National Senior Citizens Law Center v. Social Security Administration

We consider whether parties bringing an individual action against the government may, in their settlement agreement, effectively waive their right to recover attorney’s fees.

Facts

This dispute is collateral to a 15-year old class action brought by the National Senior Citizens Law Center (the Law Center), a non-profit public interest organization representing elderly poor in a suit involving a pension plan. See Ponce v. Construction Laborers Pension Trust, No. CV-76-2856RMT (C.D.Cal.) and Harrison v. Construction Laborers Pension Trust, No. CV-81-0591-RMT (C.D.Cal.). In order to notify certain unnamed class plaintiffs about the proposed class action settlement, the Law Center made an informal request on January 21,1987, addressed to Bemie Ohlers of the Social Security Administration (SSA); the request sought the names and addresses of all construction laborers who worked in Southern California between 1962 and 1976. The Law Center followed up with a letter three weeks later which it described as “a supplement to [its] earlier ... request.” Excerpts of Record at 14. The SSA claims that it did not interpret either the first letter or this follow-up as a Freedom of Information Act…