Doss v. Harris, 79-3892
| Decision Date | 13 March 1981 |
| Docket Number | No. 79-3892,79-3892 |
| Citation | 638 F.2d 1354 |
| Parties | Guy DOSS, Plaintiff-Appellant, v. Patricia Roberts HARRIS, Secretary of Health and Human Resources, Defendant-Appellee. . Unit B |
| Court | U.S. Court of Appeals — Fifth Circuit |
Samuel F. Furgiuele, Jr., Atlanta, Ga., for plaintiff-appellant.
William L. Harper, U. S. Atty., Atlanta, Ga., Douglas P. Roberto, Asst. U. S. Atty., Carl H. Harper, Regional Atty., Dept. of Health and Human Resources, Atlanta, Ga., for defendant-appellee.
Appeal from the United States District Court for the Northern District of Georgia.
Before TUTTLE, TJOFLAT and KRAVITCH, Circuit Judges.
This appeal is a companion to Clark v. Harris, 638 F.2d 1347 (5 Cir.), No. 79-3622, heard on oral arguments at the same time. Like Clark, the claim of appellant depend primarily upon his contention that he received no adequate notice of the possibility that he might be represented by counsel or other qualified representative at the hearing before the administrative law judge or that if he was required to compensate counsel, the statute limited the amount of such compensation to 25 percent of the amount recovered to the day of the award.
As we held in Clark, we conclude that the notice of Doss' right to be represented by counsel in this case, while on the face of, and not on the back of, the notice of hearing, failed adequately to inform the claimant that he might be represented free by available public service counsel or that, if he was required to hire counsel, the fees payable would be strictly limited and supervised under the regulations.
As in the Clark case, we then look to the record to see whether the ALJ acted in a manner that discharged his "special duty when an unrepresented claimant (who had not waived the right to counsel) unfamiliar with the hearing procedures appears before him" to "develop a full and fair record," Clark v. Harris, supra at 1347.
The effect of Doss' proceeding without counsel shows up most glaringly when it is noted that all of the administrative proceedings for Doss, whose principal claim was psychiatric and nervous incapacities, had been handled completely by his sister. In fact, the sister wrote the administrative law judge of Doss' inability to attend the first noticed hearing because he was at the time in the hospital on account of nervous disorders. However, the sister was unable to be present at the hearing because of severe illness. Although she wrote a note supporting ...
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...369 (5th Cir. 1981); Benson v. Schweiker, 652 F.2d 406 (5th Cir. 1981); Clark v. Schweiker, 652 F.2d 399 (5th Cir. 1981); Doss v. Harris, 638 F.2d 1354 (5th Cir. 1981). In the case sub judice, the Secretary provided the following notice concerning the appellant's right to counsel at the hea......
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