Maryland Dept. of Human Resources v. United States
| Decision Date | 20 May 1986 |
| Docket Number | Civ. A. No. M-86-605. |
| Citation | 648 F. Supp. 1017 |
| Parties | MARYLAND DEPARTMENT OF HUMAN RESOURCES and Ruth Massinga, Secretary v. UNITED STATES DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH AND HUMAN SERVICES and Otis R. Bowen, Secretary. October BRITT, Mary Jacobs, and Dorothy Oldaker, Individually and on behalf of all others similarly situated, Cross-Plaintiffs, v. Otis R. BOWEN, Secretary of Health and Human Services, Cross-Defendants. MARYLAND DEPARTMENT OF HUMAN RESOURCES, et al. v. UNITED STATES DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH AND HUMAN SERVICES, et al. |
| Court | U.S. District Court — District of Maryland |
Stephen H. Sachs, Atty. Gen. of Maryland, Nancy B. Shuger and Mark J. Davis, Asst. Attys. Gen. of Maryland, Baltimore, Md., for State plaintiffs.
Peter M.D. Martin, Rochelle Gordon, Marian McKennan, and Seri Wilpone, and Legal Aid Bureau, Inc., Baltimore, Md., for cross-plaintiffs.
Breckinridge L. Willcox, U.S. Atty. for Maryland, Larry D. Adams, Asst. U.S. Atty., Donald A. Gonya, Chief Counsel for Social Sec., Randolph W. Gaines, Deputy Chief Counsel for Social Sec. Litigation, John B. Watson, Chief, Assce. Payments Litigation Branch, and Karen Cornick-Dandridge, Office of General Counsel Social Sec. Div., Dept. of Health and Human Services, Baltimore, Md., for defendants and cross-defendants.
This case began as separate actions. On February 21, 1986, individual plaintiffs October Britt, Mary Jacobs, and Dorothy Oldaker filed a class action suit against Otis R. Bowen, Secretary of the United States Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), and Ruth Massinga, Secretary of the Maryland Department of Human Resources. The individual plaintiffs are welfare mothers who assert that a new federal regulation, 45 C.F.R. § 206.10(a)(1)(vii)(B), and a concomitant Maryland regulation, COMAR 07.03.02.02B(1)(a), altering the formula for calculating payments under the federal Aid to Families with Dependent Children (AFDC) program, result in drastic and illegal reductions in their benefits.
The defendant Bowen is responsible for the administration, operation, and enforcement of the AFDC program. The defendant Massinga is responsible for the enforcement of the federal AFDC regulations in Maryland. The plaintiffs seek declaratory and injunctive relief (M-86-604, Paper No. 1), class certification (id., Paper No. 2), a preliminary injunction (id., Paper No. 3), and leave to proceed in forma pauperis (id., Paper No. 4).
A short time later, on February 24, 1986, the Maryland Department of Human Resources and Ruth Massinga filed suit against HHS and Otis Bowen over the same federal regulation, seeking declaratory and injunctive relief (M-86-605, Paper No. 1). Maryland contends the new federal AFDC regulation disrupts the state's child support laws and costs Maryland more for AFDC grants (id.).
On March 6, 1986, the court consolidated the two suits for all purposes into Civil Action No. M-86-605 (M-86-604, Paper No. 6; M-86-605, Paper No. 4). The consolidating order provided that the claim of the individual plaintiffs be treated as a cross-claim against the state and federal defendants.
At the hearing held on April 10, 1986, the court, for reasons then orally stated, granted the amended class certification motion of the individual plaintiffs (id., Paper No. 2).
At the request of the court, the parties have filed stipulations of fact (M-86-605, Paper No. 5). There being no disputed evidentiary matters, the court ordered the trial of the consolidated action on the merits to be advanced and consolidated with the request for preliminary injunction. Rule 65(a)(2), Fed.R.Civ.P. The entire matter was heard by the court on April 10, 1986.
The relevant facts are as follows: The AFDC program, which is part of the Social Security Act, 42 U.S.C. § 601 et seq., is intended to provide financial assistance to needy children and the parent or parents with whom they live. Maryland has voluntarily entered the AFDC program under which it is partially reimbursed for the welfare assistance it provides and the costs of administration. In return, Maryland must agree to conform its administration of the program to the federal requirements. If it fails to do so, it faces loss of reimbursements and financial sanctions (Stipulations, Paper No. 5, ¶¶ 1-5, 16).
