West v. Cole

• Citation: 390 F. Supp. 91
• Decision Date: 19 February 1975
• Docket Number: No. GC 74-77-K.,GC 74-77-K.
• Parties: Larry WEST, a minor by his mother, Emma West, as next friend, et al., Plaintiffs, v. Max M. COLE, Individually and as Director of the Mississippi State Department of Public Welfare, et al., Defendants.
• Court: U.S. District Court — Northern District of Mississippi

390 F. Supp. 91

Larry WEST, a minor by his mother, Emma West, as next friend, et al., Plaintiffs, v. Max M. COLE, Individually and as Director of the Mississippi State Department of Public Welfare, et al., Defendants.

No. GC 74-77-K.

United States District Court, N. D. Mississippi, Greenville Division.

February 19, 1975.

COPYRIGHT MATERIAL OMITTED

Stanley L. Taylor, Oxford, Miss., Barry H. Powell, Jackson, Miss., for plaintiffs.

NLSP Center on Social Welfare Policy and Law, Inc., by Adele M. Blong, William Rutzick, Richard Gabriele, New York City, of counsel.

Thomas E. Childs, Asst. Atty. Gen., Jackson, Miss., for defendants.

Falton O. Mason, Jr., Asst. U. S. Atty., Oxford, Miss., Carl H. Harper, Atlanta, Ga., for HEW as amicus curiae.

MEMORANDUM OPINION

KEADY, Chief Judge.

In this class action plaintiffs seek injunctive and declaratory relief, under 42 U.S.C. § 1983, against the refusal of Mississippi state and county officials to certify for Medicaid assistance minor children currently receiving Supplemental Security Income disability payments under 42 U.S.C. § 1381 et seq. After a preliminary hearing at which the court declined to grant temporary relief, the parties waived further evidentiary hearing and submitted the case for a merits determination on the pleadings, stipulated facts, interrogatories, answers thereto, and briefs of counsel. Pursuant to the court's request, the Secretary of Health, Education, and Welfare presented a brief as amicus curiae.

Plaintiffs and the subclasses which they represent consist of all children under the age of 18 residing in Mississippi who are presently receiving Supplemental Security Income (SSI) disability payments and who, except for the fact that they are receiving SSI payments, would be eligible for Aid to Families with Dependent Children (AFDC) benefits under the AFDC standards in effect in Mississippi on January 1, 1972; all recipients of SSI disability payments under the age of 18 who would be eligible for Medicaid assistance except for the fact that they are less than 18 years old; and all caretaker relatives of these child-plaintiff subclasses.¹

Defendants, who are sued individually and in their official capacities, are Max M. Cole, Commissioner of the Mississippi State Department of Public Welfare, Thomas O. Metcalfe, Jr., Director of the Mississippi Medicaid Commission, and Raymond G. Messer, Sr. and Roy E. Povall, Directors respectively of the Washington County and Hinds County Departments of Public Welfare.² Defendants Messer and Povall are also sued as representatives of the class consisting of all directors of county departments of public welfare.

The named plaintiffs include three families whose personal circumstances are typical of the conditions shared by the plaintiff class.

Emma West lives with her seven children at Hollandale in Washington County. Six of her children are without disability, and they receive a total of $96 per month in AFDC benefits. The seventh child, 10 year old Larry, suffered severe brain damage when he was 5 and is now receiving federal SSI disability benefits. Soon after Larry's SSI benefits began, however, the county department of public welfare, pursuant to a Mississippi Welfare Department directive, terminated his Medicaid benefits, which he had been receiving continuously since before January 1, 1972.

Christine Williams also resides in Hollandale with her two children and disabled mother. She currently receives $28 per month in AFDC benefits for one of the children. The other, 13 year old Sandra, is severely retarded and recently began receiving SSI disability benefit payments. When SSI benefits began for Sandra, the county department of public welfare, as it had done in the case of Larry West, terminated the Medicaid benefits which Sandra had been receiving, together with AFDC payments, continuously since before January 1, 1972.

Finally among the named plaintiffs, Cynthia Ann Lofton is an 8 year old victim of cerebral palsy, living with her mother and seven brothers and sisters. The Loftons' total monthly income consists of $108 in AFDC benefits and Cynthia Ann's $146 SSI check. Prior to SSI, Cynthia Ann had received Medicaid and had been included in her family's AFDC budget, although the family, because of its size, was already receiving maximum AFDC benefits. Thus, if Cynthia Ann foregoes SSI to qualify for Medicaid and AFDC, her family will receive no additional AFDC benefits; as matters now stand, her SSI qualification deprives her of Medicaid benefits.

