Avery v. Heckler

• Decision Date: 12 April 1984
• Docket Number: Civ. A. No. 82-3963-G.
• Citation: 584 F. Supp. 312
• Parties: Ernest AVERY et al., Plaintiffs, v. Margaret HECKLER, Secretary of Health and Human Services, Defendant.
• Court: U.S. District Court — District of Massachusetts

584 F. Supp. 312

Ernest AVERY et al., Plaintiffs, v. Margaret HECKLER, Secretary of Health and Human Services, Defendant.

Civ. A. No. 82-3963-G.

United States District Court, D. Massachusetts.

April 12, 1984.

COPYRIGHT MATERIAL OMITTED

Sarah Anderson, Linda Landry, Neighborhood Legal Services, Inc., Lynn, Mass., Laura Rosenthal, Judith Saltzman, Greater Boston Legal Services, Boston, Mass., Jack Fisher, Cambridge and Somerville Legal Services, Cambridge, Mass., for plaintiffs.

Jamie W. Katz, Asst. Atty. Gen., Boston, Mass., for defendant.

MEMORANDUM OF DECISION

GARRITY, District Judge.

Plaintiffs, on their own behalf and on behalf of all others similarly situated, seek declaratory and injunctive relief against the Secretary of Health and Human Services ("the Secretary") for allegedly terminating their disability benefits under Title II of the Social Security Act ("the Act"), 42 U.S.C. § 401 et seq., and Title XVI of the Act, 42 U.S.C. § 1381 et seq., in violation of the Act, the regulations promulgated thereunder, and the Fifth and Fourteenth Amendments to the United States Constitution. Plaintiffs challenge a number of the Secretary's actions: her failure to adhere to the so-called "medical improvement" standard when terminating disability benefits; her use of a restrictive psychiatric standard for younger persons; and her failure to give adequate evidentiary weight to treating physicians' opinions, other agencies' disability determinations, and claimants' complaints of pain. Plaintiffs assert jurisdiction for their claims under 28 U.S.C. § 1331 and 28 U.S.C. § 1361, as well as under the Act itself, 42 U.S.C. § 405(g) and 42 U.S.C. § 1383(c)(3). They have moved for class certification.

The Secretary opposes certification and has moved to dismiss the complaint primarily because the court lacks subject matter jurisdiction.

The Commonwealth of Massachusetts ("the Commonwealth") and Elmer C. Bartels, Commissioner of the Massachusetts Rehabilitation Commission,¹ have moved to intervene under Fed.R.Civ.P. 24. The Secretary opposes intervention.

The court has heard oral argument on the following motions:

1) motion by the Commonwealth to intervene;

2) motion by the Secretary to dismiss for lack of jurisdiction; and

3) motion by the plaintiffs to certify the class.

I. Intervention

Regarding the motion to intervene, we conclude that the Commonwealth is entitled to intervene under Fed.R.Civ.P. 24(a)(2). Intervention of right under F.R. Civ.P. 24(a) need not be supported by an independent basis of jurisdiction. 3B Moore's Federal Practice ¶ 24.18. The Secretary's jurisdictional arguments present difficult legal questions, but they are applicable to the main action, not to the intervention issue. There are three prerequisites to intervention under the rule:

(1) the applicant must claim an interest relating to the property or transaction which is the subject of the action;

(2) the applicant must be so situated that the disposition of the action may as a practical matter impair or impede his ability to protect that interest; and

(3) the applicant's interest would not be adequately represented by existing parties.

In her opposition papers, the Secretary argues that the Commonwealth does not satisfy prerequisites (1) and (3), apparently conceding the point with respect to prerequisite (2).

The inadequate representation requirement is satisfied when an applicant shows that "representation of his interest `may be' inadequate; and the burden of making that showing should be treated as minimal." Trbovich v. United Mine Workers of America, 1972, 404 U.S. 528, 538 n. 10, 92 S.Ct. 630, 636 n. 10, 30 L.Ed.2d 686. In this case the Commonwealth has an interest in minimizing the number of people on its public assistance rolls. The named plaintiffs share that interest only to the extent that they eventually succeed in having their disability benefits reinstated. This coincidence of interests is too evanescent to guarantee the adequate representation of the Commonwealth's interest. Should we determine that plaintiffs' benefits were legally terminated, the plaintiffs' interests and the Commonwealth's interest would become adverse. Given the minimal showing required by the rule, the representation prerequisite is satisfied.

