law Judge (ALJ) denied Hayes's claim, and the Department of Health and Human Services Appeals Council upheld the ALJ's decision.

Hayes appealed the Secretary's final decision to the district court, and ultimately secured a reversal of the Secretary's decision. Hayes then filed a motion and petition for attorneys' fees under the EAJA. The district court denied that motion on the grounds that the Secretary's position during the dispute was substantially justified. In its order, the court gave no explanation of the basis for its decision. Hayes timely appealed.

We review a district court's decision regarding the award of attorneys' fees under the EAJA for an abuse of discretion. E.g., Rawlings v. Heckler, 725 F.2d 1192, 1194 (9th Cir.1984). The district court's task is to determine whether the position of the United States during the dispute was "substantially justified." ¹ See United States v. First National Bank of Circle, 732 F.2d 1444, 1447 (9th Cir.1984).

In First National Bank, we reviewed a district court's denial of the defendant bank's request for EAJA fees. The district court had stated that " 'the legal position of [the United States] was defensible, asserted in good faith, and substantially justified within the meaning of the law.' " Id. at 1447. The district court did not explain why it reached this conclusion, however.

We held in First National Bank that this court could not review a district court's decision for abuse of discretion if the district court did not provide any explanation of its actions. See id. We further held that the parties' own contentions concerning whether the government's actions were substantially justified were no substitute for the district court's findings. We stated that "we can review his exercise of discretion only by evaluating what he considered, not what the parties tell us." Id. at 1448. We therefore remanded the case to the district court to articulate its reasons for denying recovery of EAJA fees. Id.

The reasoning of First National Bank fully applies in the case at bench. Cf. Wolverton v. Heckler, 726 F.2d 580, 583 (9th Cir.1984) (case reversed in part and remanded for the district court to make further factual findings and then to...