McGowen v. Harris

• Decision Date: 10 December 1981
• Docket Number: No. 80-1557,80-1557
• Parties: Osmund McGOWEN, Appellant, v. Patricia R. HARRIS, Secretary of Health and Human Services, Appellee.
• Court: U.S. Court of Appeals — Fourth Circuit

Page 60

666 F.2d 60

Osmund McGOWEN, Appellant, v. Patricia R. HARRIS, Secretary of Health and Human Services, Appellee.

No. 80-1557.

United States Court of Appeals, Fourth Circuit.

Submitted Feb. 3, 1981.

Decided Dec. 10, 1981.

Peter M. D. Martin, Dennis W. Carroll, Jr., Ethel Zelenske, Legal Aid Bureau, Inc., Baltimore, Md., on brief, for appellant.

Alice Daniel, Asst. Atty. Gen., Washington, D. C., Russell T. Baker, Jr., U. S. Atty., Randolph W. Gaines, Chief of Litigation, Stanley Ericsson, Dept. of Health and Human Services, Baltimore, Md., on brief, for appellee.

Before WIDENER and PHILLIPS, Circuit Judges, and RICHARD L. WILLIAMS, United States District Judge, sitting by designation.

JAMES DICKSON PHILLIPS, Circuit Judge:

Osmund McGowen challenges the district court's dismissal of his action under 42 U.S.C. § 405(g), in which he sought judicial review of the administrative denial of surviving child's insurance benefits under the Social Security Act (Act). The district court held that it lacked subject matter jurisdiction to consider the action because the Secretary of Health and Human Services (Secretary) had applied administrative res judicata to deny the claimed benefits. We hold, in disagreement with the district court, that jurisdiction existed to determine whether the Secretary properly applied administrative res judicata or had reopened the claim, but we nevertheless affirm the dismissal because it was manifest on the record before the district court that administrative res judicata was properly applied and that the claim had not been administratively reopened.

I

The course of proceedings leading to dismissal in the district court is as follows. ¹ In July 1965, claimant, through his mother, applied for surviving child's insurance benefits based on his entitlement as the surviving son of Boliver McGowen. In support of this application, claimant presented evidence that Boliver McGowen had orally acknowledged claimant to be his son, that he had sent money for the support of claimant, and that he had paid the hospital bill of claimant's mother at the time she gave birth to claimant. Claimant did not, however, present any evidence of written acknowledgement of paternity.

In February 1976, the Social Security Administration denied benefits to the claimant. The Administration held that claimant had failed to establish that he was the "child" of McGowen pursuant to the requirements of the Act by showing either that Boliver McGowen had acknowledged in writing that claimant was his son; that he had been ordered by a court to support claimant; that he had been judicially decreed to be claimant's father; or that he had otherwise been shown to be claimant's father and was living with claimant or contributing to his support. Claimant, who was not then represented by counsel, did not pursue his administrative remedies by seeking a reconsideration of this adverse determination.

In March 1978, claimant, through his mother and with the aid of counsel, filed a second application for benefits as the surviving child of Boliver McGowen. The Administration denied this claim, finding that the 1976 determination applied because no new issues had been presented. This time claimant sought reconsideration of the denial and presented further evidence that Boliver McGowen had orally acknowledged claimant to be his son. The Administration again denied benefits to claimant on the ground that he had merely established that McGowen was his biological father while failing to present any new and material evidence showing regular and substantial contributions by McGowen for claimant's support.

Claimant requested and was granted a hearing before an administrative law judge in which he presented further evidence of open and notorious recognition by McGowen and regular and substantial contributions from McGowen to claimant's support. He also presented evidence of written acknowledgement of paternity by McGowen. In addition, he argued that under Maryland's intestate succession laws, which as the law of the child's domicile should be looked to under choice of law principles, he would be regarded as legitimate, and that, even if the law of Michigan-McGowen's domicile-were applied, the Michigan intestate succession statute, under which he would be regarded as illegitimate, was unconstitutional. The administrative law judge issued a decision in which he concluded that claimant was the biological child of McGowen; that no new and material evidence had been submitted to show regular and substantial contributions from McGowen for claimant's support; and that, therefore, the Administration's previous decision to deny benefits was res judicata on the issue of claimant's entitlement to benefits. The administrative law judge made no findings with respect to the other evidence or arguments submitted by claimant.

