Hill v. Heckler

• Decision Date: 30 August 1984
• Docket Number: No. CIV-84-734-B.,CIV-84-734-B.
• Citation: 592 F. Supp. 1198
• Parties: Roselyn HILL, Wanda Dyer, Pete Cast, Larry Barnett, Luther Andrews, Zelma Webster, Barbara Luster and Sammie Smith, individually and on behalf of all others similarly situated, Plaintiffs, v. Margaret HECKLER, Secretary of Health and Human Services, Defendant.
• Court: U.S. District Court — Western District of Oklahoma

592 F. Supp. 1198

Roselyn HILL, Wanda Dyer, Pete Cast, Larry Barnett, Luther Andrews, Zelma Webster, Barbara Luster and Sammie Smith, individually and on behalf of all others similarly situated, Plaintiffs, v. Margaret HECKLER, Secretary of Health and Human Services, Defendant.

No. CIV-84-734-B.

United States District Court, W.D. Oklahoma.

August 30, 1984.

COPYRIGHT MATERIAL OMITTED

John G. Fears and Galen Robinson, Norman, Okl.; Margaret Dawkins, Oklahoma City, Okl., and Kade McClure, Lawton, Okl., for plaintiffs.

William Price, U.S. Atty. by Robert Dennis, Asst. U.S. Atty., Oklahoma City, Okl., Gayla Fuller and Charlene M. Seifert, Dept. of Health and Human Services, Dallas, Tex., for defendant.

OPINION

BOHANON, District Judge.

This matter comes now before this court upon plaintiffs' motions to certify a class and for a temporary restraining order and preliminary injunction. Also before the court are defendant's motions contained in her answer to dismiss for failure to state a claim upon which relief can be granted, and for lack of subject matter jurisdiction over the claims of plaintiffs Wanda Dyer, Pete Cast, Zelma Webster, Barbara Luster and Sammie Smith.

The plaintiff's complaint sets forth a number of claims for relief, some of which will require the court to consider the specific facts and circumstances of individual plaintiffs. The other claims which are common to all the plaintiffs and to the proposed class involve the standard used by the defendant Margaret Heckler, Secretary of Health and Human Services, through her agency, the Social Security Administration (SSA), in evaluating the medical condition of persons receiving benefits under the Social Security Act's disability provision.

Pursuant to an act of Congress passed in 1980,¹ the Secretary is required to review existing recipients at least once every three years for the purpose of determining the recipients' continuing eligibility. The medical standard utilized by the SSA in conducting these reviews is published in 20 C.F.R. §§ 404.1579, 404.1586, 404.1594, and 416.994 and is summarized in the following policy statement from Social Security Ruling 81-6 (January, 1981):

Where the evidence obtained at the time of the continuing disability investigation (CDI) establishes that the individual is not currently disabled or blind, a finding of cessation is appropriate. It will not be necessary to determine whether or how much the individual's condition has medically improved since the prior favorable determination.

Plaintiffs claim that this "current medical evidence" standard is improper and in fact illegal. By their motions they seek injunctive relief which would compel the Secretary and her agents to use the "medical improvement" standard expressly rejected by the above-quoted ruling.

In deciding these motions, the court is cognizent of the fact that its position may appear to be something like sticking a finger in a Holland dike that is already breached in many places allowing the ocean to flood in. Research indicates that circuit after circuit has succumbed to the unsound reasoning and emotional or sympathetic appeals advanced by plaintiffs in actions quite similar to this one. Nonetheless, the Tenth Circuit has not yet committed this error, and this court feels duty bound to take the better legal course as opposed to one that is merely popular among other courts.

Let it be stated at the outset that this is a court of law, not a charity, and not a legislature. The court has heard the plaintiffs' very moving evidence: case after case of persons whose lives are no doubt full of misery. The spectacle should have moved anyone present at the hearing to resolve to give more of his or her own personal resources toward alleviating the plight of the disadvantaged. However, the question properly before this court is not whether these people need help. The question is rather whether Congress has mandated that aid in the form of disability payments be given to these people by the Social Security Administration. Plaintiffs have made no claim that the statutes controlling the SSA's payment of or termination of disability benefits are in whole or in part invalid because they violate provisions of the Constitution. This court's sole task, therefore, is to interpret those statutes to achieve the ends intended by Congress. cf. Heckler v. Campbell, 461 U.S. 458, 103 S.Ct. 1952, 1957, 76 L.Ed.2d 66 (1983).

