Cole v. Railroad Retirement Board

• Decision Date: 25 April 1961
• Docket Number: No. 16588.,16588.
• Citation: 289 F.2d 65
• Parties: Jaley Stone COLE, Petitioner, v. RAILROAD RETIREMENT BOARD, Respondent.
• Court: U.S. Court of Appeals — Eighth Circuit

289 F.2d 65 (1961)

Jaley Stone COLE, Petitioner, v. RAILROAD RETIREMENT BOARD, Respondent.

No. 16588.

United States Court of Appeals Eighth Circuit.

April 25, 1961.

John J. Cole, St. Louis, Mo., Henegan, Roberts & Cole and Woodward L. Carter, Jr., St. Louis, Mo., on the brief, for petitioner.

Louis Turner, Asst. General Counsel, Chicago, Ill., Myles F. Gibbons, David B. Schreiber and Ernest O. Eisenberg, Railroad Retirement Board, Chicago, Ill., on the brief, for respondent.

Before SANBORN, VAN OOSTERHOUT and MATTHES, Circuit Judges.

SANBORN, Circuit Judge.

This is a petition to review and set aside a decision of the Railroad Retirement Board, an independent agency of the United States charged with the administration of the Railroad Retirement Act of 1937 (50 Stat. 307, as amended, 45 U.S.C.A. §§ 228a-228z) and the Railroad Unemployment Insurance Act, 52 Stat. 1094, as amended, 45 U.S.C.A. §§ 351-367. The Board's decision, under review, determined that the widow's insurance annuity awarded under the Railroad Retirement Act to the petitioner, Mrs. Jaley Stone Cole — the widow of Thomas J. Cole, who at the time of his death on February 23, 1953, was General Attorney of the Missouri Pacific Railroad and a "completely insured" railroad employee — could not begin prior to July 1, 1958. The decision is reviewable under Section 11 of the Railroad Retirement Act, 45 U.S.C.A. § 228k.

The facts out of which the controversy arose are not in dispute. At the time of her husband's death, Mrs. Cole was fifty-seven years of age. She had no minor children in her care. On March 23, 1953, she filed with the Board an "Application for Lump-sum Death Payment." In her application she stated that she was born on April 12, 1895, that she and her deceased husband were married on April 18, 1915, and that she was applying "for the lump-sum death payment or for any insurance annuities based on the insured status of the deceased employee, payable" to her "under the Railroad Retirement Act, as amended."

On April 30, 1953, the Board's Bureau of Retirement Claims, by Robert H. LaMotte, Director of Retirement Claims, wrote Mrs. Cole that she had been found to be entitled to a lump-sum payment of $614.30 under the Railroad Retirement Act, and that a check for that amount would follow. The letter went on to say:

"The payment described above will not affect your future entitlement to any additional benefits payable under the Railroad Retirement Act. The enclosed leaflet lists the types of benefits to which survivors of employees may become entitled and explains the conditions under which survivors qualify for benefits. As the above-named employee was completely insured, you may be eligible for a monthly annuity beginning with the month in which you attain age 65 if you have not remarried. However, at that time, it will be necessary for you to file a new application with an office of the Board."

The enclosed leaflet, entitled "Conditions Under Which Insurance Annuities and Insurance Lump Sums Are Payable to Survivors of Railroad Workers," so far as pertinent stated:

"Monthly insurance annuities may be payable under the Railroad Retirement Act to the following survivors of a properly insured employee:

"(1) The unremarried widow of a `completely\' insured employee, who has attained age 65; * * *."

The letter and the leaflet were entirely truthful under the provisions of the Act as it stood at the time they were sent to Mrs. Cole.

On August 31, 1954, Section 5 of the Railroad Retirement Act was amended by Public Law 746 (c. 1164, §§ 8, 9, 68 Stat. 1039), reducing the age at which an otherwise qualified widow would be eligible for an insurance annuity from sixty-five to sixty. The amendment was publicized in newspapers in the St. Louis area where Mrs. Cole lived, but did not come to her attention.

On July 21, 1959, she wrote the following letter to the Board:

"Gentlemen:

"Your letter RL-43d dated April 30, 1953, notified me that I had been found to be entitled to a lump-sum of $614.30, and that I may be eligible for a monthly annuity beginning with the month in which I attained age 65.

"I have not heard anything from the Board since that time, and was waiting until I was 65.

"Quite by accident I heard that widows could draw benefits at 62. I heard this just a few days ago. I called the Railroad Retirement Board, St. Louis, Missouri, and was told that the age was 60. I asked the man why I had not been notified, and was told that I had to apply in person. I therefore went down the same day.

"Since I was not notified, I would like for this to be made retroactive back to the time I was 60, April 12, 1955."

She also made and filed formal application for her widow's insurance annuity on the same day.

On September 9, 1959, Mrs. Cole was notified by Robert H. LaMotte, Director of Retirement Claims, that she had been awarded an insurance annuity from July 1, 1958, and that: "Under the Railroad Retirement Act an annuity may be retroactive to the first day of the twelfth month preceding the month in which the application was filed. Therefore, the earliest beginning date of your annuity is July 1, 1958."

In the belief that she was legally entitled to have her insurance annuity begin as of April 12, 1955, when she became sixty years of age, Mrs. Cole appealed to the Appeals Council of the Board. The Appeals Council, in sustaining the decision of the Bureau of Retirement Claims, pointed out that Section 5(j) of the Railroad Retirement Act, 45 U.S.C.A. § 228e(j), relating to the time when annuities begin and end, provided that an annuity could not begin "earlier than the first day of the twelfth month before the month in which the application was filed." Mrs. Cole appealed to the Railroad Retirement Board from the decision of the Appeals Council. The Board, after fully and fairly stating the facts, reached the following conclusion:

"Section 5(3) 5(j) of the Act contains the following provision with respect to the beginning date of survivors\' annuities:

"`* * * An application

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