Cook v. Harris

85 F.R.D. 279, 1979 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 7807
CourtDistrict Court, N.D. Georgia
DecidedDecember 21, 1979
DocketCiv. A. No. C76-180A
StatusPublished

This text of 85 F.R.D. 279 (Cook v. Harris) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court, N.D. Georgia primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Cook v. Harris, 85 F.R.D. 279, 1979 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 7807 (N.D. Ga. 1979).

Opinion

ORDER

SHOOB, District Judge.

On November 11, 1976, by order of Judge Newell Edenfield, a stay was entered in this case pending a final ruling on similar cases then on appeal before the Third and Ninth Circuit Courts of Appeal. Certiorari was granted in the Ninth Circuit consolidated [281]*281cases, sub nom. Elliott v. Weinberger, 564 F.2d 1219 (9th Cir. 1977), and the unanimous opinion of the Supreme Court was delivered on June 20, of this year sub nom. Califano v. Yamasaki, 442 U.S. 682, 99 S.Ct. 2545, 61 L.Ed.2d 176. Subsequently, on August 22, 1979, this case was transferred to this Court. Both parties have now moved this Court for summary judgment based upon the Yamasaki ease, and the stay ordered by Judge Edenfield is hereby LIFTED.

BACKGROUND

Plaintiffs in this class action seek declaratory and injunctive relief from defendant with regard to the procedure used to recoup overpayments of benefits under Title II of the Social Security Act, 42 U.S.C. §§ 401 et seq. (Federal Old-Age, Survivors, and Disability Insurance Benefits). Aside from the prayers that defendant’s recoupment procedures be declared (for a variety of reasons) unlawful, the primary relief requested is that the Court

[ejnter an order in the nature of mandamus preliminarily and permanently enjoining defendant, his successors in office, agents, employees and all other persons with him from recouping alleged over-payments by suspending, reducing or terminating the benefits of Plaintiff and all others similarly situated pursuant to 20 C.F.R. § 404.501 et seq. without first providing them with advance notice as to a) the reason for the overpayment and re-coupment action, b) apprising them that they have a right to reconsideration or waiver of the Secretary’s initial overpay-ments and recoupment determination, including an oral hearing which complies with all requirements of due process of law, and c) that recoupment will not begin until their request has been finally disposed of by way of the required review procedure.

Plaintiff’s Complaint at p. 11, prayer for relief ¶ 2.

In her complaint, plaintiff Cook also requested that the action be certified as a class action under Fed.R.Civ.P. 23. She formally moved that the Court certify a class of “all persons in the State of Georgia who are or who will be receiving benefits under Title II of the Social Security Act, and who have or who will have alleged overpay-ments made to them.” Plaintiff’s Motion for Certification of Class at p. 1, § 1. By order of Judge Newell' Edenfield dated June 30, 1976, this action was tentatively certified as a class action under Fed.R. Civ.P. 23(b)(2), the court finding that the four prerequisites of Fed.R.Civ.P. 23(a) were met and that defendant “has acted or refused to act on grounds generally applicable to the class.”

The recoupment procedures at issue, which plaintiff class contends must provide for a prior oral hearing, are based upon 42 U.S.C. § 404(a)(1) and (b). In pertinent part, the statute provides:

404. Overpayments and underpayments
(a) Whenever the Secretary finds that more or less than the correct amount of payment has been made to any person under this title, proper adjustment or recovery shall be made, under regulations prescribed by the Secretary, as follows:
(1) With respect to payment to a person of more than the correct amount, the Secretary shall decrease any payment under this title to which such overpaid person is entitled, or shall require such overpaid person or his estate to refund the amount in excess of the correct amount, or shall decrease any payment under this title payable to his estate or to any other person on the basis of the wages and self-employment income which were the basis of the payments to such overpaid person, or shall apply any combination of the foregoing. .
(b) In any case in which more than the correct amount of payment has been made, there shall be no adjustment of payments to, or recovery by the United States from, any person who is without fault if such adjustment or recovery would defeat the purpose of this title or would be against equity and good conscience.

[282]*282These same provisions were at issue in the case of Califano v. Yamasaki, supra, and it was because of the substantial similarity of legal issues2 that a stay was entered in order to have the benefit of the Supreme Court’s discussion and holdings on the issues. As to questions of both jurisdiction and substantive law, Califano v. Yama-saki is dispositive. It is now proper for this Court to consider and decide the parties’ motions for summary judgment and defendant’s motion to dismiss for lack of Subject matter jurisdiction, motion to strike and motion in opposition to Judge Eden-field’s order of November 11, 1976, allowing plaintiff to amend the complaint. Consideration of defendant’s motions was deferred by Judge Edenfield pending the Supreme Court’s decision in Califano v. Yamasaki.

JURISDICTION

In an- order dated March 22, 1977, Judge Edenfield, while deferring a ruling on defendant’s motion to dismiss for lack of subject matter jurisdiction, indicated that the only possible basis for subject matter jurisdiction in this case is 42 U.S.C. § 405(g). That jurisdictional basis has not been specifically pled, and Judge Edenfield indicated that there existed a substantial question as to whether or not plaintiff class had complied with the jurisdictional requirements of § 405(g), as discussed in Weinber-ger v. Salfi, 422 U.S. 749, 95 S.Ct. 2457, 45 L.Ed.2d 522, and Eldridge v. Mathews, 424 U.S. 319, 96 S.Ct. 893, 47 L.Ed.2d 18. Order, p. 3. Yamasaki sheds more light on the § 405(g) requirements.

While there is no presumption that a federal court has subject matter jurisdiction in a particular case, Wright and Miller,

Federal Practice and Procedure § 1206, p. 75 (1969), it is not fatal to a claim that plaintiff fail to plead the correct jurisdictional basis. “[T]he court may sustain jurisdiction when an examination of the entire complaint reveals a proper basis for assuming jurisdiction . . .,” Wright and

Miller, supra, § 1206, p. 77. See also Paynes v. Lee, 377 F.2d 61 (5th Cir.

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Bluebook (online)
85 F.R.D. 279, 1979 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 7807, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/cook-v-harris-gand-1979.