Grubb v. Sterrett

• Decision Date: 07 May 1970
• Docket Number: Civ. No. 69 F 3.
• Citation: 315 F. Supp. 990
• Parties: Mrs. Esther A. GRUBB et al., Plaintiffs, v. William R. STERRETT et al., Defendants.
• Court: U.S. District Court — Northern District of Indiana

315 F. Supp. 990

Mrs. Esther A. GRUBB et al., Plaintiffs, v. William R. STERRETT et al., Defendants.

Civ. No. 69 F 3.

United States District Court, N. D. Indiana, Fort Wayne Division.

May 7, 1970.

Ivan E. Bodensteiner, Legal Services Program, Fort Wayne, Ind., for plaintiffs.

Scott Tower Miller, Deputy Indiana Atty. Gen., Indianapolis, Ind., Robert H. Berning, Fort Wayne, Ind., for defendants.

Before CUMMINGS, Circuit Judge, and GRANT and ESCHBACH, District Judges.

MEMORANDUM OF DECISION AND JUDGMENT

ESCHBACH, District Judge.

Plaintiffs bring this class action to challenge the validity of a regulation of the Indiana State Department of Public Welfare governing the administration of that part of Indiana's public assistance relating to Aid to Families with Dependent Children (AFDC). See Ind.Stat. Ann. §§ 52-1240 to 52-1251 (Burns' 1964 Repl.). The named plaintiffs are members of a class of those needy mothers and dependent children who are residents of Indiana and who are otherwise eligible for AFDC assistance but whose AFDC assistance has been terminated or denied on the grounds that the needy children have a stepfather present in the house. See Indiana Department of Public Welfare, Public Assistance Manual III-C-3 (as amended Sept. 27, 1968) (hereinafter MANUAL). Specifically, plaintiffs contend that since a stepfather in Indiana is not legally obligated to support his stepchildren, this regulation, MANUAL III-C-3, is inconsistent with Part A of Subchapter IV of the Social Security Act of 1935, 42 U.S.C. §§ 601-610 (1964), with federal regulations promulgated thereunder, 45 C.F.R. § 203.1(a) (1969), and with the due process and equal protection clauses of the fourteenth amendment to the federal constitution. The defendants are the Administrator of the State Department of Public Welfare, the members of the State Board of Public Welfare, the Director of the Allen County (Fort Wayne) Department of Public Welfare, and the members of the Board of Directors of the Allen County Department of Public Welfare.

This court concludes, for the reasons discussed below, that the Indiana "stepfather" regulation is invalid and unenforceable because it is inconsistent with the federal regulation.

I. PROCEDURAL ASPECTS OF ACTION

In their complaints, plaintiffs sought various kinds of declaratory and injunctive relief, including the retroactive payment of AFDC benefits wrongfully withheld by the State. Because the constitutional questions presented were not insubstantial and because the complaint sought an injunction restraining the enforcement, operation, and execution of a statewide regulation on the grounds of its unconstitutionality, a three-judge court was convened pursuant to 28 U.S.C. §§ 2281 and 2284. See, e. g., King v. Smith, 392 U.S. 309, 311 n. 3, 88 S.Ct. 2128, 20 L.Ed.2d 1118 (1968). Where both substantial constitutional claims and claims based upon a conflict between state and federal laws are asserted, as here, a three-judge district court is required even if, as here, the constitutional issues are not reached and the injunction is issued on supremacy grounds alone. E. g., Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers v. Chicago, R. I. & Pac. R. R., 382 U.S. 423, 86 S.Ct. 594, 15 L.Ed.2d 501 (1966).

The cause of action is based upon 42 U.S.C. § 1983, and jurisdiction is founded on 28 U.S.C. § 1343. E. g., King v. Smith, supra.

This is a proper class action under Rule 23, Fed.R.Civ.P., since the requirements of Rules 23(a) and 23(b) (2) are met. E. g., Solman v. Shapiro, 300 F.Supp. 409, 411 n. 1 (D.Conn. 1969), aff'd mem., 396 U.S. 5, 90 S.Ct. 25, 24 L. Ed.2d 5; Doe v. Shapiro, 302 F.Supp. 761, 762 n. 3 (D.Conn.1969). The class consists of all those needy mothers and dependent children who are residents of the State of Indiana and who are otherwise eligible for AFDC but whose AFDC benefits after August 8, 1968 have been terminated or denied because of Indiana's "stepfather" regulation. MANUAL III-C-3.

Pursuant to an order of this court on October 7, 1969, this action was submitted upon a stipulation of facts and briefs from the respective parties without oral argument.

