Cunningham v. Railroad Retirement Bd.
| Decision Date | 15 December 2004 |
| Docket Number | No. 02-2866.,02-2866. |
| Citation | 392 F.3d 567 |
| Parties | Janet Belczyk CUNNINGHAM Petitioner v. RAILROAD RETIREMENT BOARD. |
| Court | U.S. Court of Appeals — Third Circuit |
Michael A. Pavlick, Jamie Bishop, Meghan L. Daugherty (Argued), Kirkpatrick & Lockhart, LLP, Pittsburgh, PA, for Petitioner.
Steven A. Bartholow, Michael C. Litt (Argued), Chicago, IL, for Respondent.
Before RENDELL, FUENTES, and SMITH, Circuit Judges.
Petitioner Janet B. Cunningham appeals a decision of the Railroad Retirement Board ("RRB") denying her motion to reopen her claim for unemployment and sickness insurance benefits following her failure to pursue a timely administrative appeal of a partial denial of benefits. The novel issue for this Court is whether we may review a decision of the RRB refusing to reopen a prior claim for benefits after the time for administrative appeal has expired. Because a decision of the RRB refusing to reopen a prior claim is not a final decision within the meaning of 45 U.S.C. § 355(f), which governs judicial review of decisions of the RRB, we conclude that we have no jurisdiction to review the RRB's decision. Accordingly, we will dismiss the petition.
After being laid off by Conrail, Cunningham commenced an action pro se with the RRB seeking unemployment and sickness insurance benefits under the Railroad Retirement Act ("RRA") and the Railroad Unemployment Insurance Act ("RUIA"), 45 U.S.C. § 231 et. seq.1 An adjudicating officer awarded Cunningham unemployment benefits for the period May 30 through July 26, 1999, but denied unemployment benefits thereafter based on her unavailability for work. Cunningham was also awarded sickness insurance benefits for the period November 19, 1999 through April 20, 2000, but was denied sickness insurance benefits for the period prior to November 19, 1999, based on lack of proof of infirmity. Seeking relief from the denial of these benefits and pursuant to RRB administrative procedures, Cunningham filed two requests for reconsideration with the adjudicating officer, both of which were denied on March 7, 2000.
Cunningham thereafter filed an appeal of the reconsideration decisions to the RRB's Bureau of Hearings and Appeals (the "Bureau"). On October 2, 2000, the Bureau denied Cunningham's appeal and affirmed the adjudicating officer's denial of benefits. The Bureau also informed Petitioner that she had 60 days in which to appeal the Bureau's decision to the three-member board (the "Board") that heads the RRB.
Cunningham did not file an appeal to the Board within the 60-day period and, accordingly, the Bureau's decision became the final decision of the RRB. See 45 U.S.C. § 355(d); see also 20 C.F.R. § 320.39. On May 29, 2001, well after the time to appeal had expired, Cunningham sent a letter to Robert A. Scardelletti, her union president, requesting his assistance in obtaining unemployment benefits. That same day, Scardelletti wrote a letter to V.M. Speakman, Jr., the labor representative on the Board, forwarding Cunningham's letter and asking for assistance on her behalf. A few weeks later, Speakman replied to Scardelletti, explaining that the time to appeal had long expired because Cunningham had not pursued her right to appeal within the 60-day period.2
On January 21, 2002, some 14 months after the expiration of the 60-day appeals period, Cunningham filed an appeal with the Board, which was treated as a request to reopen her claim in view of the Bureau's October 2, 2000 final decision. Still acting pro se, Cunningham argued that good cause existed to waive the 60-day appeal period because she was prevented from timely appealing the Bureau's decision within the prescribed period because of her medical condition, her separation from her husband, and because she had no one to act on her behalf during that period.3 On April 23, 2002, the Board, in a brief decision, denied her request to reopen, finding that she had failed to meet the good cause standard necessary to waive the time requirement. The Board relied on the May 29, 2001 letter Cunningham wrote to her union requesting assistance as evidence that she could have filed an appeal on that date, and that her subsequent delay of another eight months was unexplained.
Thereafter, Cunningham filed a petition for review with this Court arguing that she was entitled to benefits under the RUIA and that the Board's determination that she had failed to show good cause to reopen her case following her untimely appeal was not supported by substantial evidence in the record.
