Townsend v. Social Sec. Admin.

• Citation: 486 F.3d 127
• Decision Date: 04 May 2007
• Docket Number: No. 06-5688.,06-5688.
• Parties: Stella TOWNSEND, Plaintiff-Appellant, v. SOCIAL SECURITY ADMINISTRATION, Defendant-Appellee.
• Court: United States Courts of Appeals. United States Court of Appeals (6th Circuit)

486 F.3d 127

Stella TOWNSEND, Plaintiff-Appellant, v. SOCIAL SECURITY ADMINISTRATION, Defendant-Appellee.

No. 06-5688.

United States Court of Appeals, Sixth Circuit.

Argued: April 17, 2007.

Decided and Filed: May 4, 2007.

ARGUED:

Wolodymyr Cybriwsky, Law Offices of Wolodymyr Cybriwsky, Prestonsburg, Kentucky, for Appellant. Brian C. Huberty, Social Security Administration, Atlanta, Georgia, for Appellee.

ON BRIEF:

Wolodymyr Cybriwsky, Law Offices of Wolodymyr Cybriwsky, Prestonsburg, Kentucky, for Appellant. Brian C. Huberty, Dennis R. Williams, Mary Ann Sloan, Social Security Administration, Atlanta, Georgia, for Appellee.

Before KENNEDY, MARTIN, and MOORE, Circuit Judges.

OPINION

MOORE, Circuit Judge.

Plaintiff-Appellant Stella Townsend ("Townsend") appeals from the district court's order denying her application for attorney fees and expenses pursuant to the Equal Access to Justice Act ("EAJA"), 28 U.S.C. § 2412. On remand after a previous appeal, the district court denied as untimely Townsend's application for fees and expenses related to litigation in the district court, concluding that equitable tolling was not warranted. The district court also denied Townsend's request for fees and expenses related to the initial appeal, concluding that Townsend was not a prevailing party for purposes of the EAJA. Because Townsend cannot collect any attorney fees or expenses if her initial fee application was not timely filed, and because the district court did not abuse its discretion by concluding that equitable tolling was not warranted, we AFFIRM the judgment of the district court.

I. BACKGROUND

This is the second time that the matter of attorney fees in this case has come up on appeal. On June 1, 2001, Townsend filed a complaint in the federal district court appealing the decision of the Commissioner of Social Security ("Commissioner") denying her application for supplemental security income. On August 8, 2002, the district court entered its decision granting Townsend's motion for summary judgment, concluding that the Commissioner's decision was not supported by substantial evidence. On October 9, 2002, the Commissioner filed a motion for relief from judgment pursuant to Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 60(b), which the district court denied on December 18, 2002, as untimely and meritless.

On February 20, 2003, Townsend filed an application for attorney fees and expenses, pursuant to the EAJA. On May 12, 2003, the district court entered an order denying the application as untimely, concluding that Townsend had failed to comply with the EAJA's requirement that a party seeking an award of fees and expenses file "within thirty days of final judgment in the action." 28 U.S.C. § 2412(d)(1)(B). On May 19, 2003, Townsend filed a motion to alter or amend the district court's May 12 order, which the district court denied on September 4, 2003.

Townsend appealed, and on July 20, 2005, we reversed the district court's judgment. Townsend v. Comm'r of Soc. Sec., 415 F.3d 578 (6th Cir.2005). We determined that the EAJA time limitation was subject to equitable tolling and remanded the case so that the district court could determine whether equitable tolling was warranted under the circumstances of this case. Id. at 583. Thereafter, Townsend filed in this court an application for attorney fees and expenses related to her appeal, also pursuant to the EAJA. The Commissioner filed a brief in opposition, and Townsend filed a response. On December 15, 2005, we remanded that matter as well, so that it could be considered in the first instance by the district court.

On remand, Townsend filed a revised application for attorney fees and expenses related to litigation in the district court. On March 24, 2006, the district court denied Townsend's motion for fees and expenses related to the first appeal in this case and denied a second time Townsend's request for fees and expenses related to litigation in the district court. The district court determined that Townsend was not a prevailing party on appeal and thus did not qualify for any award for appellate fees under the EAJA. The district court also determined that equitable tolling was not warranted in this case and, accordingly, once again denied Townsend's initial application as untimely. Townsend timely appealed.

