Lewis v. Stark

• Decision Date: 19 December 1968
• Docket Number: 50285.,No. 50238,50238
• Court: U.S. District Court — Northern District of California
• Parties: Genever LEWIS, individually, and as general guardian of Annette Lewis and Manuel Lewis, and as representative of a class of unnamed plaintiffs similarly situated, Plaintiff, v. Pauline STARK et al., Defendants. Margaret PERCY and Melvin Jones et al., Plaintiffs, v. John MONTGOMERY et al., Defendants.

312 F. Supp. 197

Genever LEWIS, individually, and as general guardian of Annette Lewis and Manuel Lewis, and as representative of a class of unnamed plaintiffs similarly situated, Plaintiff, v. Pauline STARK et al., Defendants.

Margaret PERCY and Melvin Jones et al., Plaintiffs, v. John MONTGOMERY et al., Defendants.

Nos. 50238, 50285.

United States District Court, N. D. California.

December 19, 1968.

Berkeley Neighborhood Legal Services, R. Corbin Houchins, for plaintiffs.

Cecil F. Poole, U. S. Atty., San Francisco, Cal., with Asst. U. S. Atty. William B. Spohn, for Secretary of Health, Education and Welfare.

Elizabeth Palmer, Deputy Atty. Gen., Thomas C. Lynch, Atty. Gen. of California, San Francisco, Cal., for defendants.

Before HAMLIN, Circuit Judge, and ZIRPOLI and WOLLENBERG, District Judges.

MEMORANDUM OPINION

PER CURIAM.

Plaintiffs seek in their own behalf and as representatives of their respective classes to have this court declare that section 11351 of the California Welfare and Institutions Code, and the related sections of the California Public Social Services Manual (PSSM), are contrary to federal regulations interpreting the Social Security Act and are unconstitutional.

The original plaintiffs in this action were Genever Lewis (Civ. No. 50238) and Margaret Percy (Civ. No. 50285). These plaintiffs sued on behalf of themselves, their children, a man assuming the role of spouse (MARS) in the Percy home, and all other individuals similarly situated. Motions to intervene were made prior to the date set for consolidated hearing, and those motions brought before this court two families with a stepfather instead of a MARS, as well as a third family with a MARS. By virtue of the circumstances of the original plaintiffs and the intervenors, leave to intervene would appear mandatory, Fed.R.Civ.Proc. 24(a). Any findings of this court contrary to the interests of the MARS would apply a fortiori to the stepfather. For this reason the motions to intervene in No. 50285 are granted to Virginia Sims, Mary J. Garner, Bertha Bell and their minor children, and to Humberto Garcia and his minor child, and Haywood Bell. For this reason also this court will refer only to the claims raised by the MARS and will not treat separately the claims of the stepfather, as we deem it unnecessary to do so.

I INTRODUCTION

The federal government maintains in cooperation with the states, a program of assistance to families with dependent children (AFDC). According to one provision of the controlling federal statute, the Social Security Act, "A State plan for aid and services to needy families with children must * * * (7) provide that the State agency shall, in determining need, take into consideration any other income and resources of any child * * * claiming aid to families with dependent children, * * * as well as any expenses reasonably attributable to the earning of any such income * * *." 42 U.S.C. 602(a) (7). The federal government and the state of California are in disagreement as to the proper method of taking "into consideration any other income and resources of any child" when there is present in the family a "man assuming the role of spouse." Regulations issued by the Department of Health, Education and Welfare in August, 1968 permit a state to take into account contributions from a MARS only if there is "proof of actual contributions".¹

California proceeds differently. It obligates a MARS to support the children in the home if he is able. "An adult male person assuming the role of spouse * * * is bound to support, if able to do so, his wife's children if without support from such * * * adult male person they would be needy children eligible for aid under this chapter." Cal.Welf. & Inst.Code § 11351 (emphasis added).² The MARS' ability is determined by the state according to established categories of allowable income and deductions. Under California's statute and regulations, the amount of assistance to the needy family is reduced by the amount of income which the state has computed to be available from the MARS.³ Under the HEW regulations, the amount of assistance may be reduced only by the amount of proved contributions. Thus the situation can arise in California where the state will regard the family to be living on money which the MARS is actually spending for purposes not recognized by the allowable deductions (living expenses, job-related expenses, court-ordered child support payments and medical care). Therefore, despite the presence in the home of a MARS earning sufficient income to support the family, the family may still be in actual need. Under the HEW regulations the family is considered needy; under California law it is not.

