Brown-Hunter v. Astrue

Filing 42

ORDER denying 29 Application for Attorney Fees. See order for details. Signed by Senior Judge Frederick J Martone on 1/20/2016.(LMR)

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IN THE UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT

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FOR THE DISTRICT OF ARIZONA

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Kim Brown-Hunter,

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Plaintiff,

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vs.

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Carolyn W. Colvin,
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Defendant.
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No. CV-11-2573-PHX-FJM
ORDER

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The court has before it plaintiff’s Motion for attorneys fees (Doc. 29), defendant’s

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Response (Doc. 38), and plaintiff’s Reply (Doc. 41). Plaintiff is entitled to fees under the

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EAJA unless the government’s position was substantially justified. In affirming the

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Commissioner’s denial of benefits, we concluded that the ALJ gave clear and convincing

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reasons to support his findings that plaintiff’s impairments were less serious than she

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claimed. Doc. 22 at 3. Each inconsistency that we relied upon was identified by the ALJ.

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Id. We did not make independent findings. Nevertheless, the court of appeals thought we

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did. Slip Op. at 15. But in remanding for further administrative proceedings, even the court

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of appeals acknowledged that there remain “crucial questions” because of the

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“inconsistencies between [her] testimony and the medical evidence in the record.” Slip Op.

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at 19. Taken as a whole, the opinion of the court of appeals suggests the ALJ’s written

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decision suffered from technical rather than substantive defects.

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Having carefully reviewed our order (Doc. 22) and the opinion of the court of appeals,

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we conclude that the government’s position was substantially justified. Indeed, in light of

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this record, it would have been irresponsible for the government not to have defended this

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case. We would be greatly surprised if the outcome were to change on remand. The ALJ

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need only draw an even more detailed roadmap.

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Accordingly, it is ORDERED DENYING plaintiff’s Motion for attorneys fees. (Doc.
29).
DATED this 20th day of January, 2016.

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