Cornelius v. Sullivan

936 F.2d 1143, 1991 U.S. App. LEXIS 24848, 1991 WL 129458
CourtCourt of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit
DecidedFebruary 19, 1991
DocketNo. 90-7233
StatusPublished
Cited by1,042 cases

This text of 936 F.2d 1143 (Cornelius v. Sullivan) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Cornelius v. Sullivan, 936 F.2d 1143, 1991 U.S. App. LEXIS 24848, 1991 WL 129458 (11th Cir. 1991).

Opinion

BIRCH, Circuit Judge:

This case raises the equal protection question of whether a parent who is employed by a married son or daughter for providing childcare services is entitled to count such time toward Social Security retirement benefits. No federal circuit court has addressed the constitutionality of the Social Security statutes and regulations that render this result. Plaintiff-appellant Gladyce V. Cornelius claimed coverage for the money that she earned as a babysitter in her own home for her married daughter’s child during a two-year period. The Social Security Administration denied credit for these earnings, and the Appeals Council and the federal district court confirmed that decision. Upon reviewing the record and the applicable law, we affirm.

I. FACTUAL AND PROCEDURAL BACKGROUND

Gladyce Cornelius began caring for her granddaughter on a regular basis in 1984, because she and her daughter were concerned about the quality of day care and increasing reports of abuse and neglect in day care centers. The child’s mother, who was married and employed by the Alabama Institute for the Deaf and Blind, started paying her mother for the babysitting services in 1986. Cornelius received $45 per week as salary from which Social Security tax deductions were withheld.

Cornelius, who was born on January 21, 1923, applied for Social Security retirement [1145]*1145benefits on November 16,1987, prior to her sixty-fifth birthday. She was denied benefits on December 22, 1987, because she lacked three requisite quarters of coverage. On January 11, 1988, she filed a request for reconsideration and submitted evidence of six quarters of coverage and earnings of $973.40 in 1986, and $1,920.00 in 1987 for babysitting services for her grandchild in her own home. Cornelius has not alleged that she was paid for work prior to 1986 or after 1987. She again was denied benefits on March 16, 1988.

Pursuant to her request, Cornelius was given an administrative hearing at which she appeared with counsel and testified. The administrative law judge’s opinion, issued on September 26,1988, concluded that Cornelius was not entitled to Social Security retirement benefits because she had only 31 of the 34 quarters of coverage required to be a fully insured individual. The administrative law judge found that Cornelius’s earnings for babysitting her granddaughter specifically were excluded by 20 C.F.R. § 404.1015(a)(4), which excepts from coverage domestic services in the home of an applicant’s son or daughter as his or her employee.

The Appeals Council granted Cornelius’s request for review. While concurring in the administrative law judge’s factual findings, the Appeals Council determined that the administrative law judge had made an error of law in applying the relevant regulation. Because Cornelius cared for her granddaughter in her own home, 20 C.F.R. § 404.1015(a)(4), excluding domestic work performed by a parent in a son or daughter’s private home as an employee of that child, was inapplicable. The Appeals Council concluded, however, that 20 C.F.R. § 404.1015(a)(3) excluded from coverage nonbusiness work as an employee of a relative. Since nonbusiness refers to work which does not promote or advance the employer’s trade or business, the Appeals Council denied coverage because it determined that Cornelius’s babysitting services did not assist her daughter in her work at the Alabama Institute for the Deaf and Blind. Based on a different regulation, therefore, the Appeals Council reached the same result as the administrative law judge to deny Cornelius coverage. The decision of the Appeals Council issued on May 12, 1989, and became the final decision of the Secretary of Health and Human Services (Secretary).

Cornelius filed this action in the United States District Court for the Northern District of Alabama on July 18, 1989, pursuant to section 205(g) of the Social Security Act, 42 U.S.C. § 405(g), which provides judicial review of a final decision by the Secretary. The district court affirmed the Secretary's decision. Cornelius has pursued in this court her constitutional, equal protection challenge to section 210(a)(3)(B) of the Social Security Act, 42 U.S.C. § 410(a)(3)(B), and the relevant regulations under which she was denied coverage for childcare to her granddaughter.

II. DISCUSSION

We review the Secretary’s decision with deference to the factual findings and close scrutiny of the legal conclusions. Martin v. Sullivan, 894 F.2d 1520, 1529 (11th Cir.1990); see Graham v. Bowen, 790 F.2d 1572, 1574-75 (11th Cir.1986). The Secretary’s factual findings are conclusive if supported by “substantial evidence,” consisting of “relevant evidence as a reasonable person would accept as adequate to support a conclusion.” 42 U.S.C. § 405(g); Bloodsworth v. Heckler, 703 F.2d 1233, 1239 (11th Cir.1983). We do not reweigh the evidence or substitute our judgment for that of the Secretary; instead, we review the entire record to determine “if the decision reached is reasonable and supported by substantial evidence.” Bloodsworth, 703 F.2d at 1239 (citations omitted); see Martin, 894 F.2d at 1529 (“Even if the evidence preponderates against the Secretary’s factual findings, we must affirm if the decision reached is supported by substantial evidence.”). In contrast, the Secretary’s conclusions of law are not presumed valid. Martin, 894 F.2d at 1529; MacGregor v. Bowen, 786 F.2d 1050, 1053 (11th Cir.1986). The Secretary’s failure to apply the correct law or to provide the reviewing court with sufficient reasoning for deter[1146]*1146mining that the proper legal analysis has been conducted mandates reversal. Martin, 894 F.2d at 1529.

Section 202(a) of the Social Security Act, codified at 42 U.S.C. § 402(a), provides that an individual who has attained age 62, has properly filed for old-age insurance benefits, and is fully insured is entitled to retirement income benefits.1 The facts that Cornelius had attained the requisite age of 62 and had applied for retirement benefits are undisputed. The discrepancy occurs in the Secretary’s determination that Cornelius was not a “fully insured individual” because she had not worked the sufficient number of quarters to claim old-age benefits.2

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936 F.2d 1143, 1991 U.S. App. LEXIS 24848, 1991 WL 129458, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/cornelius-v-sullivan-ca11-1991.