Ray v. Social Security Board

• Decision Date: 14 July 1947
• Docket Number: No. 567.,567.
• Parties: RAY v. SOCIAL SECURITY BOARD.
• Court: U.S. District Court — Southern District of Alabama

73 F. Supp. 58

RAY v. SOCIAL SECURITY BOARD.

No. 567.

District Court, S. D. Alabama, S. D.

July 14, 1947.

Rit M. Smith, and Jesse F. Hogan, both of Mobile, Ala., for plaintiff.

William H. Cowan, Asst. U. S. Atty., of Mobile, Ala., for Social Security Board.

McDUFFIE, District Judge.

This cause came on to be heard on the complaint of Mrs. Lizzie C. Ray on behalf of herself and her minor children, under the provisions of Title II of the Social Security Act of Congress, 42 U.S.C.A. §§ 401-409. The Social Security Board filed answer to the complaint, which was amended by adding a count seeking to recover for the children only, under Section 202(c) of said Act, 42 U.S.C.A. § 402(c). And the Board filed a motion for summary judgment on its answer. The children and the dates of their birth are as follows: Carleton E., born September 25, 1936; Lizzie C., born February 16, 1938; and Margarette Ray, born March 15, 1941.

The claim of Mrs. Ray was investigated by the appropriate authorities, an appeal was taken from the findings and conclusions of the Field Officer at Mobile, Alabama, and these findings and conclusions were finally passed upon and affirmed by the Appeals Council of the Social Security Board at Washington. Payment to Mrs. Ray and her minor children was denied on the ground that Mrs. Ray was not legally the wife of the deceased worker, Calvin P. Ray, for the reason that she had a living husband from whom she was not divorced; and that under Section 209(m), 42 U.S.C.A. § 409(m), and other related provisions of the Social Security Act, the above-named children are the illegitimate children of the deceased worker and disqualified to receive the monthly benefits provided by the Act. The Board upon such denial made awards under Section 202(g), 42 U.S.C.A. § 402(g), to adult and non-dependent children of the worker by his deceased wife.

This court understands the rule to be that if there was substantial evidence upon which the Board acted, the court is bound by the Board's action, provided the law was properly applied by the Board. The investigation by the Board was fair, and its action is in nowise claimed to be arbitrary. The question presented is on the application of the law.

In reviewing the findings and the action of the Board, this court has devoted a great deal of time and study to the facts set forth in the record, as well as the conclusions and awards of the Board, with the view of applying the Social Security Act to the facts, bearing in mind that generally relief statutes, such as the one being considered, are to be construed liberally.

There is no dispute that the above-named minor children are the natural children of the deceased worker, that they were recognized as his legitimate children, and that their mother, Mrs. Lizzie C. Ray, who lived with him continuously for about fifteen years, was recognized as his lawful wife. It is undisputed that these children and their mother were living with and being supported by Mr. Ray, the deceased worker, at the time of his death in the city of Mobile. It is also undisputed that Mr. Ray made a will which was duly proven and entered of record in Mobile County, and in which will he named Mrs. Ray as his wife and the above-named children as his children.

The record also shows that Mrs. Ray was married in 1910 to Mr. R. L. Spivey, at Century, Florida; that they separated about the year 1926, and in the year 1930, Mrs. Ray, then Mrs. Spivey, filed through her attorney in Escambia County, Alabama, a petition for divorce from Mr. Spivey. The record shows that Mr. Spivey was personally served and filed no answer and, after more than thirty days, a decree pro confesso was rendered against him on April 20, 1931. According to the record, Mrs. Ray was advised by her attorney that a divorce had been granted or would be granted. The records of Escambia County, however, show that the petition, after the decree pro confesso was entered, was dismissed without prejudice in the year 1937. The marital ties with Spivey having been broken in 1926, Mrs. Ray married the deceased worker about four years thereafter, and continued to live with him until his death. Their children, born after their marriage, were regarded by friends and neighbors as having been born in lawful wedlock. Mr. Spivey, the first husband of Mrs. Ray, also believing that divorce was granted to her, has himself married again. He admits being served and states that he assumed the divorce would be rendered after service upon him. Neither he nor anyone else has ever questioned the marital status of the deceased worker and Mrs. Ray, including Mr. Ray's children by the first Mrs. Ray, deceased.

In considering this case the court is impressed with the extreme and unusual illiteracy of the surviving widow of the deceased worker. As shown by her letters in longhand in the record she is a woman of very limited education and rather low intelligence, and it is difficult to hold her responsible for failing to follow up her petition for a final decree of divorce from her first husband. Undoubtedly she believed her marital contract with him had been canceled. The fact that a decree pro confesso was rendered indicates her good faith in trying to live within the law. Be this as it may, it may be repeated the record fails to show that any person acquainted with either Mr. or Mrs. Ray for a long number of years during their residence in Mobile, Alabama, in Gulfport, Mississippi, in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, and in Choctaw County, Alabama, during which time she bore five chidren by Mr. Ray, ever questioned their marital relationship.

An investigation was made in Escambia County, Alabama, revealing that no final decree of divorce was to be found of record. An inquiry was likewise made in Monroe and Baldwin Counties, but no investigation was made by the Board in any of the other counties of Alabama or in any other places named where Mr. and Mrs. Ray resided.

Under the facts disclosed by the record in this case, the decision of this court must turn upon the questions:

(1) Has the government discharged the burden of overcoming a presumption prevailing in Alabama that the marital status of the deceased worker and Mrs. Ray was legal?

(2) Assuming that the presumption of the legality of the marital status was overcome, under the facts in this case does this technical flaw in the marital status deprive the surviving widow and dependent children of the benefits of the Social Security Act?

(3) Again assuming the burden of overcoming the presumption of the legality of the marital status of Mr. and Mrs. Ray has been met by the government, and that their children are technically illegitimate children, which assumption is indeed questionable, and applying the provisions of Title II of the Social Security Act as a whole, did the Congress intend to deny such children the benefits sought for them in this case, where it is undisputed that they lived with and were supported by the deceased worker?

Under a liberal construction, which should be given to this relief statute where interests of dependents are involved, this court has concluded that the Social Security Board failed to apply properly the provisions of the act to the facts disclosed in the record.

The Supreme Court of Alabama has held that where a marital contract was repudiated and the wife married another, followed by years of cohabitation, there is a strong presumption that there was a divorce from the first husband. Freed v. Sallade, 245 Ala. 505, 17 So.2d 868.

It is likewise held in Alabama that the burden of overcoming the presumption of validity of the second marriage is upon the party attacking it. Sloss-Sheffield Steel & Iron Co. v. Alexander, 241 Ala. 476, 3 So.2d 46. It should be stated, as was quoted in another Alabama Supreme Court decision (Walker v. Walker, 218 Ala. 16, 117 So. 472), that the legitimacy of a marriage, as well...