Penns v. O'Malley

Opinion

1 Marc V. Kalagian Attorney at Law: 4460 2 Law Offices of Lawrence D. Rohlfing, Inc., CPC 12631 East Imperial Highway Suite C-115 3 Santa Fe Springs, CA 90670 Tel.: (562) 868-5886 4 Fax: (562) 868-8868 E-mail: marc.kalagian@rksslaw.com 5 Leonard Stone 6 Attorney at Law: 5791 Shook & Stone 7 710 South 4th Street Las Vegas, NV 89101 8 Tel.: (702) 385-2220 Fax: (702) 384-0394 9 E-mail: Lstone@shookandstone.com 10 Attorneys for Plaintiff Randal David Penns 11 12 UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT 13 DISTRICT OF NEVADA 14 15 RANDAL DAVID PENNS, ) Case No.: 2:24-cv-01230-EJY ) 16 Plaintiff, ) STIPULATION AND PROPOSED ) ORDER FOR THE AWARD AND 17 vs. ) PAYMENT OF ATTORNEY FEES ) AND EXPENSES PURSUANT TO 18 FRANK BISIGNANO, ) THE EQUAL ACCESS TO JUSTICE Commissioner of Social Security, ) ACT, 28 U.S.C. § 2412(d) AND 19 ) COSTS PURSUANT TO 28 U.S.C. § Defendant. ) 1920 20 ) ) 21 22 TO THE HONORABLE ELAYNA J. YOUCHAH, MAGISTRATE JUDGE 23 OF THE DISTRICT COURT: 24 IT IS HEREBY STIPULATED, by and between the parties through their 25 undersigned counsel, subject to the approval of the Court, that Randal David Penns 26 (“Penns”) be awarded attorney fees in the amount of FIFTY SEVEN HUNDRED 1 dollars ($5,700.00) under the Equal Access to Justice Act (EAJA), 28 U.S.C. § 2 2412(d), and no costs under 28 U.S.C. § 1920. This amount represents 3 compensation for all legal services rendered on behalf of Plaintiff by counsel in 4 connection with this civil action, in accordance with 28 U.S.C. §§ 1920; 2412(d). 5 After the Court issues an order for EAJA fees to Penns, the government will 6 consider the matter of Penns's assignment of EAJA fees to Marc Kalagian. The 7 retainer agreement containing the assignment is attached as exhibit 1. Pursuant to 8 Astrue v. Ratliff, 130 S.Ct. 2521, 2529 (2010), the ability to honor the assignment 9 will depend on whether the fees are subject to any offset allowed under the United 10 States Department of the Treasury's Offset Program. After the order for EAJA fees 11 is entered, the government will determine whether they are subject to any offset. 12 Fees shall be made payable to Penns, but if the Department of the Treasury 13 determines that Penns does not owe a federal debt, then the government shall cause 14 the payment of fees, expenses and costs to be made directly to Law Offices of 15 Lawrence D. Rohlfing, Inc., CPC, pursuant to the assignment executed by Penns.1 16 Any payments made shall be delivered to Law Offices of Lawrence D. Rohlfing, 17 Inc., CPC. Counsel agrees that any payment of costs may be made either by 18 electronic fund transfer (ETF) or by check.

19 This stipulation constitutes a compromise settlement of Penns's request for 20 EAJA attorney fees, and does not constitute an admission of liability on the part of 21 Defendant under the EAJA or otherwise. Payment of the agreed amount shall 22 constitute a complete release from, and bar to, any and all claims that Penns and/or 23 24 25 1 The parties do not stipulate whether counsel for the plaintiff has a cognizable lien under federal law against the recovery of EAJA fees that survives the Treasury 26 1 Marc Kalagian including Law Offices of Lawrence D. Rohlfing, Inc., CPC, may 2 have relating to EAJA attorney fees in connection with this action. 3 This award is without prejudice to the rights of Marc Kalagian and/or the 4 Law Offices of Lawrence D. Rohlfing, Inc., CPC, to seek Social Security Act 5 attorney fees under 42 U.S.C. § 406(b), subject to the savings clause provisions of 6 the EAJA. 7 DATE: June 6, 2025 Respectfully submitted, 8 LAW OFFICES OF LAWRENCE D. ROHLFING, INC., CPC 9 /s/ Marc V. Kalagian BY: __________________ 10 Marc V. Kalagian Attorney for plaintiff 11 RANDAL DAVID PENNS 12 DATE: June 6, 2025 SIGAL CHATTAH 13 United States Attorney 14 15 /s/ David Priddy 16 DAVID PRIDDY Special Assistant United States Attorney 17 Attorneys for Defendant FRANK BISIGNANO, Commissioner of Social 18 Security (Per e-mail authorization) 19 ORDER 20 21 Approved and so ordered: 22 DATE: June 6, 2025 23 24 ___________________________________ THE HONORABLE ELAYNA J. YOUCHAH 25 UNITED STATES MAGISTRATE JUDGE 26