Baker v. City of Concord

• Decision Date: 01 August 1990
• Docket Number: 90-1443,Nos. 90-1442,s. 90-1442
• Citation: 916 F.2d 744
• Parties: Teresa BAKER, etc., Plaintiff, Appellee, v. CITY OF CONCORD, et al., Defendants, Appellants. . Heard
• Court: U.S. Court of Appeals — First Circuit

Page 744

916 F.2d 744

Teresa BAKER, etc., Plaintiff, Appellee, v. CITY OF CONCORD, et al., Defendants, Appellants.

Nos. 90-1442, 90-1443.

United States Court of Appeals, First Circuit.

Heard Aug. 1, 1990.

Decided Oct. 16, 1990.

John A. Lassey, with whom Wadleigh, Starr, Peters, Dunn & Chiesa, Manchester, N.H. and Susan S. Geiger, Asst. Atty. Gen., Concord, N.H., were on brief, for defendants, appellants.

H. Bernard Waugh, Jr., Hanover, N.H., on brief for New Hampshire Mun. Ass'n, amicus curiae.

Alan Linder, with whom New Hampshire Legal Assistance, Concord, N.H. and Chiara Dolcino, Center Barnstead, were on brief, for plaintiff, appellee.

Before CAMPBELL and SELYA, Circuit Judges, BOWNES, Senior Circuit Judge.

SELYA, Circuit Judge.

This appeal requires us to assess the constitutionality of N.H.Rev.Stat.Ann. (RSA) ch. 167:27 (1977 & Supp.1989), which bars recipients of state aid to the permanently and totally disabled (APTD) from receiving general public assistance (known locally as "town welfare"). ¹ In our view, RSA 167:27 does not deprive the plaintiff, or others similarly situated, of rights secured under the federal Constitution. Hence, we reverse a contrary ruling of the district court.

I. THE STATUTORY SCHEME

The State of New Hampshire administers various public assistance programs, including old age assistance (OAA), aid to the needy blind (ANB), aid to families with dependent children (AFDC), and APTD. Grant levels for the three so-called adult assistance programs (OAA, ANB, APTD) are identical; the grant level for an AFDC household of one is marginally lower. Recipients of federal supplemental security income (SSI) are eligible for Medicaid in New Hampshire only if they also qualify for one of the three adult assistance programs.

Prior to 1986, the towns, cities, counties, and State all contributed to funding the APTD program. See RSA 167:20 (1977). The parties agree that legislation taking effect on January 1 of that year exempted the cities and towns from direct fiscal obligations in respect to APTD and OAA, leaving the counties and the State to bear the immediate fiscal burden of these programs. The municipalities still provided indirect support to APTD and OAA, however, in that the wellspring of the counties' revenue stream is the local property tax collected by the cities and towns. See RSA 29 (1977 & Supp.1989).

No statewide program of general public assistance exists in New Hampshire. Instead, state law requires each city and town to help persons who are unable to support themselves. ² The purpose of town welfare is to provide financial assistance to any person who is impoverished, and who, because of lack of income, is unable to pay for necessary living expenses. Funding comes strictly from local property taxes. Each municipality develops guidelines for administering the program and determining eligibility. See RSA 165:1 (Supp.1989). The parties agree that town welfare is not designed to accommodate people with a chronic need for funds, but serves primarily as a bridge, supplying temporary or emergency support until other, more enduring sources of relief can be arranged.

RSA 167:27, supra note 1, is superimposed upon this programmatic grid and, as mentioned earlier, trumps the applicability of RSA 165:1 in cases where, as here, APTD grant funds are being paid. A person eligible for APTD cannot renounce his or her eligibility, or refuse to accept benefits, merely to retain access to town welfare. See RSA 165:1-b, subd. I(d) (Supp.1989) (providing for forfeiture of town welfare eligibility if applicant fails to make required applications to "other public assistance agencies"); see also City of Concord Public Assistance Guidelines, Eligibility Standards, IV-B-4.

II. STATEMENT OF THE CASE

The facts of this case are uncontested, if unhappy. Plaintiff-appellee Teresa Baker, a victim of cancer, began receiving maximum APTD benefits ($382 monthly) from the New Hampshire Division of Human Services (DHS) in August 1988, when she was no longer able to work. She also received food stamps (valued at $78 per month in 1988 and $90 per month in 1989) under a state-administered federal program. She could not subsist on these payments. In 1988, her basic needs, excluding food, cost $469 per month at a minimum (her rent alone was $375), leaving her $87 short.

Because Mrs. Baker's APTD benefits were not adequate to meet her necessary living expenses, she applied for general assistance pursuant to RSA 165:1 from the welfare department of her home municipality, the City of Concord (City). Her application was denied. In the spring of 1989, she asked the City for help with her electric bill and was again refused. Both denials were based solely on RSA 167:27. It is undisputed that, under the City's guidelines, Mrs. Baker would have been eligible for general assistance had state law not barred her participation.

