Jones

The plaintiffs in this case appeal the district court’s decision to apportion the attorney fees in this case between the federal and state defendants and its calculation of those fees. We affirm.

I. BACKGROUND

The plaintiffs filed a class action suit against the Secretary of the United States Department of Agriculture (the federal defendant) and the Director of the California Department of Social Services (the state defendant) challenging the validity and application of certain aspects of California’s administration of the Food Stamp program. 1 The parties reached a partial settlement, which was approved by the district court. The court then granted the defendants summary judgment on the remaining issues.

Based on their partial victory, the plaintiffs sought attorney fees from the state defendant based on 42 U.S.C. § 1988 (1988) and from the federal defendant based on 28 U.S.C. § 2412 (d) (1988) (the Equal Access to Justice Act, or “EAJA”). The court reduced the plaintiffs’ claim of 550.5 hours to 370.575 hours due to the limited success achieved in the lawsuit, then apportioned the hours worked evenly between the state and federal defendants. The federal defendant was ordered…