Document Type

Article

Publication Date

7-28-1995

Abstract

Petitioner-appellant Luis Alberto Sotelo-Aquije appeals from an order entered in the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York (Martin, J.) denying appellant attorney's fees and costs under the Equal Access to Justice Act, 28 U.S.C. § 2412(d) ("the EAJA"). In the action giving rise to the application for fees, the Board of Immigration Appeals ("the Board") had denied Sotelo's application for asylum in this country, and the district court affirmed that decision. We reversed, and held that the record before us compelled the conclusion that Sotelo had a well-founded fear of persecution based on his political opinions. Sotelo then made an application in the district court for attorney's fees and costs. The district court denied this fee application, having concluded that the government's position in the underlying litigation had been "substantially justified" within the meaning of the EAJA. For the following reasons, we reverse the order of the district court and remand for an assessment of an appropriate amount of fees and costs.

Comments

62 F.3d 54 (1995)

Luis Alberto SOTELO-AQUIJE, Petitioner-Appellant,

v.

William S. SLATTERY, District Director of the New York District of the Immigration & Naturalization Service, Defendant-Appellee, Roseanne C. Sonchik, Acting Assistant District Director for Detention and Deportation of the New York District of the Immigration & Naturalization Service, Respondent-Appellee.

No. 1174, Docket 94-2499. United States Court of Appeals, Second Circuit.

Argued March 29, 1995.

Decided July 28, 1995.

New York Law School location: File #2155, Box #134

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