Baumes v. Lavine

• Decision Date: 09 May 1974
• Citation: 44 A.D.2d 336,355 N.Y.S.2d 477
• Parties: In the Matter of Eleanor BAUMES et al., Respondents, v. Abe LAVINE, as Commissioner of New York State Department of Social Services, et al., Appellants.
• Court: New York Supreme Court — Appellate Division

Page 477

355 N.Y.S.2d 477

44 A.D.2d 336

In the Matter of Eleanor BAUMES et al., Respondents, v. Abe LAVINE, as Commissioner of New York State Department of Social Services, et al., Appellants.

Supreme Court, Appellate Division, Third Department.

May 9, 1974.

Louis J. Lefkowitz, Atty. Gen., Albany (Eileen A. Sullivan and Ruth Kessler Toch, Albany, of counsel), for Abe Lavine, as Commissioner of N.Y. State Dept. of Social Services, appellant.

Robert P. Roche, Albany, for John Fahey, as Commissioner of Albany County Dept. of Social Services, appellant.

Paul Lichterman, Albany, for respondents.

Before STALEY, J.P., and GREENBLOTT, SWEENEY, MAIN and REYNOLDS, JJ.

REYNOLDS, Justice.

This is an appeal from a judgment of the Supreme Court at Special Term, entered November 19, 1973 in Albany County, which granted petitioners' application, in a proceeding pursuant to CPLR article 78, holding that the proceeding was a valid class action declaring the limitations of assistance contained in 18 NYCRR 372.2(b) and (c) null and void and ordering appellant Fahey to process all requests to petitioners for all essential furniture pursuant to section 350--j of the Social Services Law.

Petitioners, all recipients of public assistance in the Federal category of Aid to Dependent Children, seek in this proceeding to secure emergency assistance for worn out furniture. The furniture here involved has worn out simply with the passage of time. Section 350--j of the Social Services Law requires assistance for emergency situations faced by the recipients of public assistance. It is clear that section 350--j was enacted to apply to sudden and unexplained emergency events (see N.Y. State Legis. Annual, 1968, p. 255; see, also, Matter of Bates v. Wyman, 36 A.D.2d 854, 321 N.Y.S.2d 664; Matter of Borders v. Nassau County Dept. of Social Servs., 34 A.D.2d 805, 311 N.Y.S.2d 746; Matter of Ross v. Sipprell, 71 Misc.2d 677, 336 N.Y.S.2d 861, affd. 42 A.D.2d 691, 346 N.Y.S.2d 788), and not to remedy the anticipated demands created as the result of everyday life. It was not designed to replace furniture merely worn by normal use such as is the case here, but where emergency or catastrophe suddenly affects the family or individuals involved. To so hold would violate the concept of semi-monthly flat grants to welfare recipients and inundate the Department of Social Services with requests for additional assistance to meet the everyday needs for which the vast population, also on fixed incomes, have learned to budget and expect.

We pass on no other issues raised on this appeal.

The judgment should be reversed, on the law and the facts, and the petition dismissed, without costs.

Judgment reversed, on the law and the facts, and petition dismissed, without costs.

SWEENEY and MAIN, JJ., concur.

STALEY, J.P., and GREENBLOTT, J., dissent and vote to affirm in an opinion by GREENBLOTT, J.

GREENBLOTT, Justice (dissenting).

We dissent and vote to affirm the judgment at Special Term. In the case of the petitioner Eleanor Baumes, it is alleged that her 13-year-old son does not have a bed of his own, but must share his mother's. In the case of petitioner Loretta Brown, it is charged that her 12-year-old son sleeps on the floor and that her 15-year-old son is also without his own bed. It is also alleged that in addition to these children, others similarly situated are being permanently injured in that they must share sleeping arrangements with their parents, who are often of the opposite sex. It is obvious that, on the basis of the record before us, the appellants are not meeting the essential needs of these children which policy is contrary to State and Federal laws.

Proceeding to the merits, it is our opinion...