Although this case involves a statutory maze of extraordinary complexity, the essential controversy between the parties may be simply stated. As disabled individuals of low income status, plaintiffs qualify for cash assistance under the federally-run SSI program. Many also qualify for the less lucrative cash benefits of the federally-assisted but state-operated AFDC plan.³ Further, since they are physically disabled, the plaintiff children have pressing medical needs which, owing to their poverty, may be met only through the federally-assisted but state-administered Medicaid program. Plaintiffs claim entitlement to both the higher cash benefits of the SSI program and the medical care provided by the Medicaid assistance plan. Defendants contend that federal law does not require that both SSI and Medicaid benefits be made available to plaintiffs. Defendants' position is that because of the interaction of federal and state law, plaintiffs must elect to receive benefits either under the SSI plan or under both the AFDC and Medicaid programs; under the defendants' interpretation, plaintiffs cannot forego the lesser AFDC payment and reap the benefits of both SSI and Medicaid.

I.

Before addressing the merits of this controversy, we must first deal with defendants' contention that the case involves restraint of the enforcement of state statutes, thus requiring the convening of a three-judge court pursuant to 28 U.S.C. § 2281. In their amended complaint, plaintiffs seek relief under three causes of action. Under the first and second causes of action, plaintiffs request declaratory and injunctive relief against enforcement of a state statute and concomitant statewide regulations on the ground that the statute and regulations conflict with a federal statute and therefore violate the Supremacy Clause. Under the third cause of action, plaintiffs challenge the state plan as violative of the Equal Protection Clause, but seek only declaratory relief.

With respect to the first two causes of action, it is well settled that allegations of Supremacy Clause violations do not require three-judge court treatment. Shea v. Vialpando, 416 U.S. 251, 94 S.Ct. 1746, 40 L.Ed.2d 120 (1974); Hagans v. Lavine, 415 U.S. 528, 94 S.Ct. 1372, 39 L.Ed.2d 577 (1974); Swift & Co. v. Wickham, 382 U.S. 111, 86 S.Ct. 258, 15 L.Ed.2d 194 (1965). Also, even where, as in the third cause of action, a state statute is challenged as violative of some other constitutional provision which might ordinarily occasion a three-judge court, a three-judge court is nevertheless improper if only declaratory relief is sought. Kennedy v. Mendoza-Martinez, 372 U.S. 144, 83 S.Ct. 554, 9 L.Ed.2d 644 (1963); Sands v. Wainwright, 491 F.2d 417 (5 Cir. 1973); Triple A Realty v. Florida Real Estate Commission, 468 F. 2d 245 (5 Cir. 1972).

These familiar principles, when considered in light of the narrow construction judicially accorded the three-judge court statute, require us to conclude that a three-judge court is not required in this case. With jurisdiction properly invoked under 28 U.S.C. §§ 1331, 1343, 2201 and 2202, this single-judge court is competent to adjudicate the issues raised by the complaint.

II.

In attempting to unravel the complicated questions presented in the case sub judice, it is essential that the basic structure of the pertinent welfare programs be understood.

Prior to January 1, 1974, there were four categorical assistance welfare programs, consisting of Old Age Assistance (Title I), Aid to Families with Dependent Children (Title IV), Aid to the Blind (Title X), and Aid to the Permanently and Totally Disabled (Title XIV). Each program provided cash assistance and was administered by the states, pursuant to the provisions of the Social Security Act, 42 U.S.C. § 301 et seq. On January 1, 1974, however, the Old Age Assistance, Aid to the Blind, and Aid to the Permanently and Totally Disabled programs were terminated by Congress and replaced by the Supplemental Security Income Program (SSI), a fully federally-funded and federally-administered program of cash benefits to the aged, blind and disabled. 42 U.S.C. § 1381 et seq. Administration of the Aid to Families with Dependent Children (AFDC) program was left to the states, although the bulk of AFDC funds are federally supplied.

Even though designed to supplant three of the four categorical assistance plans, the SSI program did effect several changes in the scope of aid to the aged, blind and disabled. Prior to SSI, disabled persons under 18 years of age were ineligible for disability benefits under the old Aid to the Permanently and Totally Disabled program. Under the former plan, disabled individuals under 18 could qualify only for AFDC benefits. Under SSI, disability benefits are extended to otherwise eligible disabled persons of all ages. 42 U.S.C. § 1382c(a)(3). Another, more significant change wrought by SSI was the liberalization of the income eligibility and benefit levels, which provide substantially more assistance to a greater number of people than under the three former state-administered plans. Finally, and as previously noted, Congress specified that any individual who qualified for and received SSI payments was no longer eligible for cash benefits under AFDC. 42 U.S.C. § 602(a) (24).

In addition to the SSI and AFDC cash assistance programs, Congress has enacted the federally-assisted but state-administered Medicaid Assistance...