Alameda v. Secretary of Health, Ed. and Welfare, s. 79-1173

• Decision Date: 22 May 1980
• Docket Number: 79-1175,Nos. 79-1173,79-1182 and 79-1289,s. 79-1173
• Parties: Antonio ALAMEDA, Plaintiff, Appellee, v. SECRETARY OF HEALTH, EDUCATION AND WELFARE, Defendant, Appellant. Jose SANTIAGO, Plaintiff, Appellee, v. SECRETARY OF HEALTH, EDUCATION AND WELFARE, Defendant, Appellant. Alfonso Reyes RODRIGUEZ, Plaintiff, Appellee, v. SECRETARY OF HEALTH, EDUCATION AND WELFARE, Defendant, Appellant. Jesus M. TORRES, Plaintiff, Appellee, v. SECRETARY OF HEALTH, EDUCATION AND WELFARE, Defendant, Appellant. Ladislao MATOS, Plaintiff, Appellee, v. SECRETARY OF HEALTH, EDUCATION AND WELFARE, Defendant, Appellant. Hortensia Robles RIOS, Plaintiff, Appellee, v. SECRETARY OF HEALTH, EDUCATION AND WELFARE, Defendant, Appellant. Maria O. SANTANA, Plaintiff, Appellee, v. SECRETARY OF HEALTH, EDUCATION AND WELFARE, Defendant, Appellant. to 79-1292.
• Court: U.S. Court of Appeals — First Circuit

Page 1044

622 F.2d 1044

55 A.L.R.Fed. 182

Antonio ALAMEDA, Plaintiff, Appellee, v. SECRETARY OF HEALTH, EDUCATION AND WELFARE, Defendant, Appellant.

Jose SANTIAGO, Plaintiff, Appellee, v. SECRETARY OF HEALTH, EDUCATION AND WELFARE, Defendant, Appellant.

Alfonso Reyes RODRIGUEZ, Plaintiff, Appellee, v. SECRETARY OF HEALTH, EDUCATION AND WELFARE, Defendant, Appellant.

Jesus M. TORRES, Plaintiff, Appellee, v. SECRETARY OF HEALTH, EDUCATION AND WELFARE, Defendant, Appellant.

Ladislao MATOS, Plaintiff, Appellee, v. SECRETARY OF HEALTH, EDUCATION AND WELFARE, Defendant, Appellant.

Hortensia Robles RIOS, Plaintiff, Appellee, v. SECRETARY OF HEALTH, EDUCATION AND WELFARE, Defendant, Appellant.

Maria O. SANTANA, Plaintiff, Appellee, v. SECRETARY OF HEALTH, EDUCATION AND WELFARE, Defendant, Appellant.

Nos. 79-1173, 79-1175, 79-1182 and 79-1289 to 79-1292.

United States Court of Appeals First Circuit.

Argued Feb. 7, 1980.

Decided May 22, 1980.

Susan A. Ehrlich, Atty., Civ. Div., App. Staff, U. S. Dept. of Justice, Washington, D. C., with whom Stuart E. Schiffer, Acting Asst. Atty. Gen., Washington, D. C., Julio Morales-Sanchez, U. S. Atty., San Juan, P. R., and William Kanter, Atty., Civ. Div., App. Staff, U. S. Dept. of Justice, Washington, D. C., were on brief, for defendant, appellant.

Fellciano Canino, Hato Rey, P. R., for plaintiff, appellee, Antonio Alameda.

Lawrence Odell, Hato Rey, P. R., for plaintiff, appellee, Alfonso Reyes Rodriguez.

Jose A. Olivieri Rodriguez, Mayaguez, P. R., for plaintiff, appellee, Jesus M. Torres.

Jorge M. Canellas, San Juan, P. R., for plaintiff, appellee, Jose Santiago.

Rafael Carreras Valle, Rio Piedras, P. R., for plaintiff, appellee, Hortensia Robles Rios.

Before COFFIN, Chief Judge, WISDOM, Senior Circuit Judge, ^* CAMPBELL, Circuit Judge.

COFFIN, Chief Judge.

These seven consolidated cases present an important question about judicial supervision of appeals from administrative denials of social security disability benefits. In each case, after a claimant filed a complaint in the district court, the Secretary of Health, Education and Welfare filed an answer and transcript of the administrative record, as required by 42 U.S.C. § 405(g). The Secretary repeatedly failed, however, to honor the orders of the district court to file legal memoranda in support of the administrative decisions. The question presented to us is whether the district court acted within its authority and discretion when in response to this frustrating inaction, it struck the denials in the Secretary's answers, found the claimants entitled to benefits and remanded to the Secretary for computation of benefits.

