Bryant v. Celebrezze

229 F. Supp. 329, 1964 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 8814
CourtDistrict Court, E.D. South Carolina
DecidedApril 29, 1964
DocketCiv. A. No. 7733
StatusPublished
Cited by3 cases

This text of 229 F. Supp. 329 (Bryant v. Celebrezze) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court, E.D. South Carolina primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Bryant v. Celebrezze, 229 F. Supp. 329, 1964 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 8814 (southcarolinaed 1964).

Opinion

DALTON, District Judge.

This is an action which presents the issue of the plaintiff’s coverage under the Social Security Act, as amended. 42 U.S.C.A. § 401 et seq. (hereinafter called the Act). The dispute comes before this Court pursuant to § 205(g) of the Act (42 U.S.C.A. § 405(g)), whereby the plaintiff, after exhausting her administrative remedies, seeks a judicial review of the “final decision” of the Secretary of Health, Education and Welfare rejecting her application for federal old age benefits under § 202(a) of the Act (42 U.S.C.A. § 402(a)). The plaintiff, Beulah Bryant, contends that she became entitled to old age benefits by reason of having reported and paid self-employment taxes on income (in the years 1956 through 1960) derived from farming operations conducted through sharecropping arrangements on her land, in which operations it is contended she was a material participant as required by § 211(a) of the Act. (42 U.S.C.A. § 411 (a)).

The Bureau of Old Age and Survivor’s Insurance of the Social Security Administration (hereinafter called the Bureau) has taken the position that plaintiff did not materially participate in the farming operations on her land and thus has refused to allow the income therefrom to be credited toward her required quarters of coverage. The Bureau determined that plaintiff must have twelve quarters to be fully insured, or that she have quarters of coverage in all but four calendar quarters after 1954 and before July 1, 1957, or before the quarter in which she reached retirement age, if it is later. It is noted that under a 1961 amendment the requirements for insured status were liberalized and that plaintiff must now have only six quarters of coverage for a fully insured status. 42 U.S.C.A. § 414. However, disallowing credit for the income derived from the sharecropping rentals, the Bureau determined that plaintiff had no quarters of coverage and returned to her the amounts which she had paid into the fund, such checks still being in the possession of the plaintiff.

The findings of the Bureau were confirmed by a hearing examiner and in turn by the Appeals Council of the Social Security Administration. This Court, after reviewing the entire record, finds that Beulah Bryant did not materially participate in the farming operations on her land in the years 1956 through 1960, and, therefore, finds that she is not entitled to the benefits sought.

Miss Beulah Bryant was born February 4, 1895. She has lived on farms in Marion County, South Carolina, with her parents throughout her life. She cared for her elderly mother until the latter’s death in 1957 and was at the time of the administrative proceedings caring for her father who in 1961 was 89 years of age. [331]*331The record in this case indicates that in times past plaintiff’s father, D. C. Bryant, had been a farmer with his principal crops being tobacco and cotton. All the children of the family, including Beulah, had taken part in laboring on the farm. As the parents grew older, the family lands had been divided among the children. Prior to the events material here, Beulah had been granted a deed by her mother to the family home and the surrounding twenty acres of farm land. In 1956 Beulah received an additional tract of land from her father which consisted of twenty-nine and one-half acres not adjoining the original grant. Herbert Bryant, the plaintiff’s brother, owns and farms the tract of land which adj'oins her original twenty acres.

The plaintiff applied for old age benefits on April 5, 1960. She reported in her application, among other things, that she had never filed an application for Social Security benefits before; that she did have a disability which had begun six months before she reached age 65 and which had made her unable to do any substantial work; that in the years 1958 and 1959 she had earned more than four hundred dollars per year as a farmer; and that she had no earnings thus far in 1960 but that she was self-employed and expected her earnings to be “about $1600” for the year.

In conj'unction with the application, she also filed a “FARM SELF-EMPLOYMENT QUESTIONNAIRE” dated April 5, 1960, which related to the period January 1, 1955, to December 31, 1959. Plaintiff stated, therein, that she lived on her farm, and that she was the head of the farming operation on it. In response to a question regarding other persons who took part in operating the farm, she reported that a Negro man, Marion Brady, had sharecropped the farm in 1955 but thereafter, in the years 1956 through 1959, her brother, Herbert Bryant, had sharecropped the farm with her. She said that Herbert had “worked the crop and looked after it like he would-his own.” She reported that the farming operations consisted of 4 acres of cotton, 3.26 acres of tobacco and about 15 acres of grain. ;

In additional support of her application, both plaintiff and her brother filed explanations of their sharecropping arrangements on official forms entitled “FARM ARRANGEMENT QUESTION-( NAIRE.” Here, it was reported that Herbert had agreed to sharecrop the farm because he knew that they would not be able to get such a small acreage farmed properly otherwise. She said she agreed to the arrangement because she knew “the place would be worked as it should be.”

The working arrangement between the parties, according to the statements, was entered separately for each crop year from 1956 through 1959, and the same agreement was to be employed in 1960. It had never been reduced to writing but, according to Beulah, she was to furnish all the land and the fertilizer. She was also to provide crop insurance and insurance on the buildings and she was to pay all the property taxes. Herbert was to furnish all the labor, equipment and machinery, and all the necessary insecticides in connection with growing the crops. Each agreed to pay one-half of any additional expenses. They shared in the proceeds of the operation on an equal basis. Apparently, at the times when the terms of the yearly agreements were discussed, the parties did not contemplate the particular problem of whether plaintiff would exercise any supervisory control' over the production of the crops. She did state that she did no physical work nor did she visit the government office for the purpose of securing crop allotments.

Question No. 3 of the form was as follows:

“Advice and Consultation. (Describe what was talked about or considered, how often meetings were held, what advice was given and by whom and what actions were taken as a result of the advice given or the discussions which were held?.”

To this question plaintiff replied:

“It was about the same each year.' I did not do much about consulting [332]*332with Herbert. I trusted him and knew he would do what was best to ■do. We talked from time to time •about how the crop was growing. He never came to me for advice about what to do in the crops. He knew best what to do about it more than I did. If anything was needed he did it.” (Tr-130)

In response to the same question Herbert answered:

“Whenever we would meet up— sometimes once or twice a week— sometimes two weeks we would discuss different things to do — for instance she told me to buy fertilizer like I bought and use it just like I used it on my crop. That was first year I sharecropped for her. After that I did hers the same as mine. When we talked I told her about the progress of crops but she always told me to do what I thought best to do. I am one of the best farmers in that part of the country.” (Tr-134)

Free access — add to your briefcase to read the full text and ask questions with AI

Related

Bryan v. United States Secretary of Health & Human Services
758 F. Supp. 1092 (E.D. North Carolina, 1990)
Bishop v. Weinberger
380 F. Supp. 293 (E.D. Virginia, 1974)
Millemon v. Secretary of Health, Education & Welfare
256 F. Supp. 938 (W.D. Oklahoma, 1966)

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
229 F. Supp. 329, 1964 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 8814, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/bryant-v-celebrezze-southcarolinaed-1964.