Reeves v. Astrue

• Decision Date: 05 May 2008
• Docket Number: No. 07-11404.,07-11404.
• Parties: Maxie D. REEVES, Plaintiff-Appellant, v. Michael J. ASTRUE, Commissioner of Social Security, Defendant-Appellee.
• Court: U.S. Court of Appeals — Eleventh Circuit

526 F.3d 732

Maxie D. REEVES, Plaintiff-Appellant, v. Michael J. ASTRUE, Commissioner of Social Security, Defendant-Appellee.

No. 07-11404.

United States Court of Appeals, Eleventh Circuit.

May 5, 2008.

John Francis Cameron, Jr., Montgomery, AL, for Reeves.

Michael E. Robinson, William Kanter, U.S. Dept. of Justice, Civ. App. Div., Washington, DC, James J. Dubois, Asst. U.S. Atty., Montgomery, AL, for Astrue.

Appeal from the United States District Court for the Middle District of Alabama.

Before BLACK, CARNES and COX, Circuit Judges.

BLACK, Circuit Judge:

The question presented in this case is whether an award of attorney's fees granted under 28 U.S.C. § 2412(d)(1)(A) belongs to the party or to the party's attorney. We conclude the statute unambiguously grants an award to the "prevailing party." Accordingly, we hold the award belongs, in the first instance, to the party and not the party's attorney. We therefore affirm the district court's conclusion that the award in the instant case belonged to the prevailing party, Maxie D. Reeves, and could therefore be offset to pay Reeves' child support debt.

I. BACKGROUND

Maxie D. Reeves filed a civil action against the Commissioner of Social Security challenging a denial of disability benefits. The district court reversed the denial and remanded Reeves' case back to the Social Security Administration for further administrative proceedings. As the prevailing party in the action, Reeves petitioned the district court for an award of attorney's fees and expenses pursuant to the Equal Access to Justice Act (EAJA), 28 U.S.C. § 2412(a) and (d). The Commissioner agreed Reeves was entitled to an EAJA award, and the district court awarded Reeves $4,201.83 for attorney's fees and expenses associated with the action.

The Social Security Administration initiated payment of the award through the Department of the Treasury, which issued a check payable to Maxie D. Reeves. Reeves never received the check, however, because the Treasury Department diverted the entire payment to the Chilton County Department of Human Resources to offset an unpaid child support debt owed by Reeves.

Reeves filed a motion challenging the offset. He argued the EAJA award should not have been used to offset his personal debt because the award did not belong to him personally; rather, the award belonged to his attorney. The district court, relying on this Circuit's decision in Panola Land Buying Ass'n v. Clark, 844 F.2d 1506 (11th Cir.1988), determined the award in fact belonged to Reeves as the "prevailing party" under the EAJA, and concluded the award was therefore subject to offset. Reeves appealed.

On appeal, Reeves argues the district court erred as a matter of law when it determined the EAJA award belongs to the party. Reeves maintains the award belongs to his attorney and argues the offset of the award was therefore an unlawful offset because no mutuality of debt existed between the parties.

II. DISCUSSION

To resolve this appeal we must first interpret the EAJA, 28 U.S.C. § 2412(d)(1)(A), in order to determine whether attorney's fees awarded under the EAJA are payable to Mr. Reeves or to his attorney. We must then decide whether those fees could be offset by the Treasury Department for Reeves' unpaid child support debt.

A. Whether EAJA Attorney's Fees are Awarded to the Party or to the Party's Attorney.

We review the district court's interpretation of a statute de novo. Bergen v. Comm'r of Soc. Sec., 454 F.3d 1273, 1275 (11th Cir.2006). Statutory interpretation begins and ends with the text of the statute so long as the text's meaning is clear. CBS Inc. v. PrimeTime 24 Joint Venture, 245 F.3d 1217, 1222-25 (11th Cir.2001). "[I]f the statute speaks clearly to the precise question at issue, we must give effect to the unambiguously expressed intent of Congress." Barnhart v. Walton, 535 U.S. 212, 217-18, 122 S.Ct. 1265, 1269, 152 L.Ed.2d 330 (2002) (internal quotations and citation omitted). Where a statute is unambiguous "we need not, and ought not, consider legislative history." Harry v. Marchant, 291 F.3d 767, 772 (11th Cir. 2002); see also Harris v. Garner, 216 F.3d 970, 976 (11th Cir.2000) (en banc).

