Page v. Schweiker

Decision Date14 March 1986
Docket NumberNo. 85-5034,85-5034
Parties, 13 Soc.Sec.Rep.Ser. 108 PAGE, Helen M., on behalf of herself and all others similarly situated v. SCHWEIKER, Richard E., Secretary of the Dept. of Health and Human Services. Appeal of James J. WEST, the United States Attorney for the Middle District of Pennsylvania, on Behalf of the SECRETARY OF HEALTH AND HUMAN SERVICES.
CourtU.S. Court of Appeals — Third Circuit

Richard K. Willard, Acting Asst. Atty. Gen., David Dart Queen, U.S. Atty., Barbara L. Kosik, Scranton, Pa., Susan Wakshul, Office of the Gen. Counsel, Baltimore, Md., Robert S. Greenspan, John M. Rogers, (argued), Washington, D.C., for appellant.

Susan Wood, (argued), Paul D. Welch, New Bloomfield, Pa., for appellee.

Before HUNTER, GARTH and HIGGINBOTHAM, Circuit Judges.

OPINION ANNOUNCING THE JUDGMENT OF THE COURT

A. LEON HIGGINBOTHAM, Jr., Circuit Judge.

This is an appeal from an order of the United States District Court for the Middle District of Pennsylvania denying a motion by the Secretary of Health and Human Services ("Secretary") for relief from judgment pursuant to Fed.R.Civ.P. 60(b). The underlying judgment, in accordance with the district court's determination that the Secretary could not lawfully recoup overpayments of Supplemental Security Income ("SSI") benefits by means of voluntary reductions in Old-Age, Survivors, and Disability Insurance ("OASDI") benefits, ordered that reference to cross-program recoupment be stricken from the Secretary's proposed SSI pre-recoupment procedural guidelines. For the reasons that follow, we will affirm the district court's denial of Rule 60(b) relief from that judgment.

I.

Title XVI of the Social Security Act authorizes the Secretary to recoup overpayments of SSI benefits, and to waive In 1982, the Secretary notified plaintiff Helen Page, a recipient of SSI benefits, that she had received an overpayment of $176.83. Page submitted a request for waiver of recoupment, which was denied, and the Secretary notified Page that her SSI benefits would be withheld until the overpayment was recovered. Page unsuccessfully sought reconsideration of the Secretary's refusal to grant a waiver. Page then brought this action in the district court seeking to challenge the lack of pre-recoupment hearings, on behalf of a class of all SSI recipients residing in Pennsylvania who had requested or would in the future request waivers of recoupment of SSI overpayments. The district court did not certify the class, but concluded that the Secretary is obliged to give SSI beneficiaries an opportunity for a hearing before denying them waivers of recoupments. See Page v. Schweiker, 571 F.Supp. 872, 879 (M.D.Pa.1983). The district court ordered the Secretary to submit for its review proposed procedures for implementation of its mandate. Id.

recoupment if the beneficiary is without fault or if equity otherwise requires waiver. 42 U.S.C. Sec. 1383(b) (1982). The Secretary's regulations do not provide for hearings prior to initial waiver determinations, but beneficiaries are entitled to informal hearings upon requests for reconsideration of denials of waivers. See 20 C.F.R. Secs. 416.1413, 416.1415 (1985).

Page urged the district court to order that procedures in place for OASDI waiver decisions be adopted for SSI waiver decisions. The OASDI procedures provide, inter alia, for voluntary cross-program recovery. See U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Program Operation Manual System, Sec. 02270.016(B)(10) (1983). On May 29, 1984, the Secretary submitted a set of proposed procedures that paralleled those used in OASDI cases. The proposal included a provision that persons subject to SSI recoupment receive notice that they might elect to have SSI overpayments withheld from future OASDI benefits.

On June 7, 1984, Page presented the district court with objections to the Secretary's proposed procedures. Among these objections was an allegation that cross-program recoupment is unlawful under 42 U.S.C. Sec. 407, which prohibits transfer or assignment of, or levy against, rights under the SSI program. For reasons that do not appear in the record, the Secretary made no response to Page's objections. On July 2, 1984, the district court held that cross-program recoupment is unlawful, and ordered that the pertinent part of the proposed procedural guidelines be stricken. The district court ordered that the procedures, as amended by its decision, be implemented within sixty days. Page v. Schweiker, 587 F.Supp. 55 (M.D.Pa.1984). On August 15, 1984, the Secretary filed a motion for relief from the judgment under Fed.R.Civ.P. 60(b), alleging "mistake" on the part of the district court in holding cross-program recoupment unlawful. The district court denied the motion, noting that the Secretary had waived this objection by failing to raise it prior to judgment and that the motion further delayed implementation of the new recoupment procedures, and reaffirmed its earlier holding that cross-program recoupment is unlawful. Page v. Schweiker, 596 F.Supp. 1543 (M.D.Pa.1984).

II.

The Secretary first contends that the district court should have granted its motion for relief from judgment because Page lacked standing to challenge the cross-program recoupment provision, thus rendering void its judgment that the provision was unlawful. See Fed.R.Civ.P. 60(b)(4); Marshall v. Board of Education, 575 F.2d 417, 422 (3d Cir.1978). Unlike the grant or denial of other motions under Rule 60(b), which may be reversed only for an abuse of discretion, determinations under 60(b)(4) are subject to plenary review. See Boughner v. Secretary of Health, Education and Welfare, 572 F.2d 976, 977 (3d Cir.1978). The Secretary's motion in the district court, however, was made under 60(b)(1) (providing for relief due to "mistake It is well-established that, absent "compelling circumstances," an appellate court will not reverse on grounds raised for the first time on appeal:

inadvertence, surprise or excusable neglect"), not Rule 60(b)(4), and did not advert to the issue of standing. For the reasons that follow, we decline to address that issue on this appeal from the denial of the Secretary's motion.

