National Wildlife Federation v. Hanson

The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and the Army Corps of Engineers appeal from a district court order awarding attorneys fees to the National Wildlife Federation and several other environmental groups (collectively NWF) who challenged the Corps determination that two tracts of land in North Carolina were not wetlands under section 404 of the Clean Water Act. The NWF also complained about the EPAs failure to exercise its authority with respect to wetlands. We affirm the district courts award of fees under the Clean Water Act and hold that the NWF is a prevailing party entitled to attorneys fees. We also affirm the district courts refusal to assess fees against the private parties. Finally, we hold that the district court did not abuse its discretion in its computation of fees, except that the district court should have based the fee award on historic rates, instead of current rates. We therefore vacate that portion of the district courts judgment and remand for recomputation of attorneys fees using historic rates.