Johnson v. U.S. R.R. Retirement Bd.
| Decision Date | 11 September 1992 |
| Docket Number | Nos. 90-1243,90-5380,s. 90-1243 |
| Citation | 969 F.2d 1082 |
| Parties | Nancy JOHNSON, Petitioner-Appellant, v. UNITED STATES RAILROAD RETIREMENT BOARD, Respondent-Appellee. |
| Court | U.S. Court of Appeals — District of Columbia Circuit |
Gill Deford, with whom Neal S. Dudovitz, Los Angeles, Cal., and Toby S. Edelman, Washington, D.C., were on the brief, for petitioner.
Karl T. Blank, Gen. Atty., R.R. Retirement Bd., Chicago, Ill., and Susan A. Nellor, Asst. U.S. Atty., with whom Jay B. Stephens, U.S. Atty., John D. Bates and R. Craig Lawrence, Asst. U.S. Attys., Washington, D.C., Steven A. Bartholow, Deputy Gen. Counsel, and Edward S. Hintzke, Asst. Gen. Counsel, R.R. Retirement Bd., Chicago, Ill., were on the brief, for respondent.
Before MIKVA, Chief Judge, WALD and BUCKLEY, Circuit Judges.
Opinion for the Court filed by Chief Judge MIKVA.
In a bold challenge to judicial authority, the United States Railroad Retirement Board argues that it is free, when it chooses, to ignore the decisions of United States courts of appeals. Since 1981, the Board has cut off benefits for the spouses and widows of railroad workers after their dependent children turn sixteen, even though the Railroad Retirement Act of 1974, 45 U.S.C. §§ 231-231v (1988), says that they are entitled to benefits until the children turn eighteen. In 1985, the Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit rejected the Board's position that an amendment to the Social Security Act required the change. Costello v. United States R.R. Retirement Bd., 780 F.2d 1352 (8th Cir.1985). The Board, however, refused to apply the Costello decision, even within the Eighth Circuit, and continued to deny benefits at the administrative level. In March 1991, the Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit rejected the Board's position for the same reasons as the Eighth Circuit. Johnson v. United States R.R. Retirement Bd., 925 F.2d 1374 (11th Cir.1991). The Board still refuses to acquiesce. Since individual challenges have been ineffective, Nancy Johnson, whose spousal benefits were denied, tried to bring a class action in district court challenging the Board's interpretation of the Railroad Act and its policy of intracircuit nonacquiescence.
Because we think that Mrs. Johnson has not been denied "meaningful" access to judicial review, we uphold the district court's conclusion that the Railroad Act vests exclusive jurisdiction in the courts of appeals. But we join the Eighth and Eleventh Circuits and reject the Board's interpretation of the Railroad Act for the third time. We also think that the Board's unapologetic policy of nonacquiescence is inconsistent with the Board's own jurisdictional arguments and troubling on statutory and constitutional grounds. If the Board continues to deny benefits after our decision today, we expect that the policy itself can be directly challenged in an appropriate action before this court.
Nancy Johnson is the wife of Edward Johnson, a former railroad employee. As the mother and stepmother of his five children, the Board found her eligible for a spousal annuity effective September 10, 1976. In late 1986, the Board notified her that the Tier I component of her annuity would be cut off on April 1, 1987, when her youngest child turned sixteen. (The Railroad Act divides the benefit into two tiers, with separate eligibility criteria). On reconsideration, Mrs. Johnson's claim was denied, and her monthly payment was reduced from $391.11 to $84.11. She filed an administrative appeal, and was told that the issue presented "was solely a matter of law," and did not require a hearing. The first appeals referee denied Mrs. Johnson's claim, and came to the remarkable conclusion that the Costello case requires her benefits to be terminated, even though the case explicitly requires the opposite result. Railroad Bd. No. 90-1243 (Sept. 29, 1987). A second appeals referee reopened the decision and again rejected her argument, noting that "Costello was not a class action case and the Board did not pursue it further." Id. (July 12, 1988). Mrs. Johnson appealed again, and on May 16, 1989, a three-member panel of the Board issued its final decision, affirming the decision of the second appeals referee in a one-sentence order. The third panel member dissented vigorously, calling the Board's policy of nonacquiescence "grossly unjust" and urging payment of Tier I benefits to all widows and spouses with children between sixteen and eighteen. Id. (May 16, 1989) (Chamberlain, C.J., dissenting).
