Carroll

ORDER GRANTING PLAINTIFFS' MOTION TO ALTER JUDGMENT PURSUANT TO FED. R. CIV. PROC. 59(E) AND GRANTING PLAINTIFFS' REQUEST FOR ATTORNEY'S FEES

MORENO, District Judge.

Presently before the Court is Plaintiffs' Motion to Alter Judgment Pursuant to Fed. R. Civ. Proc. 59(e), and grant Plaintiff's previous Motion for Attorney's Fees. Having considered the parties' papers briefing the applicability of the Supreme Court's decision in Buckhannon Board and Care Home, Inc. v. West Virginia Department, 532 U.S. 598 , 121 S.Ct. 1835 , 149 L.Ed.2d 855 (2001), the Court grants Plaintiffs' motion. Therefore, the Court also grants Plaintiffs' request for attorney's fees.

In the 1980s, the Army Corps of Engineers (the "Corps") proposed to construct the Seven Oaks Dam as part of the Santa Ana Mainstream River Project (the "Project"). One of the main purposes of the Project was to provide flood control along the upper and lower portions of the Santa Ana River.

Pursuant to the Endangered Species Act ("ESA"), the Corps consulted with the United States Fish and Wildlife Service ("FWS"). The FWS collected data from 1988 through 1989. On June 22, 1989, the FWS issued a biological opinion in which it…