Bowen v. Hackett

387 F. Supp. 1212, 1975 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 14329
CourtDistrict Court, D. Rhode Island
DecidedJanuary 16, 1975
DocketCiv. A. 5038 and 5043
StatusPublished
Cited by32 cases

This text of 387 F. Supp. 1212 (Bowen v. Hackett) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court, D. Rhode Island primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Bowen v. Hackett, 387 F. Supp. 1212, 1975 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 14329 (D.R.I. 1975).

Opinion

OPINION

PETTINE, Chief Judge.

The plaintiffs, in these consolidated actions, on behalf of themselves, and others similarly situated, filed suit challenging those sections of the Rhode Island Unemployment Insurance Act and Temporary Disability Insurance Act, (hereinafter “TDI”) and the administrative procedures thereunder which routinely provided for children’s dependency benefits to unemployed males while requiring females to prove dependency to the satisfaction of the Director. During the pendency of this litigation, the statutes in question were amended by the legislature to remove the challenged clauses and the case was remanded to a single judge for determination with regard to declaratory judgment and entitlement to retroactive payments.

On July 13, 1973, this Court ruled that the prior statute and procedures of the defendant had been unconstitutional, stating that “[t]he clause ‘provided, however, where the individual making the claim is a woman, the dependency status of such children shall be established to the satisfaction of the director’ contained in both R.I.G.L. § 28-44-6(C) and § 28-41-5(C) violates the equal protection clause of the Fourteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution.” 361 F.Supp. 854, 862 (D.R.I.1973). The question of back payments was reserved pending the outcome of Edelman v. Jordan, 41 U.S.L.W. 3602 (U.S. 1973).

*1215 On March 25, 1974, the Supreme Court held that an award of retroactive benefits to recipients of the Illinois Aid to the Aged, Blind and Disabled (AABD) program was barred under the Eleventh Amendment to the United States Constitution. Edelman v. Jordan, 415 U.S. 651, 94 S.Ct. 1347, 39 L.Ed.2d 662 (1974). In light of that decision, this Court requested parties for both sides to submit briefs on the question of whether retroactive payments in this case were barred under the principle of Edelman v. Jordan.

The two broad issues now before the Court with regard to retroactive payments are:

1) does the Eleventh Amendment bar such an award as against the State, and;

2) even if the Eleventh Amendment does not bar such an award, are retroactive payments justified in this case on a “balancing of the equities”. See Rothstein v. Wyman, 467 F.2d 226, 234 (2d Cir. 1972); Jordan v. Weaver, 472 F.2d 985, 993 n. 14 (7th Cir. 1973), rev’d on other grds. sub. nom., Edelman v. Jordan, supra. 1

*1216 ELEVENTH AMENDMENT

Plaintiffs seek back payments for themselves and other members of the plaintiff class who were denied dependents’ benefits under the unemployment insurance and/or the T.D.I. programs by virtue of the provisions declared to be unconstitutional, and allege the retroactive benefit period to commence in November, 1971 (one year prior to the commencement of this suit) 2 to and including May 11, 1973 (the effective date of the corrective statutory amendments). It is plaintiffs’ contention that “but for” the enforcement of the unconstitutional provisions, the women in question would have been entitled to dependent’s benefits under either or both programs, and to deny such retroactive payments would bar any effective relief for the plaintiff class. 3

In Edelman, the district court found that Illinois had administered its AABD program in a manner inconsistent with federal law, awarded prospective injunctive relief and, in addition, ordered State officials to “release and remit AABD benefits wrongfully withheld to all applicants for AABD in the State of Illinois who applied between July 1,1968 [the date of the federal regulations] and April 16, 197 [1] [the date of the preliminary injunction issued by the District Court] and were found eligible . . . .” The Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit affirmed. See 472 F.2d 985. The Supreme Court, however, reversed the award as it pertained to retroactive payments on the ground that such benefits were barred by the Eleventh Amendment. 4 Mr. Justice Rehnquist, writing for the majority, traced the history of the Eleventh Amendment, and recognized that a rule has evolved.

“ . . . that a suit by private parties seeking to impose a liability which must be paid from public funds in the state treasury is barred by the Eleventh Amendment.” 415 U.S. at 663, 94 S.Ct. at 1356.

See Ford Motor Company v. Department of Treasury, 323 U.S. 459, 65 S.Ct. 347, 89 L.Ed. 389 (1945). See also Kennecott Copper Corp. v. State Tax Commission, 327 U.S. 573, 66 S.Ct. 745, 90 L.Ed. 862 (1946); Great Northern Life Insurance Co. v. Read, 322 U.S. 47, 64 S.Ct. 873, 88 L.Ed. 1121 (1944).

The Court refused to categorize the back payments in question as mere “equitable restitution”, as opposed to damages, and thus did not accept respon *1217 dent’s argument that such payments fall within the exception to the Eleventh Amendment bar on federal suits against a state as was created in Ex parte Young, 209 U.S. 123, 28 S.Ct. 441, 52 L.Ed. 714 (1908). The Young exception was narrowed to questions of prospective injunctive relief, and the Court found that,

“The funds to satisfy the award in this case must inevitably come from the general revenues of the State of Illinois, and thus the award resembles far more closely the monetary award against the State itself, Ford Motor Co. v. Department of Treasury, supra, than it does the prospective injunctive relief award in Ex parte Young.” 415 U.S. at 665, 94 S.Ct. at 1357.

The plaintiffs argue, however, that the Edelman decision is not controlling in the instant ease, m that the unemployment insurance and T.D.I. programs do not involve general statute revenues, but merely contributions from employers and employees and earnings made from investment of such contributions, for which funds the state is custodian, R.I. G.L. §§ 28-42-18, 28-39-4, 28-39-7; 5 that the programs are independently administered by State officials in a trustee capacity, and that withdrawals are to be made solely to pay benefits and costs of administration, R.I.G.L. §§ 28-39-5, 28-39-6 and 28-42-19, 28-42-20; that the State itself has insulated itself from financial liability for benefit payments pursuant to R.I.G.L. §§ 28-39-4, 28-39-7 and 28-42-18 see note 5 supra-, and that the State has no legal obligation to supplement the funds if they become depleted, R.I.G.L. §§ 28-39-11, 28-42-33. 6

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Bluebook (online)
387 F. Supp. 1212, 1975 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 14329, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/bowen-v-hackett-rid-1975.