Morin v. Secretary of Health & Human Services

835 F. Supp. 1431, 1993 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 14630, 1993 WL 428947
CourtDistrict Court, D. New Hampshire
DecidedFebruary 3, 1993
DocketCiv. No. 91-316-D
StatusPublished
Cited by9 cases

This text of 835 F. Supp. 1431 (Morin v. Secretary of Health & Human Services) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court, D. New Hampshire primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Morin v. Secretary of Health & Human Services, 835 F. Supp. 1431, 1993 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 14630, 1993 WL 428947 (D.N.H. 1993).

Opinion

ORDER

DEVINE, Senior District Judge.

Presently before the court is plaintiffs motion for an award of attorney’s fees and costs pursuant to the Equal Access to Justice Act, 28 U.S.C. § 2412(a) and (d) (EAJA). The Secretary objects on various grounds.

I. Background1

As the result of an injury sustained in September 1982, plaintiff applied for social security disability insurance benefits on three separate occasions. The latter two applications, of September 19, 1987, and July 29, 1989, were subject to this court’s review. Finding that the ALJ’s conclusions regarding plaintiffs credibility were not supported by substantial evidence, the court reversed the Secretary’s decision that plaintiffs impairment did not prevent her from returning to past relevant work. Moreover, the court found that there was no need to remand this case to the Secretary for further consideration because the record before the court demonstrated that under the Secretary’s regulations, plaintiff was per se disabled. Accordingly, the court on April 1, 1992, pursuant to 42 U.S.C. § 405(g), ordered a sentence four remand, which merely directed the Secretary to compute the disability benefits due plaintiff. Judgment was so entered on April 13, 1992.

On April 27, 1992, the Secretary moved the court under Rule 59(e), Fed.R.Civ.P., to alter and amend judgment. Said motion was denied on June 5, 1992, and that post-judgment judgment was entered on June 18, 1992.

II. Discussion

The EAJA provides:

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 ... 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 [1433]*1433having 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) (West Supp.1992).

Thus, eligibility for a fee award in any civil action requires: (1) that the claimant be a ‘prevailing party’; (2) that the Government’s position was not ‘substantially justified’; (3) that no ‘special circumstances make an award unjust’; and, (4) pursuant to 28 U.S.C. § 2412(d)(1)(B), that any fee application be submitted to the court within 30 days of final judgment in the action and be supported by an itemized statement.

Commissioner, INS v. Jean, 496 U.S. 154, 158, 110 S.Ct. 2316, 2318, 110 L.Ed.2d 134 (1990). Not all of these conditions are at issue in this case. For example, defendant does not dispute that plaintiff is a “prevailing party”. It is settled that “ ‘if the remand order directs the Secretary to award benefits, the claimant is a prevailing party....’ ” Labrie v. Secretary of HHS, 976 F.2d 779, 786, (1st Cir.1992) (quoting Hafner v. Sullivan, 972 F.2d 249, 250-51 (8th Cir.1992)). Accordingly, the court finds that plaintiff is a “prevailing party”. Jean, supra, 496 U.S. at 160, 110 S.Ct. at 2319.

Nor does defendant suggest that special circumstances exist that would make an award unjust. See, e.g., id. (“If the Government then asserts an exception for ... circumstances that render an award unjust, the court must make a second finding regarding [this] additional threshold condition[ ].”). However, by way of its first objection to an award of fees in this case, defendant challenges the court’s subject matter jurisdiction.

A. Statutory Filing Requirement

Defendant contends that because plaintiff did not file her EAJA fee application until almost three months after the court entered final judgment in this action on June 18, 1992, such untimeliness deprived the court of jurisdiction.

As noted above, one of the statutory prerequisites to an EAJA award is that a party file a fee application within thirty days of final judgment in the action. Id. at 158, 110 S.Ct. at 2318; Labrie, supra, 976 F.2d at 780. The thirty-day filing requirement of EAJA is jurisdictional, and accordingly may not be waived by either the parties or the court. Howitt v. United States Dept. of Commerce, 897 F.2d 583, 584 (1st Cir.), cert. denied, 498 U.S. 895, 111 S.Ct. 244, 112 L.Ed.2d 203 (1990) (collecting cases). However, “[a]s used in EAJA, final judgment ‘means a judgment that is final and not appealable, and includes an order of settlement.’ 28 U.S.C. § 2412(d)(2)(G). Under Fed.R.App.P. 4(a)(1), the remand order [is] ‘not appealable’ after 60 days2—giving claim ant a total of 90 days to file for fees.” Labrie, supra, 976 F.2d at 780 n. 1. Accord Lenz v. Secretary, HHS, 798 F.Supp. 69, 71 (D.N.H.1992) (under sentence four of section 405(g), “‘final judgment’ enters as of the time of remand so that ‘the filing period begins after the final judgment ... is entered by the court and the appeal period has run, so that the judgment is no longer appealable’ ”) (quoting Melkonyan v. Sullivan, 501 U.S. --,-, 111 S.Ct. 2157, 2165, 115 L.Ed.2d 78 (1991)).3

Furthermore, where, as here, a timely motion is filed under Rule 59(e), Fed.R.Civ.P., to alter or amend the judgment, “the time to appeal [the underlying judgment] for all parties shall run from the entry of the order ... granting or denying ... such motion.” Rule 4(a)(4), Fed.R.App.P. See Fiore v. Washington Co. Com. Mental Health Ctr., 960 F.2d 229, 233 (1st Cir.1992).

The fatal flaw in defendant’s argument is that it ignores the statutory definition of “final judgment”, § 2412(d)(2)(G), and does [1434]*1434not factor into the calculus any appeal period. Finding that the relevant time limitations expired on September 16, 1992, the court holds that plaintiffs motion for an award of fees, filed on September 15, 1992, was timely filed.

B. Substantial Justification

Here, as an exception to plaintiffs eligibility for fees, the government does assert that its position was substantially justified.

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835 F. Supp. 1431, 1993 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 14630, 1993 WL 428947, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/morin-v-secretary-of-health-human-services-nhd-1993.