(a) An application may be filed whenever the applicant has prevailed
in the proceeding or in a significant and discrete substantive portion
of the proceeding, but in no case later than 30 days after the agency's
final disposition of the proceeding.
(b) If review or reconsideration is sought or taken of a decision as
to which an applicant believes it has prevailed, matters related to the
consideration of an award of fees and expenses shall be stayed pending
final disposition of the underlying controversy.
(c) For purposes of this rule final disposition means the later of:
(1) The date on which an initial decision or other recommended
disposition of the merits of the proceeding by an adjudicative officer
or intermediate review
board becomes administratively final; (2) issuance of an order disposing
of any petitions for reconsideration of this agency's final order in the
proceeding; (3) if no petition for reconsideration is filed, the last
date on which such a petition could have been filed; or (4) issuance of
a final order or any other final resolution of a proceeding, such as a
settlement or voluntary dismissal, which is not subject to a petition
for reconsideration, or, in the case of an abatement, the end of the
abatement period or the date on which an order is issued terminating the
abatement period.
(Approved by the Office of Management and Budget under control number
1225-0013)
[46 FR 63021, Dec. 29, 1981, as amended at 47 FR 14696, Apr. 6, 1982]
