Wilcox v. Petit, Civ. No. 85-0342-P.
| Decision Date | 09 February 1987 |
| Docket Number | Civ. No. 85-0342-P. |
| Citation | 653 F. Supp. 709 |
| Parties | Gloria WILCOX, et al., Plaintiffs, v. Michael PETIT, et al., Defendants. |
| Court | U.S. District Court — District of Maine |
Thomas H. Kelley, Pine Tree Legal Assistance, Portland, Me., Mary T. Henderson, Pine Tree Legal, Augusta, Me., for plaintiffs.
Robert E. Mittel, Portland, Me., for Pam Moreau.
Raymond E. Ritchie, Leigh I. Saufley, Katherine Greason, Asst. Attys. Gen., Augusta, Me., for defendants.
Richard S. Cohen, U.S. Atty., F. Mark Terison, David R. Collins, Paula D. Silsby, Asst. U.S. Attys., Portland, Me., (Joyce Elise McCourt, Asst. Regional Atty., Boston, Mass., of counsel), for Otis Bowen, Sec. of H & HS.
Carmen L. Coulombe, Asst. Atty. Gen., Augusta, Me., for Michael R. Petit.
ORDER DENYING DEFENDANT'S MOTION FOR RELIEF FROM ORDER
Defendant Bowen has moved for relief from an order of this Court denying his earlier Motion to Dismiss or in the Alternative for Summary Judgment. Wilcox v. Petit, 649 F.Supp. 685 (D.Me.1986). 649 F.Supp. 685. After careful consideration, the Court concludes that the Defendant's motion must be denied.
Contrary to the assertion in the Secretary's motion for relief, the Court has never suggested that multiple pass-through payments are actually made when monthly child support is paid in small installments. It simply presented this scenario as a hypothetical consequence of the position it understood the Secretary to be taking: that one pass-through is to be made per payment received by the government, regardless of whether the sum represents child support for one month, two months, or half a month. In his motion the Secretary appears to agree that this is his interpretation, except that he also reads the statute as placing a $50 per month cap on the amount that can be passed through. This view is simply not supported by the statutory language.
The language of the statute in question is cumbersome, but it is not ambiguous. It reads:
the first $50 of such amounts as are collected periodically which represent monthly support payments shall be paid to the family....
42 U.S.C. § 657(b)(1).
An amount which represents a monthly support payment is simply the amount of the monthly support obligation (much as "an amount that represents a year's salary" means the amount that one earns in a year, or "an amount that represents a monthly mortgage payment" means the amount of the monthly mortgage obligation). The statute instructs that the first...
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Wilcox v. Ives, 88-1371
...court. Wilcox v. Petit, 649 F.Supp. 685 (D.Me.1986). A subsequent motion for relief from this order was also denied. Wilcox v. Petit, 653 F.Supp. 709 (D.Me.1987). A motion by plaintiffs for class certification was granted. Wilcox v. Petit, 117 F.R.D. 314 The class includes AFDC families whe......
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Wilcox v. Ives, Civ. No. 85-0342-P.
...the family." Federal Defendant's Memorandum in Support of his Motion for Judgment on the Stipulated Record at 11. 6 In Wilcox v. Petit, 653 F.Supp. 709, 710-11 (D.Me.1987), the Court addressed this The language of the statute in question is cumbersome, but it is not ambiguous. It reads: the......
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Humble v. Department of Public Aid, 2-87-0424
...payment is received in a month. 671 F.Supp. at 918-19. In Wilcox v. Petit (D.Me.1986), 649 F.Supp. 685, reaff'd on reconsideration (1987), 653 F.Supp. 709, the court held that when a child support payment which is due in a certain month arrives the following month, the AFDC family is entitl......