The court acted on this problem first on January 19, 1979 in reference to three cases. It described the extensive delays wrought, the repeated requests of the Secretary for extensions of time, its liberal granting of extensions, and the Secretary's ultimate failure to file memoranda or offer explanation for noncompliance. Being concerned about the "contumacious disregard of its orders" to the continuing disadvantage of claimants, it ordered that the allegations in the three complaints be taken as established, that the denials in the answers be stricken, and that the cases be remanded for computation of benefits. On April 9, 1979, in response to the Secretary's motion to set aside this action, the court reviewed the extent of delay in each case, and took note of similar delinquency in other cases four, six, or more months passing before an answer was filed and a subsequent similar period elapsing without any legal brief furnished. The Secretary argued that the court's action amounted to a default judgment against the United States, prohibited by Fed.R.Civ.P. 55(e). ¹ The court rejected this argument because it reasoned that its acceptance would leave the court powerless to require the Secretary to comply with lawful court orders. It held it had power to take this action to enforce its order that the Secretary file a legal memorandum and pointed to new local rule, Rule 29, ² scheduling periods of time within which the Secretary must file the administrative record and memorandum and setting forth pertinent sanctions. A few weeks later, the court entered a similar order in the remaining cases now before us. The Secretary challenges both the default judgments and local Rule 29.

If the court had authority, there is no doubt that it did not abuse its discretion. We have seen no other situation where for many months this major department of the federal government not only declared itself so understaffed that it could not file the simplest of legal memoranda to help advance the resolution of claims of the most misery-ridden claimants, but did not take the trouble to explain to the court the problems it faced. Its sole approach to the court lay in repetitive boilerplate requests:

"1. Defendant would like to file a memorandum of law prior to the adjudication of this case by the Court, in support of the allegations contained in his answer to the complaint.

"2. Due to the enormous litigation of Social Security cases defendant needs some time to prepare his brief."

Whereupon defendant usually sought sixty more days. Subsequently defendant moved to submit several of these cases without benefit of legal memoranda.

We know all too well the large number of social security cases brought in the district court for the District of Puerto Rico; appeals before us of this genre are almost wholly from this district. We are also aware of the importance of giving these causes quality consideration. We fully agree with the district court that a government brief is often essential in helping a judge wend his or her way efficiently through a record sometimes dominated by medical specialists' nomenclature. We appreciate the burden processing disability claims places on the Secretary's shoulders, but see no justification in meeting this burden by shifting the task to an unaided district court and the claimant.

The problem of the court's authority to enter these judgments arises from the requirement of Fed.R.Civ.P. 55(e) that a default judgment may issue against the United States only if "the claimant establishes his claim or right to relief by evidence satisfactory to the court." In this case the district court did not pretend to pass on the sufficiency of any evidence. The problem is further complicated by the requirement of 42 U.S.C. § 405(g) that "The court shall have power to enter, upon the pleadings and transcript of the record, a judgment affirming, modifying, or reversing the decision of the Secretary . . . . The findings of the Secretary as to any fact, if supported by substantial evidence, shall be conclusive . . . ." Subsection (h) adds that this is the exclusive standard of review.

We read pertinent and compelling case authority as barring a court from granting relief to a social security claimant, even in a context of default by the Secretary, unless the claimant establishes his claim by introducing some evidence that the Secretary's conclusions are not supported by substantial evidence. Williams v. Califano, 593 F.2d 282 (7th Cir. 1979); Poe v. Mathews, 572 F.2d 137 (6th Cir. 1978); Carroll v. Secretary, Department of Health, Education and Welfare, 470 F.2d 252 (5th Cir. 1972). If the claimant cannot make such a showing, § 405(g) requires that the Secretary's findings be deemed conclusive.

The Secretary would have us conclude that this is the end of the matter; the court must proceed to comb the record for substantial evidence with which to uphold the administrative decision. The argument proceeds even to the assertion that a court has no power to order the Secretary, a non-moving party in a disability appeal, to file a legal memorandum. Thus, the Secretary claims discretion to abstain from filing a brief in any disability appeal and leaves to the court the task of making the government's case. We think the Secretary misinterprets the effect of Rule 55(e).

These cases present situations of tension among several legitimate interests. There is first the social and statutory purpose to process claims with reasonable expedition. There is then the statutory burden laid on a social security claimant, who, after all, has had the benefit of the administrative process at hearing and appellate levels. A third interest is that of the court, which must be able to insist that the adversary process function. A fourth interest, underlying Rule 55(e)'s limitation of default against the government, was long ago stated by Judge Wisdom in Campbell v. Eastland, 307 F.2d 478, 491 (5th Cir. 1962), "The Rule rests on the rationale that the taxpayers at large should not be subjected to the cost of a judgment entered as a penalty against a government official which comes as a windfall to the individual litigant."

It is tempting to observe that many social security reviews by the district court are simple matters, which can often be resolved by reading the findings of the Secretary without recourse to a memorandum of facts and law. But not all social security cases are of this nature. Moreover, appellant may have presented legal arguments, or even assertions as to the new circumstances bearing on the equities, which the court will want to have answered before deciding. (In a few cases a remand to the Secretary may become a serious option not because the Secretary has acted improperly but because of newly discovered medical evidence or the like.) The court is, in any event, entitled to a current response by the Secretary, who is presumed to be expert in these matters, so that it can handle the case both justly and efficiently with the benefit of the Secretary's knowledgeable views and legal arguments.

The district court has authority to order the Secretary to submit memoranda of law just as it has the authority to require oral argument and attendance at conferences. This authority is an inherent power, "governed not by rule...