Gendron v. Saxbe
Decision Date | 07 August 1974 |
Docket Number | No. 73-3436,73-3436 |
Citation | 501 F.2d 1087 |
Parties | Ronald GENDRON, Plaintiff-Appellant, v. Honorable William B. SAXBE, Attorney General of the United States of America, et al., Defendants-Appellees. |
Court | U.S. Court of Appeals — Ninth Circuit |
Scott J. Tepper (argued), Los Angeles Selective Service Lawyer's Panel, Los Angeles, Cal., Dennis H. Devermont (argued), Santa Monica, Cal., for plaintiff-appellant.
Carolyn M. Reynolds (argued), Asst. U.S. Atty., Los Angeles, Cal., for defendants-appellees.
Before BARNES, BROWNING and HUFSTEDLER, Circuit Judges.
Gendron, a totally disabled veteran, brought suit challenging the constitutional validity of 38 U.S.C. 3404, a statute that recognizes a veteran's right to the assistance of a lawyer to help him prepare and present to the Veterans' Administration claims for benefits, but limits to $10 the compensation that a lawyer can receive for his services. 1 We hold that the complaint presented questions that were not constitutionally insubstantial and, therefore, the district court erred in denying Gendron's motion to convene a three-judge court and in dismissing his complaint.
The following facts are drawn from the complaint and the affidavit annexed to it. Gendron had been found totally disabled by the State of California and by the Social Security Administration of the United States. He sought veterans' disability benefits, claiming that his illness was service connected. Personnel of the Veterans' Administration thought otherwise; the Administration's Ratings Board rejected his claims stating that he 'did not meet the schedular requirements for nonservice-connected pension benefits nor were his disabilities considered sufficient to permanently preclude some form of substantially gainful employment.' He tried to retain a lawyer to help him prepare his appeal to the Veterans' Administration Board of Veterans Appeals, but the search was in vain because he could find no lawyer who would take the case for $10. 2
The district court refused to convene a three-judge district court pursuant to 28 U.S.C. 2281 because it concluded that Gendron's constitutional claim was insubstantial.
(Hagans v. Lavine (1974), 415 U.S. 528, 537, 94 S.Ct. 1372 at 1379, 39 L.Ed.2d 577, quoting from Goosby v. Osser (1973), 409 U.S. 512, 518, 93 S.Ct. 854, 35 L.Ed.2d 36.)
The constitutionality of federal legislation limiting the fees that veterans could pay lawyers for handling their claims against the Government has been before the Supreme Court twice, directly in Margolin v. United States (1925), 269 U.S. 93, 46 S.Ct. 64, 70 L.Ed. 176 and obliquely in Hines v. Lowrey (1938), 305 U.S. 85, 59 S.Ct. 31, 85 L.Ed. 56. In each case, the attack was launched on substantive due process grounds by lawyers seeking to sustain fees arranged by contract (Margolin) or by court award (Hines) in excess of the statutory limit. (Cf. Calhoun v. Massie (1920), 253 U.S. 170, 40 S.Ct. 474, 64 L.Ed. 843 ( ).) The Supreme Court has never...
To continue reading
Request your trial-
National Ass'n of Radiation Survivors v. Walters
...substantial federal question. Following the Ninth Circuit's reversal and remand with instructions to convene a three-judge court, 501 F.2d 1087 (9th Cir. 1974), the district court upheld the constitutionality of the $10.00 limitation on the ground that an applicant for benefits, unlike a re......
-
Staub v. Johnson
...interests furthered by the statute justify the restriction on fees. The identical question was recently considered in Gendron v. Saxbe, 501 F.2d 1087 (9th Cir. 1974), where the court noted that Margolin and Hines had not decided the question of the constitutional rights of veterans and conc......
-
Staub v. Roudebush
...Court of Appeals observed in the conclusory paragraph of the remand: "The identical question was recently considered in Gendron v. Saxbe, 501 F.2d 1087 (9th Cir. 1974), where the court noted that Margolin Margolin v. United States, 269 U.S. 93, 46 S.Ct. 64, 70 L.Ed. 176 and Hines had not de......
-
Demarest v. U.S.
...that it presents no substantial federal question, as our discussion of the merits of that challenge will demonstrate. See Gendron v. Saxbe, 501 F.2d 1087 (9th Cir.1974). ATTORNEYS' FEE Title 38 of the United States Code, section 3404(c), limits to ten dollars ($10) per claim the amount of a......