Cosby v. Ward
| Citation | 843 F.2d 967 |
| Decision Date | 14 March 1988 |
| Docket Number | No. 86-1181,86-1181 |
| Parties | Unempl.Ins.Rep. CCH 21,889 Irving O. COSBY, et al., Plaintiffs-Appellants, v. Sally WARD, Director of the Illinois Department of Employment Security of the Illinois Department of Labor, et al., Defendants-Appellees. |
| Court | United States Courts of Appeals. United States Court of Appeals (7th Circuit) |
Jeffrey B. Gilbert, William J. Martinez, Steven Coursly, Steven Saltzman, Legal Assistance Foundation of Chicago, Chicago, Ill., for plaintiffs-appellants.
Patricia Rosen, Illinois Asst. Atty. Gen., Chicago, Ill., Jeff A. Hennemuth, Office of Sol., U.S. Dept. of Labor, Washington, D.C., for defendants-appellees.
Before WOOD, COFFEY, and RIPPLE, Circuit Judges.
Plaintiffs are representatives of two classes of unemployment insurance claimants. They brought suit under 42 U.S.C. Sec. 1983 against the Director of the Illinois Department of Employment Security (IDES), the United States Department of Labor (DOL), its Secretary, and the Assistant Secretary of Labor for Employment and Training, alleging that IDES's administration of two unemployment insurance programs violated federal law and the plaintiffs' due process rights under the United States Constitution. After the plaintiffs presented their evidence, the state defendants moved for an involuntary dismissal of the action under Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 41(b). The district court granted the motion and entered judgment against the plaintiffs who have appealed. We affirm on the statutory issues, reverse on the constitutional issues, and remand for further proceedings on the latter issues.
A. The Programs
Unemployed people in Illinois who are eligible for unemployment insurance are entitled to the lesser of either twenty-six weeks of regular benefits payments, or the total insured wages for a base period. Illinois Unemployment Insurance Act (IUI Act), Ill.Stat.Ann. ch. 48, paragraphs 300-820. After these regular benefits are exhausted, the claimant may be eligible for payments under two other programs: the extended benefits (EB) program, or the federal supplemental compensation (FSC) program. The EB payments are made under the Federal-State Extended Unemployment Compensation Act of 1970 (EUC Act), 26 U.S.C. Sec. 3304(a)(11), and IUI Act Sec. 409, Ill.Stat.Ann. ch. 48, p 409. Benefits under the program become available when unemployment in the state reaches a specified level. A claimant may receive up to thirteen weeks of EB payments.
After a claimant has exhausted both his regular benefits and EB, he may be eligible for payments under the FSC program. Federal Supplemental Compensation Act of 1982 (FSC Act), 26 U.S.C. Sec. 3304 note. The maximum period for a claimant to receive FSC payments is from ten to twenty-six weeks. There is no requirement of a "trigger level" of unemployment as there is under the EUC Act.
Regular benefits are paid by the state from taxes collected from employers. The state makes EB payments also, but the federal government reimburses the state for fifty percent of the program's cost under section 204 of the EUC Act. The federal government pays all FSC benefits under the FSC Act, and also compensates states for the costs of administering EB and FSC programs.
In order to receive federal money, the state must comply with federal statutes and interpretations thereof by the DOL and Illinois has entered into a contract with the DOL, agreeing to abide by the FSC program rules. The EUC Act and the FSC Act require people claiming EB to actively search for work. They must provide the state with evidence of their search efforts. There is no statutory provision explaining exactly how a claimant can demonstrate compliance with these requirements.
After a claimant has exhausted his regular benefits, a claims technician at the local IDES office explains to the claimant that he may be eligible for further benefits. The technician gives each claimant a written notice about the programs and explains the notice. Many technicians are multi-lingual, and each office has technicians who speak the language of the local population. Notices about the programs, however, are written in English. Claims technicians give claimants form questionnaires to return every two weeks. The questionnaires ask for information about the claimant's search for work, and include such questions as "[w]hat is the lowest starting wage you will accept?" and "[h]ow long (in time) are you willing to travel each way to work?" These questions and answers are used to identify restrictions that the claimant may be placing on his work search. Claims that are clearly acceptable are processed for payment. Claims that raise questions about the claimant's restrictions are sent on to an adjudicator. When this happens, an employee of the local office will send the claimant a notice that he is to appear in person at the local office. Although this notice is also intended to inform the claimant of the problem, the district court found that "frequently it is filled out in such a perfunctory fashion that the claimant could not know why he had been summoned." 625 F.Supp. at 625.