Class Certification

In their complaint, plaintiffs describe the class they request the court to certify as follows:

The members of the class are all Social Security Disability Insurance (SSDI) and Supplemental Security Income (SSI) beneficiaries residing in the State of Oklahoma who have been or are receiving disability benefits and who have presented a claim to the Secretary that their disabilities are continuing and whose entitlements have been terminated or may be terminated without the application of an improvement standard to their case, or who have been terminated or may be terminated due to the failure of the Secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services to give presumptive effect to the prior determination of disability. The class excludes SSDI and SSI disabled beneficiaries whose benefits were terminated because they have returned to substantial gainful activity, who failed to cooperate, who admit they have medically recovered, or who are no longer eligible because of nondisability factors.

The class so stated is, to begin with, too broad because of the special jurisdictional limitations Congress has placed on the ability of federal courts to hear claims arising under subchapter II of the Social Security Act, 42 U.S.C. §§ 401 et seq. (1976), covering federal old-age, survivors, and disability insurance benefits.

Section 405(h) of that codified statute, § 205(h) of the Act, provides that:

No findings of fact or decision of the Secretary shall be reviewed by any person, tribunal, or governmental agency except as herein provided. No action against the United States, the Secretary, or any officer or employee thereof shall be brought under section 1331 or 1346 of Title 28 to recover on any claim arising under this subchapter.

The "as herein provided" refers to § 405(g):

Any individual, after a final decision of the Secretary made after a hearing to which he was a party, irrespective of the amount in controversy, may obtain a review of such decision by a civil action commenced within sixty days after the mailing to him of notice of such decision or within such further time as the Secretary may allow. Such action shall be brought in the district court of the United States for the judicial district in which the plaintiff resides or has his principal place of business ...

Before exploring in detail the ramifications of these sections, it should be noted that plaintiffs erroneously maintain that this court also has mandamus jurisdiction under 28 U.S.C. § 1361 (1976).² In Heckler v. Ringer, ___ U.S. ___, 104 S.Ct. 2013, 80 L.Ed.2d 622 (1984) the Supreme Court declined to decide whether § 405(h) excludes mandamus jurisdiction in all Social Security cases, but made the following pertinent holding:

The common law writ of mandamus, as codified in 28 U.S.C. § 1361, is intended to provide a remedy for a plaintiff only if he has exhausted all other avenues of relief and only if the defendant owes him a clear nondiscretionary duty. See Kerr v. United States District Court, 426 U.S. 394, 402-403 96 S.Ct. 2119, 2123-2124, 48 L.Ed.2d 725 (1976) (discussing 28 U.S.C. § 1651); United States ex rel. Girard Trust Co. v. Helvering, 301 U.S. 540, 543-544 57 S.Ct. 855, 857, 81 L.Ed. 1272 (1937).

Here respondents clearly have an adequate remedy in § 405(g) for challenging all aspects of the Secretary's denial of their claims for payment ... including any objections they have to the instructions or to ... a particular policy ruling if either ultimately should play a part in the Secretary's denial of their claims. The Secretary's decision as to whether a particular medical service is "reasonable and necessary" and the means by which she implements her decision, whether by promulgating a generally applicable rule or by allowing individual adjudication, are clearly discretionary decisions.

Id. at ___, 104 S.Ct. at 2022-2023 (emphasis added). In the present case, too, plaintiffs have an adequate remedy in § 405(g) and the Secretary's decision to use only current medical evidence as opposed to evidence relevant to medical improvement in making disability reviews is clearly within the discretion granted her by § 405(a).³ Section 405(g), therefore, provides the only means for judicial review of the decisions made by the Secretary in this case.

The Supreme Court in Califano v. Yamasaki, 442 U.S. 682, 701, 99 S.Ct. 2545, 2557, 61 L.Ed.2d 176 (1979), held that § 405(h) does not foreclose class actions in Social Security cases, but that holding is not without some limitations:

class relief is consistent with the need for case-by-case adjudication emphasized by the Secretary, at least so long as the membership of the class is limited to those who meet the requirement of § 205(g). 42 U.S.C. § 405(g) See Norton v. Mathews, 427 U.S. 524, 535-537 96 S.Ct. 2771, 2776-2778, 49 L.Ed.2d 672 and nn. 4-8 (1976) (Stevens, J., dissenting). Where the district court has jurisdiction over the claim of each individual member of the class, Rule 23 provides a procedure by which the court may exercise that jurisdiction over the various individual claims in a single proceeding. (emphasis added)

This means that in the present case the court must scrutinize the class proposed by plaintiffs and make any modifications necessary to exclude individuals who do not fulfill the prerequisites to jurisdiction contained in § 405(g).

In addition to examining the class of unnamed plaintiffs, however, the court, in obedience to § 405(g)'s 60-day time limit for seeking judicial review, is...