II. ANALYSIS

The EAJA provides that prevailing parties may recover attorney fees and costs from the government under certain circumstances:

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.

28 U.S.C. § 2412(d)(1)(A). A party seeking fees is required to file an application "within thirty days of final judgment in the action." 28 U.S.C. § 2412(d)(1)(B). As the Supreme Court has noted, the EAJA thus reduces to four requirements: (1) that the fee applicant be a prevailing party (2) that the government's position not be substantially justified; (3) that no special circumstances make an award unjust; and (4) that the fee applicant file the requisite application within thirty days of final judgment. Comm'r, INS v. Jean, 496 U.S. 154, 158, 110 S.Ct. 2316, 110 L.Ed.2d 134 (1990).

A. "[T]reating [the][C]ase as an [I]nclusive [W]hole"

The district court analyzed separately Townsend's application for attorney fees and expenses related to litigation in the district court and Townsend's application for attorney fees and expenses related to the first appeal in this case. The district court relied on different grounds in denying the two applications, rejecting Townsend's initial fee application because it was untimely and rejecting her fee application related to the first appeal because she was not a prevailing party in her application for fees and expenses, the action upon which her first appeal was based. Townsend argues that these two conclusions were in error, but, as an initial matter, we believe that the EAJA requires a different analytical framework.

The district court's reasoning makes clear that the district court assumed that Townsend's application for fees and expenses and her underlying supplemental security income claims were separate matters for purposes of the EAJA. Thus, the district court, in denying Townsend's fee application related to the first appeal, decided whether or not Townsend was a prevailing party in her application for fees and expenses, analyzing the fee litigation by itself rather than analyzing the case as a whole. In Commissioner, INS v. Jean, however, the Supreme Court rejected this very approach. In Jean, the lower courts had decided that the fee applicant had met the EAJA's requirements for recovering fees related to the underlying action: (1) the fee applicant was a prevailing party; (2) the government's position regarding the underlying action was not substantially justified; (3) no special circumstances made an award unjust; and (4) the fee applicant filed the requisite application within thirty days of final judgment. Id. at 156, 110 S.Ct. 2316. The government argued that, despite this determination, the fee applicant was not entitled to those portions of attorney fees and expenses spent litigating the issue of attorney fees and expenses. The government argued that in a case that results in protracted litigation on the issue of fees, "unless the court finds that [the government's] position in the fee litigation itself was not substantially justified, fees for any litigation about fees are not recoverable." Id. at 157, 110 S.Ct. 2316 (emphasis added). The Supreme Court rejected the argument that the underlying action and the application for fees and expenses should be treated separately for purposes of the EAJA, stating: "The single finding that the Government's position lacks substantial justification, like the determination that a claimant is a `prevailing party,' . . . operates as a one-time threshold for fee eligibility." Id. at 160, 110 S.Ct. 2316. "While the parties' postures on individual matters may be more or less justified, the EAJA — like other fee-shifting statutes — favors treating a case as an inclusive whole, rather than as atomized line-items." Id. at 161-62, 110 S.Ct. 2316. Thus, a fee applicant must meet the EAJA's four requirements only once to establish an entitlement to attorney fees and expenses. Successes or failures in fee litigation might affect the ultimate fee awarded, see id. at 163 n. 10, 110 S.Ct. 2316, but not whether or not the applicant is entitled to fees and expenses.

We believe that the reasoning of Jean applies with equal force to a fee applicant who fails to meet one of the EAJA's four requirements. Thus, an applicant who fails to establish an entitlement to fees and expenses related to the underlying action cannot, under the reasoning of Jean, recover fees and expenses related to the fee litigation. Allowing such recovery would give a fee applicant the second opportunity that Jean denies to the government and would violate the directive to "treat[ ][the] case as an inclusive whole, rather than as atomized line-items." Id. at 161-62, 110 S.Ct. 2316. Thus, we conclude that, in the ordinary case, a fee applicant cannot recover any attorney fees or expenses related to the case unless the district court, treating the case as a whole, determines that the applicant has satisfied the EAJA's four requirements, including the requirement that the applicant file a fee application within thirty days of final judgment (subject to equitable tolling).¹ Thus, Townsend's entitlement to any...