Holley v. Lavine
| Citation | 605 F.2d 638 |
| Decision Date | 13 July 1979 |
| Docket Number | Nos. 1152-1154,D,s. 1152-1154 |
| Parties | Gayle McQuoid HOLLEY, Individually and on behalf of James McQuoid, Norman McQuoid, Thomas McQuoid, Douglas McQuoid, Michael McQuoid, and Adelaine McQuoid, her minor children, Plaintiff-Appellee-Cross-Appellant, v. Abe LAVINE, as Commissioner of the New York State Department of Social Services, and James Reed, as Commissioner of the Monroe County Department of Social Services, Defendants-Appellants-Cross-Appellees. ockets 79-7182, 79-7190 and 79-7207. |
| Court | United States Courts of Appeals. United States Court of Appeals (2nd Circuit) |
K. Wade Eaton, Rochester, N. Y. (Greater Up-State Law Project, Rochester, N. Y.), for plaintiff-appellee-cross-appellant Gayle McQuoid Holley.
Alan W. Rubenstein, Principal Atty., Albany, N. Y. , for defendant-appellant-cross-appellee Abe Lavine, Commissioner of the New York State Department of Social Services.
Charles G. Porreca, Rochester, N. Y. (Monroe County Department of Social Services, Sam DiLalla, Acting Chief Counsel, Brooklyn, N. Y., of counsel), for defendant-appellant-cross-appellee James Reed, Commissioner of the Monroe County Department of Social Services.
Before FRIENDLY and FEINBERG, Circuit Judges, and NEAHER, District Judge. *
This case raises difficult issues of application of the Eleventh Amendment in suits involving welfare benefits. For reasons given below, we affirm a district court judgment that awards plaintiff such benefits retroactively against a County Social Services Commissioner, denies such an award against a State Social Services Commissioner and awards counsel fees to plaintiff against both defendants.
In April 1975, Gayle McQuoid Holley, individually and on behalf of her six children, sued Abe Lavine, then Commissioner of the New York State Department of Social Services, and James Reed, then Commissioner of the Monroe County Department of Social Services, in the United States District Court for the Western District of New York. 1 Plaintiff Holley was then (and presumably still is) an "illegal" alien, but her six children are all American citizens, since they were born in this country. Although plaintiff came here illegally, the Immigration and Naturalization Service for humanitarian reasons has allowed plaintiff to remain in this country, to prevent the separation of mother and children. Plaintiff's complaint sought an order requiring defendants to restore a one-seventh cut in benefits under the Aid to Families with Dependent Children (AFDC) program and invalidating section 131-k of the New York Social Services Law, insofar as it deprives certain illegal aliens of AFDC benefits. 2 In the period since plaintiff filed her complaint over four years ago, her case has twice been in both this court and in the Supreme Court, and she now appears here for the third time, on this occasion as appellee and cross-appellant. A brief summary of what has transpired follows.
In July 1975, the district court dismissed plaintiff's complaint for lack of jurisdiction and for failure to state a claim on which relief might be granted. This court reversed, holding that plaintiff had alleged a constitutional claim under 42 U.S.C. § 1983 substantial enough to confer jurisdiction under 28 U.S.C. § 1343(3). Holley v. Lavine, 529 F.2d 1294 (2d Cir.) (per curiam), cert. denied, 426 U.S. 954, 96 S.Ct. 3181, 49 L.Ed.2d 1193 (1976). Plaintiff's constitutional claim is that denial of AFDC benefits unfairly discriminates against those few "illegal" aliens in her unusual situation, denying equal protection of the laws to her in her own right and to her six children who, although citizens, are also penalized by the reduction in household benefits. In our prior opinion, we noted that while only a three-judge court could, under the law at that time, decide this claim, plaintiff also alleged that section 131-k conflicts both with provisions of the Social Security Act 3 and with an HEW regulation. 4 The basis of this claim was that these require aid to be given to otherwise eligible persons who are aliens "lawfully admitted for permanent residence or otherwise permanently residing in the United States under color of law" and that plaintiff resides here "under color of law," because the immigration authorities have allowed her to stay. 529 F.2d at 1296. We further observed that the district court had "pendent jurisdiction" over these "claims of conflict between New York State and federal law," which a single district judge could decide. Id.
