McGREGOR W. SCOTT 1 United States Attorney 2 DEBORAH LEE STACHEL Regional Chief Counsel, Region IX 3 Social Security Administration MARGARET BRANICK-ABILLA 4 Special Assistant United States Attorney 5 160 Spear Street, Suite 800 San Francisco, CA 94105-1545 6 Telephone: (415) 977-8929 Facsimile: (415) 744-0134 7 E-mail: [email protected] 8 Attorneys for Defendant 9

10 UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT EASTERN DISTRICT OF CALIFORNIA 11

12 ZA XIONG MOUA, ) Case No. 1:19-cv-00516-SKO ) 13 Plaintiff, ) STIPULATION AND ORDER FOR THE ) AWARD AND PAYMENT OF 14 vs. ) ATTORNEY FEES PURSUANT TO THE 15 ) EQUAL ACCESS TO JUSTICE ACT, 28 ANDREW SAUL, ) U.S.C. § 2412(d) 16 Commissioner of Social Security, ) ) (Doc. 22) 17 Defendant. ) 18 ) ) 19

20 IT IS HEREBY STIPULATED by and between the parties, through their undersigned 21 counsel, subject to the approval of the Court, that Plaintiff be awarded attorney fees in the amount 22 of SEVEN THOUSAND DOLLARS AND ZERO CENTS ($7,000.00) under the Equal Access to 23 Justice Act (EAJA),

(d). This amount represents compensation for all legal 24 services rendered on behalf of Plaintiff by counsel in connection with this civil action, in accordance 25 with

, 2412(d). 26 After the Court issues an order for EAJA fees to Plaintiff, the government will consider the 27 matter of Plaintiff’s assignment of EAJA fees to counsel Jonathan O. Pena. Pursuant to Astrue v. 28 Ratliff,

(2010), the ability to honor the assignment will depend on whether the 1 fees are subject to any offset allowed under the United States Department of the Treasury’s Offset 2 Program. After the order for EAJA fees is entered, the government will determine whether they are 3 subject to any offset. 4 Fees shall be made payable to Plaintiff, but if the Department of the Treasury determines 5 that Plaintiff does not owe a federal debt, then the government shall cause the payment of fees to be 6 made directly to Jonathan O. Pena, pursuant to the assignment executed by Plaintiff. Any payments 7 made shall be delivered to counsel Jonathan O. Pena. 8 This stipulation constitutes a compromise settlement of Plaintiff’s request for EAJA attorney 9 fees, and does not constitute an admission of liability on the part of Defendant under the EAJA or 10 otherwise. Payment of the agreed amount shall constitute a complete release from, and bar to, any 11 and all claims that Plaintiff and/or counsel Jonathan O. Pena, including Pena & Bromberg, PLC, 12 may have relating to EAJA attorney fees in connection with this action. 13 This award is without prejudice to the rights of counsel to seek Social Security Act attorney 14 fees under

(b), subject to the savings clause provisions of the EAJA. 15 Respectfully submitted,

16 Dated: December 2, 2020 PENA & BROMBERG, PLC 17

18 By: /s/ Jonathan O. Pena* JONATHAN O. PENA 19 Attorneys for Plaintiff 20 [*As authorized by e-mail on Dec. 2, 2020]

21 22 Dated: December 4, 2020 McGREGOR W. SCOTT United States Attorney 23 DEBORAH LEE STACHEL Regional Chief Counsel, Region IX 24 Social Security Administration 25

26 By: /s/ Margaret Branick-Abilla MARGARET BRANICK-ABILLA 27 Special Assistant United States Attorney 28 Attorneys for Defendant 1 ORDER 2 Based upon the parties’ above “Stipulation for the Award and Payment of Attorney Fees 3 Pursuant to the Equal Access to Justice Act,

(d)” (the “Stipulation”) (Doc. 22), 4 IT IS ORDERED that attorney fees in the amount of SEVEN THOUSAND DOLLARS 5 AND ZERO CENTS ($7,000.00) under the Equal Access to Justice Act (EAJA),

2412(d), be awarded subject to the terms of the Stipulation. 7

8 IT IS SO ORDERED.

9 Sheila K. Oberto Dated: December 4, 2020 /s/ . 10 UNITED STATES MAGISTRATE JUDGE 11 12

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