Meaden Screw Products, Co. - Decision Summary

Meaden Screw Products, Co. (13-CA-34483(E); 336 NLRB No. 22) Burr Ridge, IL Sept. 28, 2001. The Board reversed the recommended Order of the administrative law judge and denied the Respondent's application for attorney's fees and expenses under the Equal Access to Justice Act (EAJA). It also reversed the judge's finding of no substantial justification for either the General Counsel's predecisional settlement posture in the underlying case or the General Counsel's filing of exceptions to the judge's 1997 decision.

The judge, in his supplemental decision, ruled that the General Counsel was precluded from "relitigat[ing] the issue of substantial justification in an answer where the General Counsel ha[d] already chosen to litigate that issue by filing a motion to dismiss." He found that the Applicant was entitled to an EAJA award because the General Counsel was not substantially justified in filing exceptions to the 1997 judge's decision because they challenged only his credibility resolutions. Contrary to the judge, the Board found that "[e]ven accepting the judge's credibility resolutions, the General Counsel reasonably argued that the judge should have drawn other inferences from the record that would have supported the General Counsel's position." Europlast Ltd., 311 NLRB 1089 (1993), affd. 33 F.3d 16 (7th Cir. 1994).

In the prior decision, 325 NLRB 762 (1998), the Board adopted the judge's findings and dismissed the complaint in its entirety. The Respondent filed its EAJA application and, thereafter, the General Counsel submitted a motion to dismiss the application and an answer, claiming that his prosecution of the unfair labor practice case was substantially justified throughout all phases of the case.