Santiago v. Commissioner of Social Security
- Valerie Caproni
- 1:18-cv-09214-VEC-JLC
- U.S. District Court · Southern District of New York
- 3
In Santiago v. Commissioner of Social Security, Judge Caproni granted $39,944 in attorney fees and ordered counsel to return $6,050 to Santiago.
Yolanda Santiago and her counsel, Daniel Berger. The order awarded $39,944 in fees to counsel from Santiago’s past-due benefits and required counsel to return $6,050 to Santiago.
What happened
In Santiago v. Commissioner of Social Security, Yolanda Santiago challenged the Social Security Administration’s denial of disability benefits. The case was remanded for further proceedings, and an administrative law judge later found that Santiago had been disabled since April 1, 2015.
Santiago’s lawyer, Daniel Berger, asked for $39,944 in fees under a law allowing payment from past-due benefits. The Social Security Administration had withheld that amount, representing 25% of Santiago’s past-due benefits. A magistrate judge recommended granting the request, and neither party objected.
Judge Caproni adopted the recommendation, granted Santiago’s motion, and awarded $39,944 in attorney fees. Judge Caproni also ordered Berger to return the previously awarded $6,050 in Equal Access to Justice Act fees to Santiago. The court stated that the lack of objections prevented appellate review of the decision.
The detailed version
- Santiago v. Commissioner of Social Security · No. 1:18-cv-09214-VEC-JLC
- Valerie Caproni
- Dec. 1, 2022
Background
Yolanda Santiago filed this Social Security Act case under 42 U.S.C. § 405(g) seeking review of the denial of her application for disability insurance benefits. The court remanded the case for further administrative proceedings after the parties agreed to a stipulation. The court later awarded Santiago’s counsel $6,050 under the Equal Access to Justice Act, a statute that permits certain attorney-fee awards against the government.
After additional administrative proceedings, Administrative Law Judge Selwyn S.C. Walters found that Santiago had been disabled since April 1, 2015. The Social Security Administration withheld $39,944—25% of Santiago’s past-due benefits—in case that amount was needed to pay counsel.
Fee Motion and Recommendation
Santiago moved for an award of $39,944 in attorney fees under 42 U.S.C. § 406(b), which permits a court to award fees to a claimant’s attorney from past-due Social Security benefits. Counsel stated that he would return the $6,050 EAJA award to Santiago if the § 406(b) motion were granted.
The court referred the matter to Magistrate Judge Cott. Judge Cott recommended granting the motion and notified the parties that they had 14 days to file objections. Neither party objected. Because there were no objections, the District Court reviewed the recommendation for clear error, meaning an obvious mistake apparent from the record.
Ruling
The court found no clear error and adopted the Report and Recommendation in full. The court granted Santiago’s motion and awarded $39,944 in attorney fees. It also ordered counsel to remit the $6,050 EAJA award to Santiago.
The court further ruled that, because the parties had been adequately warned about the consequences of failing to object, their failure to object precluded appellate review of the decision. The Clerk of Court was directed to terminate the motion at Docket 23.
Classification Note
This is a procedural order because it decided an ancillary attorney-fee motion rather than the underlying disability-benefits dispute.
Read the full 3-page opinion on CourtListener, the free public archive maintained by the Free Law Project.