Having exhausted her administrative remedies, Mrs. Johnson filed a class action in district court, suing individually and on behalf of similarly situated beneficiaries under the Act. She claimed that the Board's denial of full benefits to those in her circumstances violated the Act and the Fifth Amendment's Due Process clause. She also claimed that the Board's policy of intracircuit nonacquiescence violated the statutory and constitutional rights of her class.
The district court decided that the Railroad Act gives the federal courts of appeals exclusive jurisdiction to review the Board's decisions. Concluding, accordingly, that it lacked subject matter jurisdiction over Mrs. Johnson's complaint, it transferred her case to this court pursuant to 28 U.S.C. § 1631 on July 12, 1990. This presented Mrs. Johnson with a dilemma: although an appeals court can adjudicate her individual claim, it cannot adjudicate the class action; and if she chose to pursue the transfer, she would have to abandon the class action challenge. She chose instead to move for reconsideration, requesting that the district court dismiss her complaint, or that it certify its order finding no jurisdiction for interlocutory review under 28 U.S.C. § 129(b). While her complaint was pending in the district court, Mrs. Johnson petitioned this court for review, to protect her individual claim for benefits. The district court, in turn, granted reconsideration, vacated the transfer, and on October 4, 1990, dismissed Johnson's case for lack of jurisdiction.
This appeal followed.
Two circuits are split about whether district courts have subject matter jurisdiction to entertain class action suits raising purely legal challenges to the Board's determination of benefits under the Railroad Act. Compare Linquist v. Bowen, 813 F.2d 884, 888 (8th Cir.1987) () with Denberg v. United States R.R. Retirement Bd., 696 F.2d 1193, 1197-98 (7th Cir.1983), cert. denied, 466 U.S. 926, 104 S.Ct. 1706, 80 L.Ed.2d 180 (1984) (). Although Mrs. Johnson's jurisdictional argument is plausible, the logic of the precedents persuades us to reject it.
Section 10(b) of the Administrative Procedure Act says that "the form of proceeding for judicial review is the special statutory review proceedings relevant to the subject matter in a court specified by statute or, in the absence or inadequacy thereof, any applicable form of legal action ... in a court of competent jurisdiction." 5 U.S.C. § 703 (1988) (emphasis added). We begin, therefore, by asking whether the statutory review proceedings govern Mrs. Johnson's claim and, if they do, whether the review they provide is adequate.
Decisions of the Board must be reviewed according to the terms of the Railroad Retirement Act of 1974, 45 U.S.C. § 231g (1988). The relevant section, "Claims for benefits," says that [f]indings of fact and conclusions of law of the Board in the determination of any claim for benefits or refund, the determination of any other matter pursuant to subsection (c) [] ... shall not be subject to review in any manner other than that set forth in subsection (f) of this section.
45 U.S.C. § 355(g) (1988).
Subsection (f), in turn, says that "[a]ny claimant, or railway labor organization ... of which claimant is a member, or any other party aggrieved by a final decision under subsection (c) of this section, may, only after [exhausting administrative remedies], obtain a review of any final decision of the Board" in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the circuit in which he lives or works, or in the Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit or the Seventh Circuit.
Mrs. Johnson argues that § 355 refers (as its name suggests) to individual "claims for benefits," not to class actions challenging the Board's policies and practices. She points to McNary v. Haitian Refugee Center, Inc., 498 U.S. 499, 111 S.Ct. 888, 112 L.Ed.2d 1005 (1991), in which the Supreme Court recently decided that a similarly worded section of the Immigration Reform and Control Act of 1986 forecloses district court review of individual applications but not "general collateral challenges to unconstitutional practices and policies used by the agency in processing applications." Id. 111 S.Ct. at 896. Just as the critical language in the Immigration Act refers to "a determination respecting an application," 8 U.S.C. § 1160(e) (1988), so Mrs. Johnson argues that the critical language in the Railroad Act refers to "the determination of any claim." 45 U.S.C. § 355(f).
We conclude, however, that the statutory review provision does govern Mrs. Johnson's case. First, the language in the Railroad Act is broader than the corresponding language in the Immigration Act. Subsection (f) of the Railroad Act refers not only to "the determination of any claim," but also to "the determination of any...
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