United States Seventh Circuit

In a consolidated appeal, requiring interpretation of the Equal Access to Justice Act involving the issue of whether the government's position was substantially justified, district court's judgment is reversed in two cases and affirmed in the last case where: 1) in the case against a project site engineer, the government had a substantial though not winning case, and therefore plaintiff failed to establish its right to an award; 2) in the second case involving social security disability benefits, district court's denial of fees to the prevailing claimant is reversed as government's position was not substantially justified; and 3) district court's reversal of ALJ's denial of plaintiff's disability benefits but denial of his fees is affirmed as the district judge was persuaded that the agency's position had been substantially justified.

Appellate Information

• Decided 02/18/2010
• Published 02/18/2010

Judges

Court

• United States Seventh Circuit

Counsel