Robinson v. Gardner
Decision Date | 07 March 1967 |
Docket Number | No. 10407,10546.,10407 |
Citation | 374 F.2d 949 |
Parties | Ethelle B. ROBINSON, Appellee, v. John W. GARDNER, Secretary, Department of Health, Education, and Welfare, Appellant (two cases). |
Court | U.S. Court of Appeals — Fourth Circuit |
William Kanter, Atty., Dept. of Justice (John W. Douglas, Asst. Atty. Gen., Kathryn H. Baldwin, Atty., Dept. of Justice, and John C. Williams, U. S. Atty., on brief), for appellant.
Before HAYNSWORTH, Chief Judge, and BRYAN and CRAVEN, Circuit Judges.
Fees of 50% of past-due Social Security payments, 42 U.S.C. § 402 et seq., owing to Ethelle B. Robinson were allowed to her attorney by the District Court on September 10, 1965 on her petition in her action for recovery of such benefits. The Secretary of Health, Education and Welfare appeals.
Appellant's point is that as the award indisputably comprehended not only counsel's services in the suit but also those at the administrative stages of the claim, the award was illegal. Since we think the Court was without jurisdiction to decree compensation for professional representation within HEW, we vacate the order, and remand for reconsideration of the petition.
The application of Ethelle Robinson for disability benefits under the Act, §§ 216 (i) and 223, 42 U.S.C. §§ 416(i) and 423, was filed on June 20, 1961, denied by the Bureau of Old Age and Survivors Insurance on September 27, and refused reconsideration March 20, 1962. Thereupon she engaged an attorney who obtained and appeared in a hearing before a Social Security examiner. Again her claim failed, despite the prosecution of it by counsel to a final administrative decision in April 1963.
The attorney then filed the present suit on May 18, 1963 under § 205(g) of the Act, 42 U.S.C. § 405(g), for a review of this decision. Although the claimant and attorney were prepared for trial, the Secretary prior to the hearing in the District Court moved and procured on June 9, 1965 a remand of the claim to HEW to take additional evidence. The upshot was an honoring of the claim. The matured instalments amounted to about $3679.50 at the time the petition for the attorney's compensation was presented to the Court. His entitlement was confirmed by a contract, still avouched by his client, for a contingent fee to him of 50 percent of the accumulated moneys.
The matter of fees for legal services performed within HEW on Social Security claims has been committed by statute to the responsibility of the Secretary exclusively. This customary province of the courts has been preempted by Congress. Hence, to the extent the District Court's allowance here is for services in the Department, the reimbursement cannot stand. Nor does the client's consent to recompense her lawyer in this sum or manner remove the allotment from the Secretary's control.
The Social Security Act, § 206, 42 U.S. C. § 406, and the Secretary's authorized regulations speak unequivocally and completely to these points, thus by statute:
The regulations provide:
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