United States Tenth Circuit

A preliminary injunction that does not provide a plaintiff with relief on the merits of their claim cannot serve as the basis for prevailing party status. An award of attorneys' fees under the Equal Access to Justice Act (EAJA) is reversed where plaintiff was not a "prevailing party" in the underlying litigation, despite its obtaining a preliminary injunction against the U.S. Forest Service halting an imminent timber sale.

Appellate Information

• Decided 03/18/2008
• Published 03/19/2008

Judges

• O'CONNOR, Associate Justice (Ret.)., Before O'CONNOR, Associate Justice (Ret.),HENRY, Chief Circuit Judge, and TACHA, Circuit Judge.

Court

• United States Tenth Circuit

Counsel

• For Appellees:
  
• John E. Arbab, Attorney (David C. Shilton, Attorney, Matthew J. McKeown, Acting Assistant Attorney General, and Kenneth S. Capps, of Counsel, Appellate Section of the United States Department of Justice, with him on the briefs), for Defendants-Appellants., Matt Kenna, Western Environmental Law Center, Durango, Colorado (Brad A. Bartlett and Travis Stills, Durango, CO, with him on the brief), for Plaintiff-Appellee.