II. FACTS

Named plaintiff, Esther Grubb, is a resident of Indiana, mother of six children, five of whom live with her. Prior to June 1, 1967, Mrs. Grubb and her five children were receiving AFDC benefits. In October 1966 she was divorced from the father of the children and married her present husband on May 20, 1967. After her remarriage, effective June 1, 1967 Mrs. Grubb's and her five children's AFDC assistance was terminated on the grounds that the children were no longer deprived of parental support or care. After the promulgation of the HEW regulation cited above, Mrs. Grubb applied to the Allen County Department of Welfare for AFDC assistance on October 24, 1968, but was told she was ineligible because of the Indiana welfare regulation, cited above.

Intervening plaintiff, Margaret Bagwell, is also a resident of Indiana, a mother of three children, divorced from the natural father of these children, and was married to her present husband on April 26, 1967. Mrs. Bagwell applied to her county welfare department for AFDC assistance on November 22, 1968, but her application was rejected on the grounds that the three children for whom she sought assistance were not deprived of parental support or care because of the presence of the stepfather in the home.

III. ELIGIBILITY FOR AFDC

A. "Dependent Child"

In order for a child to be eligible for AFDC benefits, he must be a "dependent child" within the meaning of the Social Security Act, which defines a dependent child as a

"needy child * * * who has been deprived of parental support or care by reason of death, continued absence from the home, or physical or mental incapacity of a parent and who is liv-with a designated relative. * * *" 42 U.S.C. § 606(a).

The Indiana Public Welfare Act of 1936 defines "dependent child" similarly. See Ind.Stat.Ann. § 52-1001(l). Pursuant to its authority under the Social Security Act, 42 U.S.C. § 1302, the Secretary of Health, Education and Welfare HEW has promulgated a regulation which specifies how a state welfare administration shall determine whether a child has been deprived of "parental support or care by reason of * * * continued absence from the home. * * *" This regulation provides that the determination of whether a child has been deprived of parental support or care

"will be made only in relation to a child's natural or adoptive parents, or in relation to a child's stepparent who is ceremonially married to a child's natural or adoptive parent and who is legally obligated to support the child under the State law of general applicability which requires stepparents to support stepchildren to the same extent that natural or adoptive parents are required to support their children." 45 C.F.R. 203.1(a) (1969) (eff. Aug. 8, 1968) (emphasis added).

In other words, where a stepfather who has a legal obligation to support his stepchildren is legally married to and lives with the natural mother of his stepchildren, such children are ineligible for AFDC assistance because they have not been "deprived of parental support or care."

Such an HEW regulation is binding upon the Indiana State Department of Public Welfare. King v. Smith, supra 392 U.S. at 317, 88 S.Ct. 2128; Solman v. Shapiro, supra 300 F.Supp. at 413; Worrell v. Sterrett, CCH Poverty L.Rep. ¶ 10,575 at 11,461-62 (N.D.Ind. Oct. 15, 1969); Ind.Stat.Ann. § 52-1113. Moreover, this regulation is valid. See Solman v. Shapiro, supra (by implication). See generally Worrell v. Sterrett, supra.

Upon the promulgation of this HEW regulation, the administrator of the Indiana State Department of Public Welfare revised the department's definition of "deprived of parental support" to provide that the condition of continued absence must apply to

"either the natural parent or the step parent of the child if the step parent is legally married according to Indiana law to the child's natural parent. * * *" MANUAL III-C-3 (eff. Sept. 27, 1968).

The Indiana regulation contains only the requirement that the stepparent be legally married to the natural parent and, unlike the HEW regulation quoted above, it does not require that the stepparent be "legally obligated" under Indiana law of "general application" to support his stepchildren "to the same extent" that natural parents are required to support their children. Consequently, unless stepparents under Indiana law are under a legal duty to support their stepchildren, the Indiana regulation, MANUAL III-C-3, would be inconsistent with the HEW regulation, 45 C.F.R. 203.1(a). If the Indiana regulation governing when the presence of a stepparent in the home will make a child ineligible for AFDC assistance is inconsistent with the HEW regulation, then the State regulation is invalid and unenforceable. See Solman v. Shapiro, supra.

B. Stepfather's Obligation to Support Stepchildren

As the defendants state in their brief, the question before this court is whether the named and intervening plaintiffs and the class they represent are eligible for AFDC after having married their present husbands. This question in turn depends on whether a stepfather is under a legal obligation under Indiana law of general applicability to support his stepchildren to the same extent as a natural or adoptive parent is required to support his children. Defendants are incorrect, however, when they later contend that "any type or degree of legal duty is sufficient to comply with the DHEW regulation * * *."

Defendants do not argue nor could they argue that in Indiana a person is under a common law, civil obligation to support the children of the person whom she or he marries. The relationship of stepparent and stepchild itself does not create or impose any legal obligation of support. See Grossman v. Lauber, 29 Ind. 618, 620 (1868), Treschman v. Treschman, 28 Ind.App. 206, 61 N.E. 961, 962 (Ind.Ap...