Redden v. Celebrezze
| Citation | 370 F.2d 373 |
| Decision Date | 08 December 1966 |
| Docket Number | No. 10156,10160.,10156 |
| Parties | Lovel REDDEN, Appellant, v. Anthony J. CELEBREZZE, Secretary of Health, Education and Welfare, Appellee. James B. LAMBERT, Appellant, v. Anthony J. CELEBREZZE, Secretary of Health, Education and Welfare, Appellee. |
| Court | U.S. Court of Appeals — Fourth Circuit |
In Lambert v. Celebrezze, 4 Cir., 361 F.2d 677, and Redden v. Celebrezze, 4 Cir., 361 F.2d 815, we held that the maximum fee allowable to the attorney for the claimant of disability benefits under the Social Security Act was twenty-five per cent of the accrued benefits payable to the claimant and his dependents by reason of the Court's judgment. In petitions for rehearing, the Secretary urges that we revise our holding to limit the fee base to accrued benefits held to be payable to the claimant on his own behalf. The matter has received the consideration of the entire Court, which now reaffirms en banc the earlier decisions of its panel.
Section 332 of the Act1 authorizes the Court in such cases to fix and allow a reasonable fee for services rendered to such a claimant in judicial proceedings, but provides that no such fee may exceed "25 per cent of the total of the past-due benefits to which the claimant is entitled by reason of such judgment." The Secretary is authorized to pay a fee so allowed directly to the attorney out of the benefits otherwise payable to his client, and the attorney is prohibited from charging more.
The provision for judicial determination of the fee and the insertion of a statutory maximum was prompted by reports that exorbitant fees had been charged and collected by lawyers representing claimants of Social Security benefits in the federal courts,2 but we find nothing in the legislative history of the statute which enlightens us concerning the congressional intention expressed in the words "past-due benefits to which the claimant is entitled by reason of such judgment."
The words are susceptible to a narrow, literal interpretation which would limit the fee basis to the accrued benefits payable to the claimant on his own behalf, excluding entirely the benefits payable on the claims of dependents. Some members of the Court are inclined to read the statute that way. A majority, however, reads the statute more broadly.
To place the problem in focus, we may refer to the Redden case as illustrative. Redden, claiming physical incapacity for any work, filed a claim for disability benefits on his own behalf. He also filed an application for insurance benefits for his seven children, and, in that application, he is listed as the applicant. While any benefits received by him pursuant to that application would be for the support and maintenance of his children, he is still the applicant in a literal and substantive sense. His wife, as applicant, filed a separate application for benefits to a wife of a disabled insured individual. Any benefits payable on that application, of course, would be paid directly to the wife, but would, within an active family unit, inure to the benefit of the husband substantially to the same extent as if they were paid directly to him.
The interdependence of the claims is readily apparent in the Act, itself. Their interrelation provides an overall family benefit measurable in part by the number of dependent family members. Under 42 U.S.C.A. § 402, a wife of a disabled insured husband is not entitled to benefits if she is under the age of 62 and has no children who are under the age of 18 and entitled to benefits. A child is entitled to benefits only if under the age of 18 and dependent for normal support upon the insured parent. Section 403 provides maximum limitations upon the overall family benefits. To that extent, they are clearly lumped together. Moreover, under § 405(b) after an administrative decision, a dependent has a right to become a formal party to the administrative proceedings and to a hearing, and, under § 405(g), any such dependent who becomes a party to the administrative proceedings has a right to obtain judicial review of the primary claim of the insured individual.
In the absence of particularized questions of the qualification of a dependent claimant, his age or his relation to or dependence upon the insured individual, all of the claims are of a part. In these cases, and in the usual disability insurance case, the only real issue is the disability of the insured individual. Once that is established, allowance of the claims of the other qualified members of the family is substantially automatic. Surely the primary claimant's interest is not...
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Sumler v. Bowen
...of McKittrick v. Gardner, 378 F.2d 872 (4th Cir.1967), which amplified the Fourth Circuit's earlier en banc decision in Redden v. Celebrezze, 370 F.2d 373 (4th Cir.1966), and in the numerous progeny of McKittrick including, but not limited to, Webb v. Richardson, 472 F.2d 529 (6th In Redden......
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...Blankenship v. Gardner, supra, 256 F. Supp. at 410. See McKittrick v. Gardner, 378 F.2d 872, 874 (4th Cir. 1967); Redden v. Celebrezze, 370 F.2d 373, 376 (4th Cir. 1966). This case illustrates the validity of the concern expressed by Judge Michie in the Blankenship Moreover, the accrual of ......
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Losco v. Bowen, 84 Civ. 3971.
...v. Weinberger, 512 F.2d 144, 146 (9th Cir.1975); see Lewis v. Secretary of HHS, 707 F.2d 246, 248 (6th Cir.1983); Redden v. Celebrezze, 370 F.2d 373, 376 (4th Cir.1966); Snizaski v. Heckler, 602 F.Supp. 1119, 1122 (W.D.Pa.1985). Rather, in determining an appropriate fee, the district court,......
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Stocks v. Sullivan
...to this amount. It is well recognized that, in many cases, a reasonable fee will be less than the statutory maximum. Redden v. Celebrezze, 370 F.2d 373, 376 (4th Cir.1966); In re Colasurd, 819 F.2d 149, 150 (6th Cir.1987). Courts are also in agreement that routine approval of the statutory ......