Williams v. Richardson, 1017

• Decision Date: 26 September 1975
• Docket Number: No. 1017,D,1017
• Citation: 523 F.2d 999
• Parties: Lillian WILLIAMS, Appellant, v. Elliot L. RICHARDSON, Secretary of Health, Education and Welfare, Appellee. ocket 74-1622.
• Court: U.S. Court of Appeals — Second Circuit

Page 999

523 F.2d 999

Lillian WILLIAMS, Appellant, v. Elliot L. RICHARDSON, Secretary of Health, Education and Welfare, Appellee.

No. 1017, Docket 74-1622.

United States Court of Appeals, Second Circuit.

Submitted June 9, 1975.

Decided Sept. 26, 1975.

George B. Schatz, Lynbrook, N. Y., for appellant.

Carl I. Stewart, Asst. U. S. Atty. (David G. Trager, U. S. Atty., E. D. N. Y., Paul B. Bergman, Asst. U. S. Atty., on the brief), for appellee.

Before FEINBERG, OAKES and VAN GRAAFEILAND, Circuit Judges.

OAKES, Circuit Judge:

This appeal involves the entitlement of a child to insurance benefits under Section 202(d) of the Social Security Act, 42 U.S.C. § 402(d). ¹ That entitlement is dependent on the status of the infant as a "child" of the deceased wage earner under Section 216(e) of the Act, 42 U.S.C. § 416(e). ² The wage earner here, James Williams, was foreclosed by the law of his domicile, West Virginia, from legally adopting the infant here, his grandson Wendell Lee Williams. West Virginia requires a six months' waiting period before adoption proceedings may be even initiated, ³ and James Williams died two months after his grandson was born. A hearing examiner held, however, that the infant was "equitably adopted" under the law of West Virginia by his grandfather, and hence that he may be deemed under § 216(e) to be the legally adopted child of the wage earner. ⁴ The Appeals Council of the Social Security Administration, without specifying whether it was talking about the West Virginia law of "equitable adoption," reversed the hearing examiner and denied benefits on the basis that "(t)here can be no equitable adoption without sufficient lapse of time so that the child could have been legally adopted under applicable state law before the wage earner's death." The Appeals Council also held that the fact that the grandmother, Lillian Williams, did adopt the child Three years after her husband's death was immaterial. It made no mention of the hearing examiner's finding that she was unable to do so within the two years referred to in Section 216(e)(1)(B)(i) of the Act, 42 U.S.C. § 416(e)(1)(B)(i), because she had no funds, was unemployed and unable to defray the expenses of a West Virginia adoption proceeding. ⁵ Appellant's petition to review the Appeals Council ruling was denied by the United States District Court for the Eastern District of New York, Walter Bruchhausen, Judge, without discussion of the legal points, on the basis that it was supported by substantial evidence. We reverse.

The facts are simple, compelling and not in dispute. The infant was born on January 29, 1958, in James and Lillian Williams' West Virginia home, the son of their 14-year-old unmarried, and sometimes institutionalized daughter, Geraldine. The child has lived with his grandparents all his life and at all times he was treated and supported financially by them as if he were their child. The doctor who delivered him, the mother, other members of the family, and friends all corroborated the immediate and constant intention of the grandparents to adopt Wendell because of his mother's age and mental impairments. Indeed, when Wendell was less than two months old, his grandparents went to the local courthouse to commence formal proceedings, but were advised of West Virginia's mandatory six months' waiting period prior to the filing of all petitions for legal adoption.

Shortly thereafter, on March 11, 1958, James Williams died of a cerebral hemorrhage. With a resultant lack of funds, Lillian Williams, his wife and Wendell's grandmother, could not pursue formal adoption procedures until more than two years after her husband's death. The legal adoption proceedings were pursued to completion on November 13, 1961.

The Secretary argues that under Section 216(e)(1), note 2 Supra, the child, Wendell, could not be "deemed" to be James Williams' legally adopted child within the meaning of subparagraph (A) since "proceedings for the adoption of the child" had not been "instituted by (James Williams) before his death. The Secretary also maintains that subparagraph (B) of Section 216(e)(1) cannot apply here since Wendell was not "legally adopted by (James Williams') surviving spouse" before the end of two years after his death. The Secretary further argues that there could be no "equitable adoption" by James Williams under, E.g., Davis v. Celebrezze, 239 F.Supp. 608 (S.D.W.Va.1965), since West Virginia law imposes a six-month waiting period before adoption proceedings can be commenced, 14 W.Va. Code § 48-4-1(b), and the law of "equitable adoption" may apply only if the adoption in question could have been legally effected. Spiegel v. Flemming, 181 F.Supp. 185, 188-89 (N.D.Ohio 1960). Here no legal adoption could have been effected by James Williams during his lifetime since his death occurred prior to the expiration of the six months' waiting period.

