Washington v. Secretary of Health and Human Services
| Decision Date | 29 September 1983 |
| Docket Number | No. 82-5572,82-5572 |
| Citation | 718 F.2d 608 |
| Parties | Benjamin F. WASHINGTON, Appellant, v. SECRETARY OF HEALTH AND HUMAN SERVICES. . Submitted Under Third Circuit Rule 12(6) |
| Court | U.S. Court of Appeals — Third Circuit |
Benjamin F. Washington, pro se.
W. Hunt Dumont, U.S. Atty., Newark, N.J., Jerome B. Simandle, Asst. U.S. Atty., Trenton, N.J., for appellee.
Before HUNTER, GARTH and MARIS, Circuit Judges.
The plaintiff, Benjamin F. Washington, an inmate of the New Jersey State Prison at Trenton who is serving a sentence imposed following his conviction of a felony, appeals from the decision of the district court dismissing his complaint against the defendant, the Secretary of Health and Human Services, for terminating, pursuant to the mandate of the amendatory Act of October 19, 1980, Pub.L. No. 96-473, 94 Stat. 2263, 2265, his disability payments under the Social Security Act. For the reasons hereinafter stated we affirm.
The plaintiff argues in this court that he has been denied both procedural and substantive due process of law by the defendant's action terminating his disability payments. So far as concerns procedural due process, the claim is utterly devoid of merit. The plaintiff was given notice and an opportunity to submit relevant facts and thereafter to have an evidentiary hearing before an administrative law judge. Instead he chose, as he was authorized to do by relevant regulations, to waive such administrative procedure, accept the factual determination of the defendant and proceed at once to an expedited hearing before the district court on his legal claims. Having agreed in writing to this waiver and expedited procedure, he cannot now be heard to contend that he has been denied the procedural right to an administrative hearing which he formally waived.
We turn then to the plaintiff's claim that the defendant's action deprived him of property without due process of law. The statute under which the defendant terminated the disability payments which had been previously granted to the plaintiff was the Act of October 19, 1980, Pub.L. No. 96-473, 94 Stat. 2263, 2265, which amended section 223 of the Social Security Act by adding, inter alia, subsection (f)(1) reading as follows:
Notwithstanding any other provision of this subchapter, no monthly benefits shall be paid under this section, or under section 402(d) of this title by reason of being under a disability, to any individual for any month during which such individual is confined in a jail, prison, or other penal institution or correctional facility, pursuant to his conviction of an offense which constituted a felony under applicable law, unless such individual is actively and satisfactorily participating in a rehabilitation program which has been specifically approved for such individual by a court of law and, as determined by the Secretary, is expected to result in such individual being able to engage in substantial gainful activity upon release and within a reasonable time.
42 U.S.C.A. Sec. 423(f)(1). In Senate Report No. 96-987, 96th Cong., 2nd Sess., upon the bill, H.R. 5295, which became the Act of 1980, the committee stated:
The committee believes that the basic purposes of the social security program are not served by the unrestricted payment of benefits to individuals who are in prison or whose eligibility arises from the commission of a crime. The disability program exists to provide a continuing source of monthly income to those whose earnings are cut off because they have suffered a severe disability. The need for this continuing source of income is clearly absent in the case of an individual who is being maintained at public expense in prison. The basis for his lack of other income in such circumstances must be considered to be marginally related to his impairment at best.
The committee bill therefore would require the suspension of benefits to any individual who would otherwise be receiving them on the basis of disability while he is imprisoned by reason of a felony conviction. This suspension would apply except to the extent that a court of law specifically provides to the...
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