The "related interest" prerequisite presents a more substantial question. The "interest" required must be direct and substantive. United States v. Massachusetts Maritime Academy, D.Mass.1977, 76 F.R.D. 595, 597. We conclude that the Commonwealth possesses such an interest, a proprietary interest, to which we alluded above, in minimizing the number of terminated social security beneficiaries on its welfare rolls. See New York v. Heckler, E.D.N.Y.1984, 578 F.Supp. 1109 at 1119-1120. This case is readily distinguishable from Doe v. Heckler, D.Md.1983, 568 F.Supp. 681, because it challenges terminations under Title XVI (SSI) as well as under Title II (SSDI). As the court said in Doe, "SSI, but not SSDI, replaced state-administered welfare programs providing the same coverage." The legislative history of Title XVI evidences congressional intent to provide fiscal relief for state and local governments. 117 Cong.Rec. H. 21092 (June 2, 1971) (statement of Rep. Mills). Therefore, the Commonwealth's proprietary interest satisfies the "zone of interests" test recently reaffirmed by the Supreme Court in Valley Forge Christian College v. Americans United for Separation of Church and State, Inc., 1982, 454 U.S. 464, 475, 102 S.Ct. 752, 760, 70 L.Ed.2d 700. See New York v. Heckler, supra, 578 F.Supp. at 1120-1122. The fact that the number of challenged Title XVI terminations is small relative to the number of challenged Title II terminations does not preclude intervention. One of the few settled principles of the law of standing is that the magnitude of a party's injury is irrelevant. United States v. SCRAP, 1972, 412 U.S. 669, 689 n. 14, 93 S.Ct. 2405, 2417 n. 14, 37 L.Ed.2d 254.

Citing Simon v. Eastern Ky. Welfare Rights Organization, 1976, 426 U.S. 26, 41-42, 96 S.Ct. 1917, 1925-1926, 48 L.Ed.2d 450, the Secretary argues that the Commonwealth has not demonstrated that its injury is fairly traceable to the Secretary's allegedly illegal terminations. The chain of causation alleged by the Commonwealth, however, is not interrupted by "the independent action of some third party not before the court." Id. All the links of the chain are before the court: the Secretary promulgates regulations, which the Commonwealth implements, and which require the termination of benefits to some claimants, some of whom turn to the Commonwealth for financial support. This line of causation is no more attenuated than the one in SCRAP, supra, which the Supreme Court held sufficient to withstand a motion to dismiss.²

Commonwealth of Pennsylvania v. Kleppe, D.C.Cir.1976, 533 F.2d 668, cert. denied, 1976, 429 U.S. 977, 97 S.Ct. 485, 50 L.Ed.2d 584, is distinguishable. First, the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania initiated the lawsuit. Second, nothing in the legislative history of the relevant statute indicated any concern for the well-being of states. Third, the claimed injury—a reduction in tax revenues—seemingly flowed from a generalized injury to the state's economy. To the contrary in this case, the Commonwealth seeks merely to intervene,³ there is evidence of congressional intent behind Title XVI to relieve states' financial burden, and there is a fairly direct link between the Commonwealth's economic injury and the challenged action.

The Commonwealth's right to intervene is also supported by Kozera v. Spirito, 1 Cir.1983, 723 F.2d 1003, recently decided by the Court of Appeals. In that case, plaintiffs sued the Commonwealth alleging that one of its AFDC eligibility requirements was illegal. The Commonwealth filed a third party complaint against the Secretary alleging that the challenged state regulation was promulgated to conform with a federal statute, 42 U.S.C. § 602(a)(31), and its implementing regulation, 45 C.F.R. § 233.20(a)(3)(xiv). The issue was whether the district court properly dismissed the Commonwealth's third party complaint. The Court of Appeals held that the Secretary was a proper third-party defendant. Its analysis, which encompassed standing, sovereign immunity and exhaustion of remedies, is applicable here. So is its invocation of the policy of judicial efficiency, which in this case is served by allowing "the adjudication of the interests of all parties—claimants, Commonwealth, and Secretary—in one proceeding." Id. at 1011. Had the plaintiffs in this case sued the Commonwealth for illegally terminating their disability benefits, the Commonwealth could have brought a third-party action against the Secretary under Kozera. The Commonwealth's interest in this action is not diminished merely because plaintiffs chose to sue the Secretary directly. Third-party complaints and complaints in intervention are alternative procedural devices for bringing all the parties with an interest in the lawsuit before the court. See 3B Moore's Federal Practice ¶ 24.02.

For the foregoing reasons, the Commonwealth's motion to intervene is allowed.

II. Jurisdiction

We turn next to the Secretary's motion to dismiss plaintiffs' complaint for lack of jurisdiction. Preliminarily we note that the Supreme Court has granted certiorari in Heckler v. Ringer, 1983, ___ U.S. ___, 103 S.Ct. 3535, 77 L.Ed.2d 1386, in order to address the same thorny jurisdictional issues raised in this suit. A comprehensive dissertation by this court at this time would serve little purpose. We have relied primarily on Kuehner v. Schweiker, 3 Cir. 1983, 717 F.2d 813.

The complaint alleges that the Secretary (1) fails to adhere to a medical improvement standard, (2) employs an illegally restrictive psychiatric standard for younger persons, and (3) fails to give adequate weight to treating physicians' opinions, other agencies' disability determinations and claimants'...