Plaintiffs, representing mothers, children, stepfathers, and MARS in families whose assistance has been modified under California's statute and regulations cite the HEW regulation, and the equal protection clause, the due process clause, and the right to privacy as bases for overturning the California practice to which they object. Plaintiffs seek a temporary order restraining the enforcement of the California budgetary rules, and declaratory and injunctive relief. This three-judge court was convened pursuant to 28 U.S.C. §§ 2281, 2284, and jurisdiction rests on 42 U.S.C. § 1983. Defendants have moved to dissolve the three-judge court for lack of a substantial federal question and to dismiss the complaint without leave to amend for failure to state a claim.

II HEW REGULATIONS

Plaintiffs contend that the HEW regulations must prevail over the California practice because the regulations were adopted pursuant to an act of Congress. We disagree, for we find the California practice, and not the HEW regulations, to be in accord with the Social Security Act. As mentioned above, the Act requires the states, in determining need, to consider "any other income and resources of any child." 42 U.S.C. § 602(a) (7). The Act does not instruct states to consider only resources guaranteed by the legal consequences of a marital or biological relationship. Nor does the Act instruct the states to consider only resources whose receipt by the child has been proved.

The HEW regulations, however, bar from state consideration resources controlled by a MARS. It is just these resources that California takes into account under Welf. & Inst. Code, § 11351. The statute obligates the MARS to support the children in the home to the extent he is able to do so and modifies the amount of assistance to the extent of the MARS' ability. In light of this statutory obligation, income to the MARS beyond his expenses is by law a resource of the child. For California to ignore this resource would be to violate rather than conform to the Social Security Act. By withholding from California's consideration certain resources of the MARS, available according to the State's determination and applicable by law to the support of the child (although not proved to have been actually thus employed), the HEW regulations contravene the command of § 602(a) (7) to consider "other resources of the child." It is therefore California that is in conformity with the Social Security Act. The HEW regulations, having been issued contrary to the congressional mandate, are, in the view of this court, invalid. They exceed the Secretary's authority to make "rules and regulations, not inconsistent with" the Social Security Act. 42 U.S.C. § 1302. The Secretary has, of course, the "power to fill up the details" United States v. Shreveport Grain & Elevator Co., 287 U.S. 77, 85, 53 S.Ct. 42, 44, 77 L.Ed. 175 (1932), but he is nevertheless "required to follow Congressional mandate, whether explicit or ascertainable in underlying policy." United Steelworkers of America v. N. L. R. B., 129 U.S.App.D.C. 80, 390 F.2d 846, 851 (1968). The Supreme Court recently articulated the underlying policy by saying "that Congress expected `breadwinners' who secured employment would support their children. This congressional expectation is most reasonably explained on the basis that the kind of breadwinner Congress had in mind was one who was legally obligated to support his children." King v. Smith, 392 U.S. 309, at 329, 88 S.Ct. 2128, at 2139, 20 L.Ed.2d 1118 (emphasis added). The HEW regulation, by requiring proof of actual contributions from a MARS, reduces the expectation of Congress to a mere hope. California, on the other hand, shares the congressional expectation. By creating a rule out of harmony with the enabling statute, HEW has created a mere nullity. Manhattan General Equipment Co. v. C.I.R., 297 U.S. 129, 134, 56 S.Ct. 397, 80 L.Ed. 528 (1936). California, therefore, is not in conflict with any valid federal law.

In addition to upholding the California practice for the reason that the HEW regulation violates the policy of the Social Security Act, this court also finds that the regulation, by dictating to the states the manner in which they shall consider income and resources, intrudes upon an area reserved by federal law and policy to the states. As the Supreme Court has noted, the "AFDC program is based on a scheme of cooperative federalism." King v. Smith, 392 U.S. at 316, 88 S.Ct. at 2133. Under this scheme, the states have the sole responsibility for determining the standard of economic security. Moreover, the legislative history of the Act makes clear that the States have the sole power to determine who is needy. Id. at 319 n. 14, 88 S.Ct. 2128. As one Representative said during the floor debates, "need is to be determined under the State law." Id. at 319 n. 14, 88 S.Ct. at 2134. California has simply exercised the power that Congress intended the states to have. It is not for the Secretary to prohibit California from; (a) statutorily imposing an obligation of support on the MARS to the extent of his ability; (b) determining that to this extent the child is not needy; and (c) reducing the child's assistance accordingly. As the Supreme Court...