While respectable arguments to the contrary of each of the first and third points may be made, ⁶ we need not decide the issues they raise, for here it is clear enough under Section 216(e)(1)(B) that Lillian Williams, the appellant and the child's grandmother, did equitably adopt Wendell within two years after James', the wage earner's death.

The concept of adoption in equity is recognized both by the Secretary and by courts for the purpose of allowing benefits absent strict compliance with statutory requirements. Broussard v. Weinberger, 499 F.2d 969 (5th Cir. 1974) (equitably adopted child entitled to Social Security Act life insurance benefits); Smith v. Secretary of Health, Education and Welfare, 431 F.2d 1241 (5th Cir. 1970) (equitably adopted child entitled to disability insurance benefits); Davis v. Celebrezze, supra, 239 F.Supp. at 610-11 (equitably adopted child entitled to child insurance benefits).

Under Section 216(e)(1)(B) the child, Wendell, may be deemed to be the "legally adopted child" of the wage earner James Williams if "such child was adopted" by Lillian Williams within two years of James' death. The questions for us are whether there was an equitable adoption by the grandmother, Lillian Williams, within two years of the death of her husband, the wage earner, under West Virginia law and whether an equitable adoption by the spouse within two years satisfies the Section 216(e) requirements.

The equitable adoption doctrine is an established tradition in West Virginia: Smith v. Richardson, 347 F.Supp. 265 (S.D.W.Va.1972); Meadows v. Richardson, 347 F.Supp. 154 (S.D.W.Va.1972); Pittsenbarger v. Richardson, 345 F.Supp. 1281 (S.D.W.Va.1972); Slaughter v. Gardner, 292 F.Supp. 568 (S.D.W.Va.1968); Davis v. Celebrezze, supra.

The undisputed evidence requires the conclusion that an equitable adoption of Wendell by Lillian under West Virginia law did take place. After Wendell's statutorily required six months of living in the Williams home, that is to say, after July 29, 1958, there was no impediment under West Virginia law to Wendell's legal adoption by his grandmother, Lillian Williams, and thus no impediment to the occurrence of equitable adoption. See Spiegel v. Flemming, supra.

The acts and conduct of the parties here, Lillian and her daughter Geraldine, the 14-year-old mother, provide the requisite "clear, strong, and satisfactory evidence" that it was the intention of both the adopting and real parent in mutual, though unwritten, agreement that Lillian Williams adopt Wendell. See Meadows v. Richardson, supra. The hearing examiner found that

(s)ubsequent to the birth of the child . . . the mother of the child, Geraldine Williams, and the claimant and the wage earner agreed among themselves that because of the youth of the mother of the child, and her mental impairments that in the best interest of the child the wage earner and the claimant would adopt this child as their own.

Although the hearing examiner focused in his findings upon the agreement between the parties before the wage earner's death, the only evidence is that the same agreement and intentions of the mother and grandmother prevailed six months after the birth of the child and constitute clear, continuing, unchallenged evidence of an equitable adoption at that time. Between the time of the wage earner's death and the ultimate legal adoption in November, 1961, and indeed until the date of the hearing, the child lived solely with his grandmother and was supported wholly by his grandmother; he was never even informed that his natural mother was Geraldine. As in Davis v. Celebrezze, supra, completion of formal adoption proceedings prior to November, 1961, was "only prevented from taking place earlier by the . . . lack of money to pay the costs of the adoption . . . ." 239 F.Supp. at 611-12.

The question remaining for decision, then, is whether Congress intended in Section 216(e)(1)(B) to require that a child, to be "legally adopted by (the wage earner's) surviving spouse," be adopted in formal court proceedings within the two-year period of that provision, or whether it is sufficient that the law of the locality recognize the concept of equitable adoption as a part of its adoption law, and that the child be equitably adopted, without formal proceedings, within the two-year period. We take the latter interpretation in the light of the remedial policies underlying the Act as a whole, as to which see, E. g., Norton v. Richardson, 352 F.Supp. 596 (D.Md.1972); Branch v. Finch, 313 F.Supp. 337 (D.Kan.1970).

The legislative history of the Act reveals little of specific moment to the narrow problem of construction we have here. The Senate Report on the 1958 Act which added the original language of subparagraph (B) relating to adoption by the wage earner's surviving spouse does not discuss whether the phrase "legally adopted" was intended to encompass all adoptive relationships which have legal efficacy under state law or was designed to prescribe the manner in which the relationship is created. ⁷ Congress knows...