Clifford v. Janklow

601 F. Supp. 16, 1984 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 23613
CourtDistrict Court, D. South Dakota
DecidedSeptember 14, 1984
DocketCiv. No. 83-3092
StatusPublished

This text of 601 F. Supp. 16 (Clifford v. Janklow) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court, D. South Dakota primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Clifford v. Janklow, 601 F. Supp. 16, 1984 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 23613 (D.S.D. 1984).

Opinion

MEMORANDUM OPINION

DONALD J. PORTER, District Judge.

Pending before the court is the question of whether equitable relief should be granted to the plaintiff class in light of the affirmance of the Judgment in this case by the United States Court of Appeals, Eighth Circuit, (Clifford, et al., v. Janklow, et al., 733 F.2d 534, 8th Cir.1984).

This action was commenced December 7, 1983, was tried on the merits at a bench trial on January 10 and 11, 1984, and on January 17 judgment was entered in favor of plaintiffs, permanently restraining defendants from administering the South Dakota Low Income Energy Assistance Program (LIEAP) whereby plaintiff class were denied full participation in LIEAP, in violation of federal law. The judgment required defendants to immediately fully include the plaintiff class in the South Dakota LIEAP and to immediately by appropriate means notify those class members who had not yet applied for inclusion in LIEAP that they were legally entitled to do so.

Defendants moved for a stay of the judgment pending appeal to the United States Court of Appeals, Eighth Circuit. On January 27, this court denied the application of defendants for a stay of the judgment, but extended to February 15, 1984 the time within which payment to class members would be required and within which notice to class members who had not applied must be given by defendants. On February 13 the Court of Appeals affirmed this court’s denial of defendants’ stay application.

On May 2, 1984 the Court of Appeals in Clifford v. Janklow, supra, affirmed the judgment. Mandate from the Court of Appeals was filed with the clerk of this court May 29.

On May 10, 1984 this court ordered that plaintiffs file with the clerk within fifteen days a motion setting out the relief claimed in this court in light of the affirmance of the judgment. Plaintiffs’ response to the court’s order was filed May 18 and the defendants’ reply was filed May 29. On June 4 plaintiffs filed written interrogatories which were answered by defendants June 20. Plaintiffs filed a letter rebuttal brief on July 3 and on August 3, 1984 this court heard counsel of record for the parties orally argue the issue of what equitable relief, if any, this court should grant plaintiffs.

I.

Applications for the 1984 South Dakota LIEAP were accepted by defendants between October 3, 1983 and March 31, 1984. Plaintiff class consists of persons living in subsidized housing. Under the 1984 South Dakota Plan, the members of the plaintiff class were, by virtue of their residence in subsidized housing, placed in a category in which they were barred from receiving full LIEAP payment. All other citizens of the state were placed in a different category, free from the LIEAP payment restrictions imposed upon members of the plaintiff class. Up to January 10, 1984, the first day of trial, 1,089 members of the class had applied for payment under the 1984 South Dakota LIEAP program. 550 had been [18]*18denied any payment and 539 had been authorized to receive partial payment. In affirming the judgment, the Court in Clifford v. Janklow, 733 F.2d 534, held that the defendants had violated applicable federal law by operating the federally funded South Dakota 1984 LIEAP program so as to deny the plaintiff class full participation in the program and full eligibility for LIEAP payment on the same basis as applied to all citizens of the state not members of the plaintiff class.

Although applications for LIEAP payments were accepted from members of the plaintiff class from October 3, 1983 onward, it was made known by defendants to any class applicant that a subsidized housing resident might not be eligible for any LIEAP payment and in any event would receive only a partial amount of what a similarly situated South Dakota citizen not residing in subsidized housing would receive through the LIEAP program for 1984. After the Court of Appeals on February 13, 1984 affirmed this court’s denial of defendants’ request for a stay of the judgment, defendants did, commencing on February 15, comply with that portion of the judgment requiring defendants to notify class members of their full eligibility under the 1984 LIEAP program and to advise class members of their right to file an application up until March 31, 1984. In the same mailed-out notice, defendants included a statement cautioning the plaintiff class member addressee that the case was on appeal to the Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit and that if the state prevailed in the appeal the addressee would have to repay to the state any sum received through the 1984 LIEAP program.

It is reasonable to infer and conclude that the 1984 South Dakota LIEAP plan provisions discriminating against plaintiff class members, along with the warning contained in the defendants’ mailing of February 15 to class members who had not yet applied, discouraged and confused class members so that some failed to apply in the early part of the season when they otherwise would have, and so that many did not apply until a time subsequent to February 15, 1984 and in light of the warning, some probably never did apply. What is certain is that most if not all class members, up to this date, have not received the benefit of the full LIEAP payment to which they are lawfully entitled, under the decision of the Court of Appeals in Clifford, et al. v. Janklow, et al., supra.

By motion and brief first filed February 22, 1984, and renewed after the Court of Appeals’ affirmance, by additional briefing and by written interrogatories served upon and answered by defendants, plaintiffs have urged that in equity the 1984 LIEAP amount due each class member who belatedly received LIEAP credit too late to use it fully by the May 31 cutoff should be forthwith paid such sum by a direct payment by defendants. Against each such payment defendants would be entitled to a credit for any sums paid on behalf of such class member applicant to the fuel supplier of the applicant under the LIEAP program [which ordinarily provides for payment by defendants direct to the fuel supplier, rather than direct to the eligible LIEAP applicant]. Plaintiffs advance an alternative solution which neither this court nor defendants are persuaded is the better of the two alternatives. At oral argument August 3, 1984, this court requested defendants to state, without prejudice to their own contentions, whether plaintiffs’ first proposal or plaintiffs’ herein unstated proposal was administratively preferable. Answering with commendable candor, in response to this court’s question, defendants stated that, without in any way abandoning their own contention, the first contention advanced by plaintiffs (set out above) would be preferable. On the merits, and in response to plaintiffs’ request for equitable relief, defendants contend that this court should simply order the case closed so that all monies remaining in the 1984 LIEAP fund would be carried over into the South Dakota 1985 LIEAP fund, for the benefit of all of the potential LIEAP applicants in 1985.

II.

This court has equitable jurisdiction to consider the effect upon the plain[19]*19tiff class of the discrimination against the class inherent in the 1984 South-Dakota LIEAP program. Acting in equity, courts have broad power to fashion a remedy which does complete justice. Crawford, et al. v. Janklow, et al.,

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Bluebook (online)
601 F. Supp. 16, 1984 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 23613, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/clifford-v-janklow-sdd-1984.