Mannouris v. Commissioner of Social Security
- Analisa Torres
- 1:20-cv-09790
- U.S. District Court · Southern District of New York
- 2
In Mannouris v. Commissioner, Judge Torres adopted a recommendation awarding Plaintiff’s attorney $14,000 in fees after a disability-benefits remand.
George Paschalis Mannouris and his attorneys were affected: the court approved a $14,000 fee award to the attorneys from Mannouris’s past-due Social Security benefits, with the attorneys to remit the earlier $1,600.96 award to him.
What happened
George Paschalis Mannouris sued the Commissioner of Social Security after the agency denied his disability benefits. The parties agreed to send the case back for further administrative proceedings, and Mannouris was later found disabled and awarded benefits beginning in October 2016.
Mannouris’s attorneys asked for fees under a federal law allowing courts to award fees from past-due Social Security benefits. They sought $14,000, about 14% of the past-due benefits, and agreed to return an earlier $1,600.96 fee award to Mannouris. The Commissioner did not object.
Judge Analisa Torres found no clear error in Judge Barbara Moses’s recommendation and adopted it in full. The court approved the recommended $14,000 attorney-fee award and directed the Clerk of Court to terminate the fee motion.
The detailed version
- Mannouris v. Commissioner of Social Security · No. 1:20-cv-09790
- Analisa Torres
- Jan. 8, 2024
Background
After the Social Security Administration denied George Paschalis Mannouris disability benefits, he filed this action on November 20, 2020. Before either side filed motions or briefs, the Commissioner informed Judge Barbara Moses that the parties were discussing whether to agree to a remand for further administrative proceedings. The parties then stipulated to remand the case, and Judge Moses approved that stipulation.
In November 2021, the court awarded Mannouris’s attorneys $1,600.96 in fees and reimbursed the $400 filing fee. After the remand, the Social Security Administration found Mannouris disabled and notified him that his monthly disability payments would begin in October 2016. The agency’s notice did not state the total past-due benefits, but it said the agency withheld $24,873.25. Relying on the agency’s practice of withholding 25% of benefits, the court determined that the past-due benefits totaled $99,493.
Fee Motion
Mannouris’s attorneys, the Law Office of Charles E. Binder and Harry J. Binder, LLP, moved for fees under 42 U.S.C. § 406(b). Their retainer agreement allowed them to seek up to 25% of past-due benefits if the case was remanded and Mannouris obtained benefits afterward. They sought $14,000, approximately 14% of the past-due benefits. The attorneys agreed to remit to Mannouris the $1,600.96 previously awarded under the Equal Access to Justice Act. The Commissioner did not object to the motion.
Court’s Ruling
Judge Moses issued a report and recommendation proposing that the court grant the fee motion. No party objected, so Judge Torres reviewed the recommendation for clear error. Judge Torres found no clear error and adopted the recommendation in its entirety. The court therefore approved the recommended $14,000 award to Mannouris’s attorneys and directed the Clerk of Court to terminate the motion at docket entry 24.
Read the full 2-page opinion on CourtListener, the free public archive maintained by the Free Law Project.