Baur v. Mathews, 76-2688
| Decision Date | 05 May 1978 |
| Docket Number | No. 76-2688,76-2688 |
| Parties | Joseph BAUR, Petitioner-Appellant, v. F. David MATHEWS, Secretary of HEW, Respondent-Appellee. |
| Court | U.S. Court of Appeals — Ninth Circuit |
Philip L. Goar, Los Angeles, Cal., for petitioner-appellant.
Carolyn M. Reynolds, Asst. U. S. Atty., Los Angeles, Cal., for respondent-appellee.
Appeal from the United States District Court for the Central District of California.
Before CARTER, GOODWIN and WALLACE, Circuit Judges.
Joseph Baur represents a class of residents of public alcoholic treatment centers in Los Angeles County, California, who are seeking reinstatement of Supplemental Security Income benefits to them under Title XVI of the Social Security Act, 42 U.S.C. § 1381 et seq. The Secretary of H.E.W. discontinued their benefits because they were found by an administrative law judge to be inmates of a public institution who are ineligible for supplemental income payments under 42 U.S.C. § 1382(e)(1)(A). The District Court for the Central District of California affirmed the findings of the administrative law judge. On appeal Baur contends: (1) his classification as an "inmate" under 42 U.S.C. § 1382(e)(1)(A) is not authorized by the act, and (2) even if properly classified as an inmate, he qualifies for the regulatory exception for residents of a public vocational training institution under 20 C.F.R. § 416.231(b)(3). We agree with the district court that the agency's interpretation and application of the statute is correct and AFFIRM.
Appellants are residents of the public alcoholic treatment centers in Los Angeles County, California, known as Antelope Valley Rehabilitation Centers (AVRC or the Centers). AVRC is a state-licensed facility owned and operated by the county of Los Angeles. The Centers provide non-intensive in-patient medical care and mental health rehabilitation services to disabled indigent men. Over three fourths of the Centers' patients are suffering from some aspect of alcoholism. Residency at AVRC is voluntary.
Prior to January 1, 1974, appellants received state public assistance payments under the old state-federal categorical aid programs pursuant to Titles I and XIV of the Social Security Act (Old Age Assistance and Aid to the Totally Disabled). However, effective January 1, 1974, Title XVI of the Social Security Act, § 1601 et seq., 42 U.S.C. § 1381 et seq., repealed the old programs and created a comprehensive new federal program of income assistance to the needy aged, blind and disabled. The new program is known as the Supplemental Security Income program (SSI).
When SSI replaced, inter alia, former Titles I and XIV of the Social Security Act, appellants initially were converted to the SSI rolls through the "grandfathering" provision of the new law. See Social Security Act, § 1611(g), 42 U.S.C. § 1382(g). But around March 5, 1978, the Social Security Administration notified appellants that their SSI payments were to be terminated under § 1611(e)(1)(A) of the Act, 42 U.S.C. § 1382(e)(1)(A), because they were inmates of a public institution which did not receive payments under Title XIX of the Social Security Act (Grants to States for Medical Assistance Programs).
Appellants pursued their administrative remedies to a hearing at which an administrative law judge held them to be ineligible for SSI payments under § 1611(e)(1)(A). He found specifically that appellants are inmates of a public institution; that they are not excluded from the inmate category by the vocational training institution exception contained in the regulations, 20 C.F.R. § 416.231(b)(3); and that AVRC does not receive Title XIX funds on behalf of appellants, making them ineligible also for that exception to the inmate exclusion.
A final administrative review by the Appeals Council of the Bureau of Hearings and Appeals sustained the administrative law judge's ruling. This became the final decision of the Secretary of H.E.W.
Appeal was taken to the United States District Court for the Central District of California. On April 26, 1976, that court made extensive findings of fact and conclusions of law and affirmed the decision of the Secretary.
Section 1611(e)(1)(A) of the Social Security Act, 42 U.S.C. § 1382(e)(1)(A) provides:
"Except as provided in subparagraph (B), no person shall be an eligible individual or eligible spouse for purposes of this subchapter with respect to any month if throughout such month he is an inmate of a public institution." 1
The Secretary has clarified this provision in 20 C.F.R. § 416.231(b):
Appellants contest the Secretary's interpretation of § 1611(e)(1)(A) because it makes no distinction between custodial and noncustodial inmates of public institutions. They contend the term "inmates" as used in the act can only be construed to refer to "one who is confined in a custodial institution under some form of restraint." The Secretary's contrary interpretation is claimed to be unauthorized (1) because it is in conflict with the common and ordinary usage of the term "inmate"; (2) because it frustrates the policy of the SSI program; and (3) because it is internally inconsistent with another provision of the program, 42 U.S.C. § 1382(e)(3), which requires persons who are alcoholics to undergo treatment appropriate for their condition to become eligible for SSI benefits.
First, appellants contend "inmates" is commonly understood to refer to persons in custody under some kind of restraint. They cite the only example of the inmate exclusion provided in the legislative history of the SSI program: "No assistance benefits will be paid to an individual in a penal institution." H.R.Rep. 92-231, 92d Congress, 1st Session, 1972 U.S.Code, Congressional & Administrative News p. 5136. And they note that their interpretation comports with a dictionary definition of "inmates" to be "one of a family, community, or other group occupying a single dwelling home or other place of residence. esp(ecially) : a person confined or kept in an institution (as an asylum, prison, or poor house)." Webster's Third New International Dictionary 1165 (1968) (emphasis in original).
Admittedly one of the contemporary specialized usages of "inmate" refers to persons held in some kind of institutional confinement under restraint. However, as the dictionary definition above illustrates, the more general meaning of the word refers to any persons occupying a stated dwelling. Other dictionaries confirm this general and ordinary usage of the term. See, e. g., The Shorter Oxford English Dictionary 1076 (3rd ed. 1973) ( ); Black's Law Dictionary 926 (Revised 4th ed. 1968) ("A person who lodges or dwells in the same house with another, occupying different rooms, but using the same door for passing in and out of the house."); Bouvier's Law Dictionary 1582 (Rawle's 3rd Revision, 8th ed. 1914) ("One who dwells in a part of another's house, the latter dwelling at the same time in the said house."). The Secretary correctly construed the term "inmate" to encompass noncustodial occupancy of institutions as well as custodial occupancy. 2
Second, appellants contend the Secretary's interpretation will frustrate the legislative intent of Congress in creating the SSI program. According to appellants the primary purpose of the SSI program is to shift the cost of public welfare from local government to the federal government. However, this contention does not find support in the legislative history of the act. Undoubtedly the new federal program was intended to make uniform the eligibility requirements and the benefits under the federal supplemental social insurance programs. The federal government has assumed a major portion of the responsibility of providing for those whose earnings fall below specified levels. Yet Congress did not determine to displace the existing state programs for assisting the needy aged, blind and disabled. Considerations of economic efficiency as well as respect for the state's traditionally local responsibility to care for its citizens seemed to motivate the exception from benefits of persons already receiving treatment at state or local institutions.
Reporting on the bill to Congress, the House Ways and Means Committee proclaimed one of the purposes of the act to be to provide an "efficient and economical method of providing this assistance." H.R.Rep. 92-231, 92d Congress, 1st Session, 1972 U.S.Code, Congressional & Administrative News p. 5133. The same House Report elaborated:
"Your committee believes that the new program financed as it would be from general revenues and with the benefits based on need, should pay people only to the extent that their needs are not met from other sources, including, among others, social security payments, payments by other agencies, and payments from private pension plans." Id. at 5135-36. (Emphasis added.)
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