Kelly v. Railroad Retirement Bd.

• Decision Date: 10 June 1980
• Docket Number: No. 79-1959,79-1959
• Citation: 625 F.2d 486
• Parties: Mary Ann KELLY, Petitioner, v. RAILROAD RETIREMENT BOARD, Respondent.
• Court: U.S. Court of Appeals — Third Circuit

Page 486

625 F.2d 486

Mary Ann KELLY, Petitioner, v. RAILROAD RETIREMENT BOARD, Respondent.

No. 79-1959.

United States Court of Appeals, Third Circuit.

Argued Jan. 17, 1980.

Decided June 10, 1980.

Alfred Donnarumma (argued), Union County Legal Services Corp., Elizabeth, N. J., for petitioner.

Arthur A. Arfa (argued), Dale G. Zimmerman, Edward S. Hintzke, Chicago, Ill., for respondent.

Before HUNTER, HIGGINBOTHAM and SLOVITER, Circuit Judges.

OPINION OF THE COURT

JAMES HUNTER, III, Circuit Judge:

Mary Ann Kelly petitions this court to review a final decision of the Railroad Retirement Board. ¹ The Board denied her application for a disabled child's annuity under the Railroad Retirement Act, 45 U.S.C. § 231a(d)(1)(iii) (C) (1976). ² Kelly was not found to be disabled. 45 U.S.C. § 231a(d)(3) (1976). ³ This court has jurisdiction to review the Board's decision. 45 U.S.C. § 231g (1976). ⁴ Kelly presses two grounds for reversal: (1) that the agency violated her 5th amendment right to due process in that it committed serious procedural errors in its internal appeals procedures; (2) that the agency decision, finding her not under a disability, is not supported by substantial evidence on the record. We agree with both of Kelly's contentions. The decision of the Board will be reversed.

I.

Kelly applied for a disabled child's annuity under the Railroad Retirement Act. 45 U.S.C. § 231a(d)(1)(iii)(C) (1976). She filed her application more than a month before her twenty-second birthday. To be eligible for a disabled child's annuity, the applicant, irrespective of age at time of application, must suffer from a disability which began before the age of twenty-two. Kelly claimed that she was under a mental disability, severe depression.

At the administrative hearing Kelly testified that she began to suffer from anxiety, insomnia and depression during high school. Unable to sleep for several days on end, she could not concentrate on her studies. Catching up on lost sleep caused her to miss school frequently. Her insomnia interrupted her class attendance to the extent that she was denied a diploma at graduation because she failed to meet the school attendance requirement.

After high school, Kelly enrolled in college, but continued to suffer from the same symptoms. She consulted the psychiatrist in residence at the college who prescribed medication, an antidepressant. Its use produced no improvement. On the advice of the school psychiatrist, Kelly withdrew from school. Because she terminated her student status, she was ineligible to continue treatment under the school psychiatrist's care. Kelly then sought professional treatment at the Rutgers Community Mental Health Center as an indigent. At Rutgers she consulted four psychiatrists and one psychologist, each of whom submitted a report to the Railroad Retirement Board evaluating Kelly's mental condition.

Meanwhile, Kelly obtained a series of clerical jobs. She lasted a few days at each. The same symptoms continued: her insomnia prevented punctual appearance at work. She complained that anxiety, produced by the presence of co-workers, interfered with her task performance.

On June 10, 1975, Kelly applied to the Railroad Retirement Board for a child's disability annuity, based on the earnings of her father, a deceased railroad worker. 45 U.S.C. § 231a(d)(1)(iii)(C) (1976). For the purpose of the Act, a child is under disability if his permanent physical or mental condition prevents him from engaging in any regular employment. Id. at § 231a(d)(3). ⁵

In March 1979, more than three years, nine months after Kelly filed her application, the Railroad Retirement Board issued its final decision finding her ineligible. The Board found that "it has not been established that Appellant is unable to engage in any regular employment by a disability which began before the age 22."

This court may "enter a decree affirming, modifying, or reversing the decision of the Board, with or without remanding the cause for rehearing." 45 U.S.C. § 355(f) (1976). ⁶ Appellant urges reversal of the Board decision, challenging the sufficiency of the procedure and substantability of the evidence on which the decision is based.

II.

Kelly urges that the administrative procedure that determined her ineligible to receive a child's disability annuity failed to comply with due process. The threshold question is whether a claimant initially denied benefits has a sufficient property interest in the benefits to be protected by the fifth amendment guarantee of Due Process. See generally, Board of Regents v. Roth, 408 U.S. 564, 576-79, 92 S.Ct. 2701, 2708-2710, 33 L.Ed.2d 548 (1972); Perry v. Sindermann, 408 U.S. 593, 599-603, 92 S.Ct. 2694, 2698-2700, 33 L.Ed.2d 570 (1972). We conclude that he does.

