King v. Schweiker

• Decision Date: 08 June 1981
• Docket Number: No. 80-3052,80-3052
• Citation: 647 F.2d 541
• Parties: Diane KING, Plaintiff-Appellant, v. Richard S. SCHWEIKER, Secretary of Health and Human Resources, Defendant-Appellee. . Unit A
• Court: U.S. Court of Appeals — Fifth Circuit

Page 541

647 F.2d 541

Diane KING, Plaintiff-Appellant, v. Richard S. SCHWEIKER, Secretary of Health and Human Resources, Defendant-Appellee.

No. 80-3052.

United States Court of Appeals, Fifth Circuit.

Unit A

June 8, 1981.

Fine, Waltzer, Winters & Bagneris, Michael G. Bagneris, New Orleans, La., for plaintiff-appellant.

Lillie Price, Dept. of H. E. W., Baltimore, Md., for defendant-appellee.

Appeal from the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Louisiana.

Before BROWN, GEWIN ^* and POLITZ, Circuit Judges.

GEWIN,* Circuit Judge:

Claimant-appellant Diane King has petitioned this court for relief from the summary judgment order rendered by the district court for the appellee in Ms. King's suit to collect surviving child benefits under the Social Security Act (hereinafter referred to as the Act). In order to determine the propriety of the trial court's decision we must examine the following two issues: (1) whether the district court correctly ascertained that the Secretary-appellee's decision in the case at bar was supported by substantial evidence and followed the correct legal standard; and (2) whether 42 U.S.C.A. § 416(h)(3)(C) is constitutional. Reasoning that both inquiries must be answered in the affirmative, we affirm.

The ensuing rendition of facts is undisputed. Diane Stewart, now known as Diane King, was born on August 24, 1958 to Hester Neal and Abe Stewart in New Orleans, Louisiana. Just two months later, she was given by her natural mother to Hattie Mae King, the herein deceased wage earner. Thereafter, Hattie King cared for, provided for, educated, loved, and nourished the appellant as if she were her own child.

Beginning in May of 1963, while living in Louisiana, Hattie King received social security disability benefits. On October 1, 1964, she submitted an affidavit to the Secretary requesting additional aid so as to better provide for Diane. In this written statement, Hattie King noted that she intended "to institute legal proceedings for the formal adoption of the child as soon as (she was) able to secure counsel through the legal aid society or (from) some other (form of) assistance." Record Vol. II at 45. Irregardless of these expressed purposes, it is undisputed that the claimant was never legally adopted by Hattie King before her death in Louisiana on May 8, 1972.

Subsequently, two applications were made on behalf of Diane King for surviving child insurance benefits. Each was denied by the Secretary's district office on the ground that she was not found to be a "child" of the deceased wage earner, Hattie King, as defined under the terms of the Act. ¹ Later consideration ² of appellant's claim by an administrative law judge reached the same result. This decision was adopted by the Appeals Council on September 22, 1977 thereby becoming the Secretary's final determination on the matter.

Appellant thereafter sought judicial review of the Secretary's decision in district court. At that juncture, appellee moved for summary judgment. After all matters were thoroughly briefed and argued orally, a Magistrate submitted her findings of fact and conclusions of law recommending that the Secretary's motion for summary judgment be granted. Appellant petitioned for review of the Magistrate's order. On December 17, 1979, after a hearing on the motion for review, the trial judge denied the claimant's request while simultaneously approving and adopting the Magistrate's opinion and recommendation to grant the motion for summary judgment. Four days later, appellant filed a timely notice of appeal with this court.

Before discussing the first issue at length, we must remember that the judiciary plays only a very "limited role in reviewing the disposition of social security benefit claims." Ferguson v. Schweiker, 641 F.2d 243, 245 (5th Cir. 1981). Factual findings of the Secretary are to be left undisturbed unless they are not supported by substantial evidence. Western v. Harris 633 F.2d 1204 (5th Cir. 1981); Fruge v. Harris, 631 F.2d 1244 (5th Cir. 1980); 42 U.S.C.A. § 405(g). Therefore, our immediate duty is to determine whether the district court properly concluded that the Secretary's denial of Diane King's claim was supported by substantial evidence. ³ If it was, then summary judgment was proper.