The EAJA contains a fee shifting device applicable in civil suits against the United States. The text of the statute provides "a court shall award to a prevailing party other than the United States fees and other expenses ... incurred by that party in any civil action ..., 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. § 2412(d)(1)(A) (emphasis added). We conclude the statute's explicit reference to the "prevailing party" unambiguously directs the award of attorney's fees to the party who incurred those fees and not to the party's attorney. Accord Manning v. Astrue, 510 F.3d 1246, 1249-50 (10th Cir.2007).

Not only is our conclusion firmly rooted in the text of the statute, it parallels our prior interpretation of identical "prevailing party" language within the very same statute. See Panola, 844 F.2d at 1509-11. In Panola, we were called on to determine whether an attorney was eligible to apply for attorney's fees under 28 U.S.C. § 2412. See id.; 28 U.S.C. § 2412(d)(1)(B) (indicating a "party" may apply for fees and expenses if they submit an application showing they are the "prevailing party"). Relying on the "straightforward `prevailing party' language in the EAJA," we held a party's former attorney had no right to intervene in an action for the purpose of seeking attorney's fees because the attorney was not the prevailing party. Id. at 1507, 1511-15. While the question of who receives the award of attorney's fees was not squarely before us in Panola, we commented at the time that "§ 2412(d)(1)(A) provides for an award of fees and other expenses to a private party who prevails in any civil action (other than cases sounding in tort) against the government ...." Panola, 844 F.2d at 1510 n. 12 (emphasis added).

Reeves distinguishes Panola as only resolving who may apply for fees, and he invites us to import the logic relied upon in a Truth-in-Lending case, Plant v. Blazer Fin. Serv., Inc., 598 F.2d 1357 (5th Cir. 1979),¹ to our interpretation of the EAJA. In Plant, the former Fifth Circuit held: "in a truth-in-lending action an award of attorney's fees is not subject to setoff against the debtor's outstanding debt to the creditor." Id. at 1365. Reeves correctly notes this holding in Plant is binding precedent in this Circuit; however, Reeves' case is not a truth-in-lending case. Reeves is therefore incorrect to the extent he suggests this panel is bound to apply the principle articulated in Plant that "the fee once awarded becomes in effect an asset of the attorney, not the client." Plant, 598 F.2d at 1366. The Plant panel articulated this principle in the context of interpreting different language in a different statute and it did so only after concluding the text of the statute at issue was ambiguous and legislative history was of no help. See id. at 1365. To the contrary, here we conclude the "prevailing party" language of the EAJA presents a directive so clear that we do not reach policy-based arguments, such as those considered in Plant. See id. at 1365-66.²

The Supreme Court has instructed, "[a] term appearing in several places in a statutory text is generally read the same way each time it appears." Ratzlaf v. United States, 510 U.S. 135, 143, 114 S.Ct. 655, 660, 126 L.Ed.2d 615 (1994). This cannon of construction and our prior interpretation of the statute bolster our conclusion in the instant case: Congress used the same "prevailing party" language because it intended the person who applies for an EAJA award and the person who receives the award to be one and the same — the prevailing party.

As previously recognized in Panola, there are other provisions within § 2412 which rule out the attorney as the prevailing party. Panola, 844 F.2d at 1511. In contrast to § 2412(d)(1)'s specific reference to the "party" as the entity who applies for and is awarded fees, the statute lumps the services of attorneys into the same category as "expert witnesses, engineers, scientists, analysts, or other persons found by the court to be necessary for the preparation of the party's case." Id.; see 28 U.S.C. § 2412(d)(2)(A) (defining "fees and other expenses" and indicating they may include "reasonable attorney fees"). In Panola, we concluded the structure of the statute demonstrates Congress did not intend all service providers to become additional parties to the action for the purpose of asserting their claims for compensation. See 844 F.2d at 1511. It is equally implausible Congress intended EAJA fees be awarded directly by the court to each service provider on an individual basis. Rather, the statute plainly contemplates that the prevailing party will look to the opposing party for costs incurred, while attorneys and others service providers must look to the party for compensation for their services. Id.; see also 28 U.S.C. § 2412(d)(1)(B) (requiring prevailing party submit fee application with itemized statement from attorney detailing time spent and rates charged); 28 U.S.C. § 2412(d)(2)(B) (conditioning eligibility for attorney's fees upon wealth of prevailing party, not wealth of attorney); Manning, 510 F.3d at 1251.

Section 406(b) of the Social Security Act serves as a useful point of comparison and further supports our conclusion that the EAJA award is made to the prevailing party, and not to the prevailing party's attorney. Congress provided another avenue for collecting attorney's fees within the Social Security Act. See 42 U.S.C. § 406(b)(1). The text of this provision stands in stark contrast to the prevailing party language of the EAJA. Section 406(b) provides that whenever a court renders a favorable judgment to a claimant it may allow a reasonable attorney fee, and the...