We remanded the case to the district court where all parties moved for summary judgment. The district court again decided for defendants, this time on the ground that the New York statute did not conflict with the Social Security Act and the regulation. Plaintiff appealed to this court, and we again reversed the judgment of the district court. Holley v. Lavine, 553 F.2d 845 (2d Cir. 1977), cert. denied, 435 U.S. 947, 98 S.Ct. 1532, 55 L.Ed.2d 545 (1978). We pointed out that "plaintiff is in what is almost certainly a minuscule sub-class of aliens who, although unlawfully residing in the United States, are each individually covered by a letter (from the Government) stating that (it) 'does not contemplate enforcing . . . (the alien's) departure from the United States at this time.' " 553 F.2d at 849. We went on to hold that in this
unusual situation where an alien parent has an official assurance that the parent will not be deported at least until the children are no longer dependent on that parent, such parent is "permanently residing in the United States under color of law."
Id. Therefore, section 131-k was, at least as applied to plaintiff Holley and her class, in conflict with the governing federal law, and the reduction in benefits was improper. On this theory, it was unnecessary to decide the equal protection issue. We again remanded the case to the district court (assigning it to another judge) to consider the appropriate form of injunction and issues of damages and attorneys' fees. 553 F.2d at 851.
In the district court, the case was reassigned to Chief Judge John T. Curtin. After further argument and briefing, the judge granted plaintiff's motion for a permanent injunction against enforcement of the applicable portion of section 131-k, directed the County defendant "to reimburse the plaintiff for public assistance benefits withheld as a result of the ineligibility determination," 5 and awarded plaintiff counsel fees against both the State and County defendants. 6 However, on Eleventh Amendment grounds, the judge denied plaintiff an award of retroactive benefits against the State defendant. Judge Curtin's thorough opinion is reported at 464 F.Supp. 718 (W.D.N.Y.1977). On this third appeal to this court, the County defendant argues that the Eleventh Amendment also bars an award of benefits against him, as does the defense that he acted in good faith. Both defendants also offer various reasons why the grant of attorneys' fees is not proper. Plaintiff cross-appeals, arguing that she should have been awarded back payments against the State defendant as well as against the County defendant, and offers an elaborate alternative theory to justify that result.
The district court held that the Eleventh Amendment did not bar an award of retroactive AFDC benefits to plaintiff against the County defendant. That Amendment, which has received increased judicial attention in the last decade, provides as follows:
The Judicial power of the United States shall not be construed to extend to any suit in law or equity, commenced or prosecuted against one of the United States by Citizens of another State, or by Citizens or Subjects of any Foreign State.
In Edelman v. Jordan, 415 U.S. 651, 94 S.Ct. 1347, 39 L.Ed.2d 662 (1974), the Supreme Court held that the Amendment prohibited that portion of a federal district court's decree that ordered Illinois state officials to pay retroactive public assistance benefits. 7 In this case, Judge Curtin relied on Edelman v. Jordan in refusing to grant damages against the State defendant but went on to hold that the County defendant is not an arm of the State for purposes of Eleventh Amendment immunity. The correctness of this ruling is the key issue on the County defendant's appeal.
We start with the proposition reaffirmed in Edelman v. Jordan,supra, 415 U.S. at 667 n.12, 94 S.Ct. at 1358 n.12, that "a county does not occupy the same position as a State for purposes of the Eleventh Amendment." The same footnote states that "while county action is generally state action for purposes of the Fourteenth Amendment," as plaintiff alleged here in her section 1983 action, "a county defendant is not necessarily a state defendant for purposes of the Eleventh Amendment." Id. Subsequently, in Mt. Healthy City Board of Educ. v. Doyle, 429 U.S. 274, 280, 97 S.Ct. 568, 572, 50 L.Ed.2d 471 (1977), the Court characterized the relevant issue as whether the School Board defendant there was "to be treated as an arm of the State partaking of the State's Eleventh Amendment immunity, or . . . as a municipal corporation or other political subdivision to which the Eleventh Amendment does not extend." In the same passage the Court also stated that "(t)he bar of the Eleventh Amendment . . . does not extent to counties and similar municipal corporations." Since defendant James Reed, as Commissioner of the Monroe County Department of Social Services, is concededly an employee of Monroe County, it is arguable that this fact, under the Court's criteria, resolves the issue here. But defendants argue that local social services agencies, unlike counties, are considered to be "arm(s) of the State" since they are a part of, and supervised by, the State Department of Social Services. 8
Defendants stress that in Mt. Healthy, supra, 429 U.S....
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