Reading Room Document

Responsibility of Agencies to Pay Attorney's Fee Awards Under the Equal Access to Justice Act

The judgment of attorney's fees and expenses entered against the United States in Cienega Gardens v. United States cannot be paid out of the Judgment Fund because the Equal Access to Justice Act provides for payment. Pursuant to EAJA, the Department of Housing and Urban Development must pay the award. HUD would be the "agency over which the [plaintiffs] prevail[ed]" under EAJA because it administered the federal program that was the subject of the litigation. The OLC does not provide release dates for its opinions, so the release date listed is the date on which the opinion was authored. The original opinion is available at www.justice.gov/file/451596/download.

October 16, 2007