The parties dispute whether this Court has jurisdiction over Cunningham's petition for review. We must resolve the threshold jurisdictional issue before reaching the merits of Cunningham's petition. See Steel Co. v. Citizens for a Better Env't, 523 U.S. 83, 94, 118 S.Ct. 1003, 140 L.Ed.2d 210 (1998); see also Soc'y Hill Towers Owners' Ass'n v. Rendell, 210 F.3d 168, 175 (3d Cir.2000). As the Supreme Court stated in Steel Co.: Steel Co., 523 U.S. at 94, 118 S.Ct. 1003 ). We exercise plenary authority to determine whether we have jurisdiction over the RRB's decision denying Cunningham's request to reopen her claim. See Grand Union Supermarkets of the Virgin Islands, Inc. v. H.E. Lockhart Mgmt., Inc., 316 F.3d 408, 410 (3d Cir.2003).
In response to the RRB's jurisdictional challenge, Cunningham contends that this Court has jurisdiction over her petition for review on the grounds that the Board's denial of her request to reopen was a final decision within the meaning of 45 U.S.C. § 355(f), and that in any event federal common law provides a general right of judicial review in the absence of express statutory jurisdiction. In the alternative, Cunningham raises several other bases for this Court's jurisdiction, including: (1) that the Board's denial of her request to reopen raises a colorable constitutional due process claim; (2) that § 702 of the Administrative Procedure Act provides an independent basis for judicial review in this matter; and (3) that the RRB waived its jurisdictional arguments in this matter. Each of these arguments will be addressed in turn.
Judicial review of decisions of the RRB is governed by § 5(f) of the RUIA, which states in pertinent part that "[a]ny claimant ... aggrieved by a final decision under subsection (c) of this section, may, only after all administrative remedies within the Board will have been availed of and exhausted, obtain a review of any final decision of the Board by filing a petition for review ... in the United States court of appeals." 45 U.S.C. § 355(f). In turn, subsection (c) of § 355 refers to several types of decisions of the RRB on the merits of a claim for benefits. See 45 U.S.C. § 355(c).4 Thus, under the plain language of § 355(f), this Court has jurisdiction to review final decisions of the RRB on the merits of a claim for benefits only after administrative remedies have been exhausted. As a further limitation on our review of RRB decisions, § 355(g) provides that "[f]indings of fact and conclusions of law of the Board in the determination of any claim for benefits... shall not be subject to review in any manner other than that set forth in subsection (f) of this section." There is no provision in the statute allowing the Board to reopen a prior claim for benefits following an untimely appeal, nor is there a provision permitting for judicial review of such a decision. To the contrary, the Board's authority to reopen prior claims for benefits upon a showing of good cause stems solely from the RRB's own regulation. See 20 C.F.R. § 260.5(c).
Thus, for this Court to have jurisdiction to review the Board's decision in this matter, Cunningham must show that the Board's decision not to reopen her prior claim for benefits was a final decision of the Board issued on the merits of her claim after she exhausted her administrative remedies within the meaning of § 355(f). However, Cunningham here has not exhausted her administrative remedies before the RRB because she failed to timely appeal the decision of the Bureau affirming the denial of benefits to the Board within the 60-day time period. Moreover, the Board's decision refusing to reopen Cunningham's prior claim for benefits was not a final decision of the Board on the merits of the claim within the meaning of § 355(c). The only final decision in this matter was the Bureau's October 2, 2000 decision affirming the denial of Cunningham's motion to reconsider the adjudicating officer's decision, which became final following the closing of the 60-day appeal window. See 45 U.S.C. § 355(d); see also 20 C.F.R. §§ 260.1, 260.9, and 261.1(b). That decision is not properly before this Court. Accordingly, in light of the plain language of § 355(f), we lack jurisdiction under the RUIA to review Cunningham's petition.5
We note that the majority of the circuits that have considered these provisions have reached the same conclusion as we do, that decisions of the RRB not to reopen prior claims are not subject to review under the RUIA. See Roberts v. R.R. Ret. Bd., 346 F.3d 139 (5th Cir.2003); Rivera v. R.R. Ret. Bd., 262 F.3d 1005 (9th Cir.2001); Harris v. R.R. Ret. Bd., 198 F.3d 139 (4th Cir.1999); Abbruzzese v. R.R. Ret. Bd., 63 F.3d 972 (10th Cir.1995); Gutierrez v. R.R. Ret. Bd., 918 F.2d 567 (6th Cir.1990); Steebe v. R.R. Ret. Bd., 708 F.2d 250 (7th Cir.1983).6
Each of these courts found the Supreme Court's decision in Califano v. Sanders, 430 U.S. 99, 97 S.Ct. 980,...
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