The adjudicator discusses with the claimant his answers to the questionnaire, and decides whether the claimant has understood the questions and answers. If the adjudicator finds that the claimant misunderstood a question, the adjudicator may allow him to withdraw his original answer and supply a correct one. The claimant may even return home to retrieve additional documentation for his answers. The adjudicator will not, however, coach a claimant on acceptable answers, and once the adjudicator has determined that the claimant's A claimant who is denied benefits by a claims adjudicator may appeal that denial to a referee. Referees are lawyers who are independent of the vagaries of the local offices. The claimant may file written reasons for his appeal, and, when he meets with the referee, he may present evidence. If the claimant does not speak English, and the referee does not speak the claimant's language, IDES will appoint an interpreter. The hearing is recorded. After reviewing with the claimant his questionnaire and the meaning of the claimant's answers, the referee will make a new determination of the claimant's eligibility. He is not bound by the adjudicator's findings. The referee will file a written decision, which is more formal than the adjudicator's decision. The claimant may appeal this decision, if it is unfavorable to him, to the Board of Review.
restrictions are unreasonable, the claimant can no longer "correct" his answers. At the conclusion of the interview, the claims adjudicator will render a written decision on the claimant's eligibility for benefits. If the claimant is found to be ineligible, he will be denied benefits for the two-week period covered by the questionnaire. Once denied benefits, a claimant is not eligible for benefits again until he has worked for at least four weeks.
The Board of Review is an administrative court within IDES. As a party may do in other courts, a claimant may file written briefs, personally or by counsel, arguing legal and factual questions. Unlike the referee, the Board may not disregard the previous findings, but instead makes its decision based on the record established before the referee. Decisions are not routinely published, but IDES maintains a digest of the Board's decisions both for its own purposes and for the public. A manual of benefits decisions also provides the public with access to some of the Board's decisions.
The last avenue for appeal is to the state courts. Ill.Stat.Ann. ch. 48, p 520; ch. 110, paragraphs 3-101 to -112. By the time this level of review is accomplished, however, many months will have passed.
Claims technicians, adjudicators, and referees all receive training from IDES on the nature of and criteria for the benefits programs. All of these people receive copies of the hundreds of bulletins that IDES sends out. Although they may not remember each specific bulletin, the district court found that "the technicians, adjudicators, and referees who testified were familiar with the general principles in the bulletins." 625 F.Supp. at 625.
In making their decisions on a claimant's eligibility for benefits, reviewers (claims technicians, adjudicators, referees, and the Board) have at their disposal two sources of information that they frequently do not use. One of these sources is a newsletter that IDES publishes through its Economic Information and Analysis Unit. This Unit collects information about Illinois labor markets and its newsletter contains data about the state as a whole, and in city and county segments. Information about smaller areas is contained in quarterly publications. The district court found that "the Unit does not determine whether there are openings in particular occupations, and none of the [reviewers] who testified made any use of the data disseminated by the Unit." 625 F.Supp. at 626.
Another potential source of information for the reviewers is the Job Service, the state agency that helps unemployed people find work. Registration with Job Service is a prerequisite to eligibility for any unemployment compensation. Claimants and Job Service counselors work together in devising for a claimant a plan to search for new work. Although the counselors presumably know where a claimant can look for work to suit his particular skills, they do not ensure that the claimant's plan complies with the work search rules used by the unemployment offices. Similarly, the approval by Job Service of a claimant's work search plan carries no weight with the administrators of the EB or...
To continue reading
Request your trial
-
Cahoo v. Fast Enters. LLC
...state cannot be said to have an interest in depriving unwitting claimants of benefits to which they may be entitled," Cosby v. Ward , 843 F.2d 967, 984 (7th Cir. 1988), or falsely accusing honest people of fraud.Moreover, the costs of providing constitutionally adequate notice of the claima......
-
Rowe v. Nurse
...to how frequently such conduct must occur to impose Monell liability, 'except that it must be more than one instance,' [Cosby v. Ward,] 843 F.2d 967, 983 (7th Cir. 1988), or even three, [Gable v. City of Chicago, 296 F.3d 531, 538 (7th Cir. 2002)] ('[T]hree incidents where vehicle owners we......
-
Doston v. Duffy
...is continued if a hearing is requested, and, if the agency action is upheld, that such assistance must be repaid. Cosby v. Ward, 843 F.2d 967 (7th Cir.1988) (Illinois violated unemployment insurance claimant's due process rights by failing to provide adequate notice of substantive rules and......
-
Castillo v. Jackson
...(1989), comport with the proper meaning of PRUCOL as intended by Congress and, therefore, by the General Assembly. Cosby v. Ward (7th Cir.1988), 843 F.2d 967, 981 (quoting Doe v. Reivitz (7th Cir.1987), 830 F.2d 1441, 1447, quoting 2 K. Davis, Administrative Law Treatise § 7:11, at 55 PRUCO......