"To have a property interest in a benefit, a person . . . must . . . have a legitimate claim of entitlement to it." Board of Regents v. Roth, supra, 408 U.S. at 577, 92 S.Ct. at 2709. "Such benefits are a matter of statutory entitlement for persons qualified to receive them." Goldberg v. Kelly, 397 U.S. 254, 262, 90 S.Ct. 1011, 1017, 25 L.Ed.2d 287 (1970) (discussing welfare benefits). The welfare claimants in Goldberg "had a claim of entitlement to welfare payments that was grounded in the statute defining eligibility for them. The recipients had not yet shown that they were, in fact, within the statutory terms of eligibility." Board of Regents v. Roth, supra, 408 U.S. at 577, 92 S.Ct. at 2709. Nevertheless, the Supreme Court required the administrative process determining eligibility to comply with due process. Goldberg v. Kelly, supra, 397 U.S. at 260-266, 90 S.Ct. at 1016-1019; Board of Regents v. Roth, supra, 408 U.S. at 577, 92 S.Ct. at 2709 (discussing Goldberg ). See also, Schware v. Board of Bar Examiners, 353 U.S. 232, 238-239, 77 S.Ct. 752, 755-756, 1 L.Ed.2d 796 (1957) (due process applies to eligibility for professional employment.) As due process applied to the determination of the eligibility of the welfare claimants in Goldberg v. Kelly, so it applies to the determination of Mary Ann Kelly's eligibility for a child's disability annuity.

We note that in Goldberg v. Kelly, the posture of the welfare claimants was that they had been determined ineligible to continue receiving benefits. 397 U.S. at 256, 90 S.Ct. at 1014. Accord, Escalera v. New York City Housing Authority, 425 F.2d 853 (2d Cir. 1970) (public housing). In this case, Kelly's ineligibility was determined at the outset, and she has never received a disabled child's annuity. Nevertheless, due process must attach to the process of determining ineligibility, whether at the outset or after receipt of benefits. Wright v. Califano, 587 F.2d 345, 354 (7th Cir. 1978).

Kelly contends that the Railroad Retirement Board committed three violations of her right to procedural due process. First, the administrative appeals process lasted an unreasonable length of time. Second, contrary to its own regulations, the Board obtained additional "evidence" on Kelly's application without notifying her and offering her the opportunity to rebut the "evidence". Third, the administrative hearing officer contacted Kelly directly to question her on her application. This, Kelly alleges, violated her right to be represented by counsel, as guaranteed by the Board's regulations. Although each of these allegations presents serious procedural flaws, we need not reach the constitutional question with respect to the second and third contentions. With respect to those, an agency's violation of its regulations is sufficient to taint its act. We must, however, consider the due process implications of the unreasonable delay.

III.

The Railroad Retirement Board took nearly four years from the date of Kelly's application to issue its final decision. The Board has established a three tiered system of administrative review. The applicant must obtain an initial decision from the Bureau of Retirement Claims. 20 C.F.R. § 260.1(a) (1979). If adverse, he must then appeal this decision to a referee of the Bureau of Hearings and Appeals. Id. at § 260.4(a) (1979). In turn this decision, if adverse, must be appealed to the Railroad Retirement Board. Id. at § 260.6(a) (1979).

A situation such as this, where the administrative review process of a single disability application extended to nearly four years, is wholly inexcusable. Compare Mathews v. Eldridge, 424 U.S. 319, 330, 342, 96 S.Ct. 893, 900, 906, 47 L.Ed.2d 18 (1976) (characterizing an eleven month delay in administrative review as "torpid", the Supreme Court held that the interests of a claimant in prompt resolution of his eligibility was sufficient to allow him to bypass the full exhaustion route.) The Supreme Court has recognized that the length of time of wrongful deprivation of benefits is an important factor to be considered in assessing the impact of government action on private interests. Fusari v. Steinberg, 419 U.S. 379, 389, 95 S.Ct. 533, 539, 42 L.Ed.2d 521 (1975) (state unemployment benefits). At least one court has held that due process was violated because the administrative determination of eligibility for benefits took too long. Steinberg v. Fusari, 364 F.Supp. 922, 937-938 (D.Conn.1973), vacated and remanded on other grounds, 419 U.S. 379, 95 S.Ct. 533, 42 L.Ed.2d 521 (1975). In that case, a delay of just over 100 days was held to frustrate due process requirements. Although there is no magic length of time after which due process requirements are violated, we are certain that three years, nine months, is well past any reasonable time limit, when no valid reason for the delay is given.

Kelly's prolonged review process is not unique. In Parker v. Railroad Retirement Board, the agency took six years to determine that an annuity applicant was not disabled. 441 F.2d 460, 464 (7th Cir. 1971). The Seventh Circuit, finding that the decision was not supported by substantial evidence, reversed and refused to remand...