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![handle is hein.gao/gaobaadyz0001 and id is 1 raw text is:
'- COMPTROLLER GENE.AL OF THE UNITED STATES
WASHINGTON. D.C. 20548
B-139703 JUN 19 1975
7/7
Hogan & Harteon
Attorneys at Law f
815 Connecticut Avenue
Washington, D.C. 20006
Gentlemen:
Reference is made to letter and petition of October 1, 1974, from
Peter W. Tredick, Esquire, of your firm, transmitting a brief on behalf
of the Vermont Legal Aid, which you represent. The petitioner requests
that we reconsider and reverse our decision of February 28, 1974,
B-139703, 53 Comp. Gen. 638, insofar as we found:
*** * no legal bass which would authorize either
the Department [of Justice] or the AO [Administrative
Office of the United States Courts] to pay expenses
incurred in obtaining counsel or fact or expert witnesses
on behalf of an indigent prisoner who is bringing a
civil rights action under 42 U.S.C. § 1983 * * *.
Id., at 645.
This request arises in the factual context of an action seeking
damages and injunctive relief under 42 U.S.C. § 1933 by one Robert Dragon,
an inmate of the Vermont State Prison at Windsor, Vermont. Pursuant to
court direction the plaintiff was represented by Vermont Legal Aid, Inc.,
who obtained leave to proceed in forma pauperis. In addition, an order
of court for all expenses for the taking of depositions * * * not to
exceed Three Hundred Dollars * * * was procured. Acting under authority
of this order, stenographic expenses in connection with the taking of
fourteen depositions of fact were incurred in the amount of $300. Vermont
Legal Aid has paid the stenographer for htr services, and now seeks
reimbursement from the Government.
In support of the petition to reverse, the brief draws an analogy
between habeas corpus actions by indigent prisoners which challenge the
legality and/or condition of confinement, the expensescf which are
compensible under the authority of 28 U.S.C. § 1825 (1970); 18 U.S.C.
§ 3006A(g), (1970), and a § 1983 civil rights action by an indigent
prisoner which challenges the action of the prisoner's jailers, the
expenses of which are not presently compensible. In essence, it](ViewImageLocal?handle=hein.gao/gaobaadyz0001&div=1&collection=&method=preview&ext=.png&size=3)