Claimant sought Appeals Council review, and the Appeals Council affirmed the administrative law judge's order of dismissal. In a letter to claimant's mother, which was attached to the complaint as an exhibit, the Appeals Council gave as a reason for its affirmance the conclusion that there was no evidence submitted on the issues of support or written acknowledgement "so new and material as to warrant a reopening of the prior determination." Moreover, the Appeals Council stated that the law of Michigan would be controlling on the issue whether claimant was "legitimate" so as to be entitled to benefits under the Act and that under Michigan law claimant could not establish his legitimacy.

Claimant then sought judicial review by complaint filed in district court, asserting jurisdiction under 42 U.S.C. § 405(g). In his complaint, claimant attacked as erroneous the Secretary's application of administrative res judicata to what he contended were facts and issues that had not been considered before. He then claimed that a review of these facts and issues on their merits would result in the conclusion that the Secretary's denial of benefits to him was not supported by substantial evidence.

The Secretary responded by filing a motion to dismiss and brief in support of that motion in which she argued that, because the Administration had denied claimant's second claim for benefits on the basis of administrative res judicata, the district court, under the Supreme Court's decision in Califano v. Sanders, 430 U.S. 99, 97 S.Ct. 980, 51 L.Ed.2d 192 (1977), was without jurisdiction to review that decision. Rather than responding to this motion to dismiss, claimant filed his own motion, supported by a memorandum, to compel the Secretary to file a transcript of the administrative record. The Secretary then filed a memorandum in opposition to claimant's motion to compel in which she argued that the court lacked the power to enter any coercive order against the Secretary, including an order to file a transcript, because it lacked jurisdiction over the subject matter.

The district court granted the Secretary's motion to dismiss, holding that the Secretary's determination of administrative res judicata deprived it of jurisdiction over the majority of issues raised in claimant's complaint. It found, however, that claimant's challenge to the constitutionality of Michigan's intestacy statute constituted an exception to the Sanders rule over which it did have jurisdiction. But the district court concluded that it need not reach this constitutional question because the Act provided means other than establishment of legitimacy by which a claimant might prove his entitlement to benefits. ² This appeal followed.

II

The fundamental issue here is the vexed, recurring one of the effect upon judicial review under 42 U.S.C. § 405(g) of the Secretary's application of administrative res judicata to deny a social security claim. The Secretary's position on this appeal seems to be the extreme one that, subject only to cases where a constitutional question related to the denial is raised, the Secretary's mere assertion in the district court that res judicata was applied conclusively establishes that the court lacks jurisdiction to engage in any judicial review. To the contrary, the claimant contends that the district court necessarily has jurisdiction to determine whether, as decisive of its jurisdiction to review on the merits, res judicata was in fact applied and, if so, whether it was properly applied. Beyond this, claimant contends that in order to make this jurisdictional determination, it is necessary that the administrative record be considered by the district court and that the court's refusal here to do so was consequently error requiring reversal and remand.

For reasons that follow, we agree with the claimant that when the Secretary challenges jurisdiction on this basis, the district court has jurisdiction to determine its own jurisdiction by examining the res judicata predicate, and that ordinarily this will require consideration of the administrative record, but we disagree that it was necessary here in order to affirm the Secretary's denial.

A

Without attempting exhaustive analysis of the principal decisions of the Supreme Court and of this court that have addressed various aspects of the dispositive issue, we think that the following principles drawn from those decisions and from relevant statutes and regulations control decision here.

1. The combined effect of 42 U.S.C. § 405(g) and (h) is to establish a power in the Secretary to deny any social security claim on the basis that it has earlier been denied on the merits by a final administrative decision, i.e., to apply administrative res judicata in bar. Easley v. Finch, 431 F.2d 1351, 1353 (4th Cir. 1970).

2. An earlier administrative decision at any level in the adjudicative process may be final and therefore properly treated as preclusive of a subsequent claim either because the decision has been judicially affirmed or because administrative reconsideration, hearing, or review, or judicial...