This prudential policy seeks to insure that litigants have every opportunity to present their evidence in the forum designed to resolve factual disputes. By requiring parties to present all their legal issues to the district court as well, we preserve the hierarchial nature of the federal courts and encourage ultimate settlement before appeal. It also prevents surprise on appeal and gives the appellate court the benefit of the legal analysis of the trial court.

Patterson v. Cuyler, 729 F.2d 925, 929 (3d Cir.1984). We find here no compelling circumstances that would warrant departure from this prudential doctrine. Indeed, the Secretary had ample opportunity to raise this issue in the underlying action, in a direct appeal therefrom, or in its Rule 60(b) motion. As we discuss below, even now the Secretary may not be foreclosed from litigating this issue in the district court in the first instance. Sound judicial policy requires that they take that route.

Seeking to avoid this result, the Secretary correctly points out that the doctrine of standing is an aspect of the article III limitation of the federal judicial power to "cases" and "controversies." Thus, it goes to the subject matter jurisdiction of the district court and the validity of its judgment ab initio. See Warth v. Seldin, 422 U.S. 490, 498-99, 95 S.Ct. 2197, 2204-05, 45 L.Ed.2d 343 (1975). Because the limited subject matter jurisdiction of the federal courts is so fundamental a concern in our system, the validity of a judgment may be attacked on this ground for the first time on appeal, and "[a]n appellate federal court must satisfy itself not only of its own jurisdiction, but also of that of the lower courts in a cause under review." See Mitchell v. Maurer, 293 U.S. 237, 244, 55 S.Ct. 162, 165, 79 L.Ed. 338 (1934) (footnote omitted); 13 C. Wright, A. Miller & E. Cooper, Federal Practice & Procedure Sec. 3522 (2d ed. 1984). To affirm an order or judgment not within the judicial power of the United States would be as serious a usurpation as issuing such an order in the first instance. That fact, however, does not help the Secretary here. The Secretary appeals from the order denying her Rule 60(b) motion, not from the judgment that she now contends is void. There is no doubt as to the district court's power to issue the order now before us, though--of course--that order may be erroneous. An order is not void merely because it is erroneous. Marshall, 575 F.2d at 422. The Secretary's contention, therefore, stands on no different footing than any other claim of error; absent compelling circumstances it must first be raised in the district court. 1 Because the Secretary's motion in the district We do not, by so limiting our review, necessarily foreclose the Secretary from challenging the validity of the underlying judgment by a subsequent 60(b) motion, by an independent action, or by collateral attack. Indeed, its validity may even be subject to attack in a proceeding for contempt, as the collateral bar rule that prevents attack on an erroneous judgment does not insulate void judgments. United States v. United Mine Workers, 330 U.S. 258, 289-95, 67 S.Ct. 677, 693-97, 91 L.Ed. 884 (1947). A void judgment remains void until such time jurisdiction is finally determined to exist, and, by virtue of the federal courts' "jurisdiction to determine jurisdiction," is elevated by its "bootstraps" to the status of a valid judgment, see United Mine Workers, 330 U.S. at 292 n. 57, 67 S.Ct. at 695 n. 57; Vecchione v. Wohlgemuth, 426 F.Supp. 1297, 1307-1310 (E.D.Pa.) (describing the "bootstrap" principle), aff'd, 558 F.2d 150 (3d Cir.), cert. denied, 434 U.S. 943, 98 S.Ct. 439, 54 L.Ed.2d 304 (1977), or litigation of...

To continue reading

Request your trial
96 cases
  • Denunzio v. Ivy Holdings, Inc. (In re E. Orange Gen. Hosp., Inc.), Civ. No. 17–1595
    • United States
    • U.S. District Court — District of New Jersey
    • June 28, 2018
    ...to grant reconsideration. (Id. at 3) (citing Alexander , 2006 WL 753148, at *6, 2006 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 16564, at *21 ; Page v. Schweiker , 786 F.2d 150, 152 (3d Cir. 1986) ). Because Federal Rule of Bankruptcy Procedure 8003(a)(3) is nearly identical to Federal Rule of Appellate Procedure 3(......
  • R.C. v. Nachman
    • United States
    • U.S. District Court — Middle District of Alabama
    • June 16, 1997
    ...in the consent decree lacked standing, the decree may be subject to attack under 60(b)(4) as "void." See, e.g., Page v. Schweiker, 786 F.2d 150, 153-54 (3d Cir.1986) (noting that lack of standing could be raised in 60(b) motion); Presidential Life Ins. Co. v. Milken, 946 F.Supp. 267, 279-80......
  • Red Ball Interior Demolition Corp. v. Palmadessa
    • United States
    • U.S. District Court — Southern District of New York
    • January 17, 1995
    ...2204-05, 45 L.Ed.2d 343 (1975) (noting that standing is a question of federal courts' subject matter jurisdiction); Page v. Schweiker, 786 F.2d 150, 153 (2d Cir.1986). Defendants have not raised expressly the question of plaintiffs' standing under RICO, but where lack of subject matter juri......
  • E.B. v. Verniero
    • United States
    • U.S. Court of Appeals — Third Circuit
    • September 4, 1997
    ...Valenti, 962 F.2d at 297.12 As with standing, which also "goes to the subject matter jurisdiction of the ... court," Page v. Schweiker, 786 F.2d 150, 153 (3d Cir.1986), jurisdiction over the claims of a single representative plaintiff allows a court to reach the class claims. See Sosna v. I......
  • Request a trial to view additional results

VLEX uses login cookies to provide you with a better browsing experience. If you click on 'Accept' or continue browsing this site we consider that you accept our cookie policy. ACCEPT