Initially, the Secretary noted that the child insurance benefits provision of the Act reads, in pertinent part, as follows:

Every child (as defined in section 416(e) of this title) of an individual entitled to old-age or disability insurance benefits, or of an individual who dies a fully or currently insured individual, if such child (satisfies certain requirements not relevant to the instant appeal) (c) was dependent upon such individual (other irrelevant criteria) shall be entitled to a child's insurance benefit

42 U.S.C.A. § 402(d)(1) (emphasis added). In order to recover benefits, this section required that Diane King show the Secretary three things: (1) that she was a "child" of the deceased wage earner; (2) that the wage earner was receiving disability insurance benefits or died a fully or currently insured individual; and (3) that she was dependent upon the wage earner. Both parties to this appeal conceded that the latter two requirements were in fact satisfied, however, the resolution of the dispute turned upon whether the claimant was the "child" of Hattie King. Such a determination required the Secretary to examine 42 U.S.C.A. § 416(e). That section, in pertinent part, defined the term "child" as one who was: "(1) the child or legally adopted child of an individual, (2) a stepchild , and (3) a person who is the grandchild or stepgrandchild of an individual or his spouse " It was uncontroverted that the claimant was not the legally adopted child, the stepchild, the grandchild, or the stepgrandchild of the deceased wage earner. Therefore, the Secretary was forced to seek further statutory elucidation of the term "child".

The appellee subsequently discovered that Congress had seen fit to provide three alternative tests for determining whether an individual was the child of a wage earner. ⁴ The first, under 42 U.S.C.A § 416(h)(2)(A), stated, in pertinent part, as follows:

In determining whether an applicant is the child or parent of a fully or currently insured individual for purposes of this subchapter, the Secretary shall apply such law as would be applied in determining the devolution of intestate personal property by the courts of the State in which he (the insured individual) was domiciled at the time of his death (emphasis added).

Applying the appropriate Louisiana law ⁵ under this analysis, the Secretary found that Diane King could not be considered a "child" of Hattie King. ⁶ The Magistrate concurred in that determination and the district court agreed with the Magistrate's reasoning. We conclude that the Secretary properly applied only this first test and her findings were supported by substantial evidence. Therefore, the district court's decision granting summary judgment for the appellee was correct in every respect.

We must now turn our discussion towards a constitutional analysis of 42 U.S.C.A. § 416(h)(3)(C) ⁷ as required by the second issue raised by claimant on this appeal. ⁸ The appellant contends that the district court's application of this expansive section ⁹ only to illegitimates unable to inherit by intestacy in the appropriate state is violative of the equal protection guarantee implicit in the due process clause of the fifth amendment because such illegitimate-biological children may then receive benefits thereby being treated differently from similarly situated foster children in a state not recognizing equitable adoption for purposes of intestate succession. Although it is indeed unfortunate that the claimant's eligibility ¹⁰ for benefits is governed by a state following the minority rule as to equitable adoption, this unusual fate does not mandate that § 416(h) (3)(C) be found constitutionally invalid.

The claimant admits that equitably adopted children do not constitute a suspect class. Furthermore, no fundamental right is adversely affected by this statute. ¹¹ Thus, the traditional rational basis test is the appropriate standard of constitutional review. J. Nowak, R. Rotunda, & J. Young, Handbook on Constitutional Law at 517-19 (1978). Under this form of analysis, "a legislative classification must be sustained unless it is 'patently arbitrary' and bears no rational relationship to a legitimate governmental interest." Frontiero v. Richardson, 411 U.S. 677, 683, 93 S.Ct. 1764, 1768, 36 L.Ed.2d 583, 589 (1973). "In the area of social welfare " a statutory scheme differentiating somewhat in its treatment of certain classifications will not be invalid under the rational basis test if any state of facts may be reasonably perceived to justify it. Dandridge v. Williams, 397 U.S. 471, 485, 90 S.Ct. 1153, 1161, 25 L.Ed.2d 491, 501-02 (1970). Although this standard of review is not "toothless", statutory provisions for the governmental payment of monetary benefits are afforded a strong presumption of constitutional validity. Mathews v. de Castro, 429 U.S. 181, 185, 97 S.Ct. 431, 434, 50 L.Ed.2d 389, 393-94 (1976).

As noted in Geduldig v. Aiello, 417 U.S. 484, 495, 94 S.Ct. 2485, 2491, 41 L.Ed.2d 256, 263-64 (1974), a legislative body's choice to remedy one phase of a social welfare problem while neglecting others is not inconsistent with the mandates of equal protection, ¹² and the judiciary will not impose its judgment as to the appropriate dividing line so long as the legislature's distinction is rationally supportable. "There is nothing in the Constitution that requires (any legislative body) to subordinate or compromise its legitimate interests solely to create a more comprehensive social insurance program than it already has." Id. at 496, 94 S.Ct. at 2491, 41 L.Ed.2d at 264. More importantly, "(t)he fact that social security benefits are...