Invoking 42 U.S.C. Sec. 1983, plaintiff sued the City and the director of DHS, Robert Pliskin, in federal district court. She alleged that the blanket denial of general assistance discriminated against persons already receiving APTD benefits and therefore transgressed the fourteenth amendment to the federal Constitution. Specifically, plaintiff maintained that RSA 167:27, on its face and as administered by DHS, violated the Equal Protection Clause. The law, she said, created two classes of persons: (1) those who are poor, disabled, and receiving APTD benefits, and (2) those who are poor, not disabled, and not receiving APTD benefits. While the members of both classes are equally unable to support themselves, New Hampshire discriminates between the classes, according to the plaintiff, because persons in the first group are barred from town welfare whereas persons in the second group are eligible for such assistance (and, under it, can receive whatever sums are necessary for their subsistence, not subject to APTD's monthly cap). In addition to her equal protection initiative, Mrs. Baker alleged that a denial of town welfare based on RSA 167:27 likewise violated the Due Process Clause by creating an irrebuttable presumption that an APTD recipient is not, and cannot be, in need of general assistance.

Inter alia, plaintiff sought a permanent injunction preventing the defendants from relying on RSA 167:27 in order to deny assistance under RSA 165:1; a declaration that RSA 167:27 was unconstitutional; and an order of notice directed to all persons previously denied town welfare by reason of RSA 167:27. Her complaint was accompanied by a motion to certify a class consisting of all persons who receive or will receive APTD benefits and whose applications for town welfare are or have been denied "based, in whole or in part, on RSA 167:27; and whose APTD benefits will be revoked under RSA 167:27 upon receipt of general assistance under RSA 165." The district court, noting that anyone receiving benefits under RSA 167:27 would be automatically excluded from town welfare, certified the class.

Once the suit was answered, all parties sought summary judgment. The court below granted plaintiff's motion reasoning that, because eligibility under RSA 165 was predicated solely on need, it was irrational to exclude APTD recipients from town welfare ³ while at the same time permitting recipients of certain other categorical grant programs (for example, ANB or AFDC) to receive "bridge" payments remedying shortfalls between their regular stipends and costs of subsistence. The court therefore concluded that RSA 167:27 was bereft of any rational basis and contravened the Equal Protection Clause. Because this holding gave plaintiff all the relief which she sought, the court did not reach the due process claim. These appeals followed.

III. THE EQUAL PROTECTION CLAIM

Social welfare or public assistance legislation runs afoul of the Equal Protection Clause only if it cannot be said to relate rationally to a legitimate state objective. See, e.g., Lyng v. International Union, Etc., 485 U.S. 360, 370, 108 S.Ct. 1184, 1191-92, 99 L.Ed.2d 380 (1988); Department of Agriculture v. Moreno, 413 U.S. 528, 533, 93 S.Ct. 2821, 2825, 37 L.Ed.2d 782 (1973); Garvey v. Worcester Housing Auth., 629 F.2d 691, 696 (1st Cir.1980). In identifying a state interest and assessing whether the statutory scheme can be said to further that interest, courts must be careful not to usurp legislative prerogatives; considerable respect should be accorded to legislators' views regarding the contours of social welfare programs. "So long as its judgments are rational, and not invidious, the legislature's efforts to tackle the problems of the poor and the needy are not subject to a constitutional straightjacket." Jefferson v. Hackney, 406 U.S. 535, 546, 92 S.Ct. 1724, 1731, 32 L.Ed.2d 285 (1972).

Transforming this respect into practice requires that, in general, legislative classifications be "presumed to be valid." Lyng, 485 U.S. at 370, 108 S.Ct. at 1191-92; Massachusetts Bd. of Retirement v. Murgia, 427 U.S. 307, 314, 96 S.Ct. 2562, 2567, 49 L.Ed.2d 520 (1976). Imperfections in classifications, whether or not undesirable, cannot automatically be equated with violations of equal protection. See Dandridge v. Williams, 397 U.S. 471, 485, 90 S.Ct. 1153, 1161, 25 L.Ed.2d 491 (1970). "If the classification has some 'reasonable basis,' it does not offend the Constitution simply because the classification 'is not made with mathematical nicety or because in practice it results in some inequality.' " Id. (quoting Lindsley v. Natural Carbonic Gas Co., 220 U.S. 61, 78, 31 S.Ct. 337, 340, 55 L.Ed. 369 (1911)); see also Garvey, 629 F.2d at 696. Each social problem suggests a variety of constitutionally permissible solutions and the obligation of choosing among the array rests primarily with the States. See Jefferson, 406 U.S. at 546-47, 92 S.Ct. at 1731-32.

The Equal Protection Clause, then, does not force a state legislature to choose between "attacking every...