To determine family need under AFDC, the State takes into account the income of any child or relative claiming the benefits. Before October 1984, a parent filing for AFDC benefits could choose to exclude from the so-called "assistance unit" a dependent child or children receiving income from another source and thereby have that income excluded from the income pool comprising the so-called "assistance unit." Thus, that child, generally a half-sibling of the other children in the family, would not be a beneficiary of AFDC benefits, and income to that child would not be counted in determining AFDC eligibility and grant amounts for the rest of the family (id. at ¶¶ 6, 9).1
Congress approved the Deficit Reduction Act of 1984 (DEFRA) on July 18, 1984, making substantial changes in the AFDC program. On October 1, 1984, HHS implemented the new law through regulations, 45 C.F.R. § 206.10(a)(1)(vii)(B), requiring that children living with a parent or relative applying for or receiving AFDC must be included in the assistance unit and their income must be counted in determining the family's eligibility for benefits (id. at ¶¶ 10, 14). Maryland adopted conforming regulations on June 7, 1985 (id. at ¶ 20).
The three named plaintiffs in this case have the following histories: October Britt is 45 and lives in Baltimore City with three children, ages 14 through 16. While receiving $256 per month in AFDC benefits for herself and one child, she also received $394 in Social Security Child's Insurance benefits for two of her minors whose father is dead. That payment was increased to $406 in January, 1986. Under the change in the AFDC assistance formula, she must include the money paid to these two children in her so-called "assistance unit." Because the amount these two children receive exceeds the State's $395 maximum outside income for four persons, she has been terminated from the AFDC program. Thus, instead of the $662 she would have received under the old AFDC formula, she will now receive only $406 from Social Security because of her ineligibility for AFDC. She is also no longer eligible for medical assistance (Stipulations at ¶¶ 39-51). Ms. Britt had received $232 in food stamps for everyone in her home, which also includes two unemployed adult sons and an adult daughter and grandchild, the latter two of whom receive their own AFDC, for a total, with past Social Security and AFDC money, of $894. Although her food stamp payments have increased to $319, the loss of AFDC assistance leaves her family with a monthly total of $725 .
Mary Jacobs is 26 and lives in Baltimore City with her three children, ages 12 months through 7 years. She has received AFDC benefits of $256 per month for her and one child. She also receives $250 per month in child support from the father of her other two children for a total of $506 in family income. The child support payments must be assigned to the State and counted toward her assistance unit under the new regulations at issue here. Her recalculated AFDC monthly benefit will be $395. She also receives $241 in food stamps each month. Further, the father of her two children has informed her he will no longer make child support payments unless they are used directly to support his children (Stipulations at ¶¶ 52-62).
Dorothy Oldaker is 31 and lives in Baltimore City with her two children, ages 5 and 12. She has received AFDC benefits for herself and one child. She received $240 (raised to $248 in January) in Social Security benefits for her other child on account of the child's disabled father. She must now include these payments as part of her assistance unit outside income reducing what would have been a total combined monthly income of $504 to $329. She received $207 in food stamps in March, an increase from the $191 she got in food stamps before her second child was placed on AFDC ).
The individual and class plaintiffs assert the challenged changes in AFDC regulations are invalid because 1) the Social Security Act, 42 U.S.C. § 602(a)(38), requires that only those children who may be considered dependents under § 606(a) of the Act may be included in the assistance unit; 2) the new regulations force parents to violate their fiduciary duties to the children for whom they accept benefits under 42 U.S.C. §§ 405(j) and 408(e) and 20 C.F.R. § 404.2035; 3) the federal defendants' regulations as they impact child support payments violate the Tenth Amendment; and 4) the regulations force a parent to use income earmarked for one child to support others "effectively resulting in a taking of property without due process." (M-86-604, Paper No. 3 at 2-3).
The federal defendants assert that the plaintiffs have failed to establish that the Secretary's regulations violate either the Social Security Act or the Constitution (M-86-605, Paper No. 14 at 3).
The State plaintiffs have not moved for a preliminary injunction but urge the court to grant the individual and class plaintiffs' motion to prevent Maryland from being forced to continue to adhere to a regulation change it considers illegal. The State also asserts that the change in the AFDC assistance unit formula requires the State to "disrupt and undermine its own orderly (child support) scheme...." (M-86-605, Paper No. 10 at 2). "Support orders and the state statutes on which they are based contemplate that support awards are to be fixed in relationship to the ascertained needs of the child on whose behalf they are paid, not his...
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