Neville v. O'Malley ( 2024 )

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 Christina Marie Neville 11 12 UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT 13 DISTRICT OF NEVADA 14 15 CHRISTINA MARIE NEVILLE, ) Case No.: 2:23-cv-02001-EJY ) 16 Plaintiff, ) STIPULATION AND PROPOSED ) ORDER FOR THE AWARD AND 17 vs. ) PAYMENT OF ATTORNEY FEES ) AND EXPENSES PURSUANT TO 18 MARTIN O'MALLEY, ) 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 Christina Marie 26 Neville (“Neville”) be awarded attorney fees in the amount of NINE THOUSAND 1 FOUR HUNDRED dollars ($9,400.00) under the Equal Access to Justice Act 2 (EAJA), 28 U.S.C. § 2412(d), and no under 28 U.S.C. § 1920. This amount 3 represents compensation for all legal services rendered on behalf of Plaintiff by 4 counsel in connection with this civil action, in accordance with 28 U.S.C. §§ 1920; 5 2412(d). 6 After the Court issues an order for EAJA fees to Neville, the government 7 will consider the matter of Neville's assignment of EAJA fees to Marc Kalagian. 8 The retainer agreement containing the assignment is attached as exhibit 1. 9 Pursuant to Astrue v. Ratliff, 130 S.Ct. 2521, 2529 (2010), the ability to honor the 10 assignment will depend on whether the fees are subject to any offset allowed under 11 the United States Department of the Treasury's Offset Program. After the order for 12 EAJA fees is entered, the government will determine whether they are subject to 13 any offset. 14 Fees shall be made payable to Neville, but if the Department of the Treasury 15 determines that Neville does not owe a federal debt, then the government shall 16 cause the payment of fees, expenses and costs to be made directly to Law Offices 17 of Lawrence D. Rohlfing, Inc., CPC, pursuant to the assignment executed by 18 Neville.1 Any payments made shall be delivered to Law Offices of Lawrence D. 19 Rohlfing, Inc., CPC. Counsel agrees that any payment of costs may be made either 20 by electronic fund transfer (ETF) or by check. 21 This stipulation constitutes a compromise settlement of Neville's request for 22 EAJA attorney fees, and does not constitute an admission of liability on the part of 23 Defendant under the EAJA or otherwise. Payment of the agreed amount shall 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 constitute a complete release from, and bar to, any and all claims that Neville 2 and/or Marc Kalagian including Law Offices of Lawrence D. Rohlfing, Inc., CPC, 3 may have relating to EAJA attorney fees in connection with this action. 4 This award is without prejudice to the rights of Marc Kalagian and/or the 5 Law Offices of Lawrence D. Rohlfing, Inc., CPC, to seek Social Security Act 6 attorney fees under 42 U.S.C. § 406(b), subject to the savings clause provisions of 7 the EAJA. 8 DATE: September 26, 2024 Respectfully submitted, 9 LAW OFFICES OF LAWRENCE D. ROHLFING, INC., CPC 10 /s/ Marc V. Kalagian BY: __________________ 11 Marc V. Kalagian Attorney for plaintiff 12 CHRISTINA MARIE NEVILLE 13 DATE:September 26, 2024 JASON M. FRIERSON 14 United States Attorney 15 16 /s/ David Priddy 17 DAVID PRIDDY Special Assistant United States Attorney 18 Attorneys for Defendant MARTIN O'MALLEY, Commissioner of Social 19 Security (Per e-mail authorization) 20 ORDER 21 Approved and so ordered: 22 DATE: September 26, 2024 23 24 _____________________________________ THE HONORABLE ELAYNA J. YOUCHAH 25 UNITED STATES MAGISTRATE JUDGE 26