Roberts v. Harder

• Decision Date: 29 March 1971
• Docket Number: Docket 35816.,No. 714,714
• Citation: 440 F.2d 1229
• Parties: Annie Mae ROBERTS, on her own behalf and Anne Douglas, on her own behalf, and all others similarly situated, Plaintiffs-Appellants, v. John HARDER, individually and as Commissioner of Welfare of the State of Connecticut, Defendant-Appellee.
• Court: U.S. Court of Appeals — Second Circuit

440 F.2d 1229 (1971)

Annie Mae ROBERTS, on her own behalf and Anne Douglas, on her own behalf, and all others similarly situated, Plaintiffs-Appellants, v. John HARDER, individually and as Commissioner of Welfare of the State of Connecticut, Defendant-Appellee.

No. 714, Docket 35816.

United States Court of Appeals, Second Circuit.

Argued March 19, 1971.

Decided March 29, 1971.

David M. Lesser, New Haven, Conn. (William H. Clendenen, Jr., Kenneth R. Kreiling, Margaret Freeston, New Haven, Conn. on the brief), for plaintiffs-appellants.

James M. Higgins, Asst. Atty. Gen. (Robert K. Killian, Atty. Gen. of the State of Connecticut, on the brief), for defendant-appellee.

Before MOORE and SMITH, Circuit Judges, and TIMBERS,^* District Judge.

J. JOSEPH SMITH, Circuit Judge:

This is an appeal from an order, 320 F.Supp. 1313, of the United States District Court for the District of Connecticut, M. Joseph Blumenfeld, Judge, dismissing plaintiff-appellant's complaint which seeks to enjoin certain provisions of the Connecticut welfare laws as unconstitutional. We find no error and affirm the judgment.

The appellant, Mrs. Annie Mae Roberts, is a recipient of welfare benefits under the Aid to Families with Dependent Children program. In January, 1970 Mrs. Roberts did not receive her regular monthly welfare check apparently because it was either never sent or lost in the mail. She applied for a reissuance of the check which she received on January 23, 1970. In the meantime she had been unable to pay her rent which had been due on January 1, 1970. On January 14, 1970 Mrs. Roberts' landlord applied to the Welfare Department to have that part of the assistance award allocated to rent to be paid directly to him pursuant to Connecticut General Statutes 17-2f which provide (in part):

(a) In any case involving a tenancy from month to month or for a term of years calling for monthly rental payments, upon written complaint, under oath, made by the landlord of a welfare recipient, to the district director of the welfare district office handling the welfare payment in such case, that such welfare recipient has failed to make payment of rent for the current month, after ten days subsequent to the date when such rent was due, all subsequent rental payments, until the termination of the tenancy or until the tenant quits the premises, shall be made directly to the landlord, and the amount of such rental shall not be included in the payment made to such welfare recipient.

The appellant contends that this statute violates the Equal Protection and Due Process Clauses of the Fourteenth Amendment. The court below did not find it necessary to reach any determination as to the merits of appellant's claims, since it was of the view that the court lacked the requisite subject matter jurisdiction under 28 U.S.C. § 1343(3). We agree with the district court's conclusions in this regard.

This court has recently had occasion to comment on the jurisdictional problems raised by section 1343 with some frequency. Eisen v. Eastman, 421 F.2d 560 (2d Cir. 1969); Rosado v. Wyman, 414 F.2d 170 (2d Cir. 1969); Johnson v. Harder, 438 F.2d 7 (2 Cir. 1971); Tichon v. Harder, 438 F.2d 1396 (2 Cir. 1971). The basic issue as set forth in these cases revolves around the distinction first made by Mr. Justice Stone in Hague v. C. I. O., 307 U.S. 496, 59 S.Ct. 954, 83 L.Ed. 1423 (1939), which establishes jurisdiction under section 1343 only in those cases where "personal" as opposed to "property" rights are at issue. In Johnson we further...