Lemmon v. Social Security Administration

20 F.R.D. 215, 1957 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 4489
CourtDistrict Court, E.D. South Carolina
DecidedFebruary 18, 1957
DocketCiv. A. No. 4923
StatusPublished
Cited by9 cases

This text of 20 F.R.D. 215 (Lemmon v. Social Security Administration) 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
Lemmon v. Social Security Administration, 20 F.R.D. 215, 1957 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 4489 (southcarolinaed 1957).

Opinion

WILLIAMS, District Judge.

This matter comes before the Court on defendant’s motion to dismiss or in lieu thereof to quash the return of service of summons in an appeal from a decision of the Appeals Council of the Social Security Administration.

Plaintiff has brought this action allegedly under Section 205(g) of the Social Security Act, 42 U.S.C.A. § 405(g). It appears from the complaint that the plaintiff applied to the District Office of the Social Security Administration for Old Age Insurance Benefits and was refused. She then requested and received a hearing before a Referee, which hearing resulted in a denial of her claim. Plaintiff then appealed from the Referee’s decision to the Appeals Council of the Social Security Administration. Its decision denying plaintiff’s claim was filed on March 18, 1955, and notice was sent to the plaintiff and her counsel. The prayer of the complaint asks that the defendant be ordered to pay the pension due from January 1, 1953, to date in a lump sum award and to pay monthly a pension for the remainder of plaintiff’s life, or in the alternative that the claim for Old Age Insurance Benefits be remanded for further hearing for the purpose of taking additional testimony. The present action was filed on May 17, 1955, and names the Social Security Administration as defendant.

The grounds for the Government’s motion are briefly as follows: That service of the summons was not made in compliance with Rule 4(d) (4, 5) of the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure, 28 U.S.C.A. in that the defendant is not suable and is not subject to service of process; that no service was made upon the Attorney General by registered mail at Washington, D. C., and that no copy was delivered to named defendant. That the Court lacks jurisdiction over the subject matter; that the complaint fails to state a cause of action upon which relief can be granted; that the Social Security Administration is not a suable entity; that the cause of action set forth is not authorized by Section 405(g) of Title 42 U.S.C.A., but on the contrary is [217]*217specifically prohibited by Section 405(h) of Title 42 U.S.C.A. Further, that Oveta Culp Hobby, Secretary of Health, Education, and Welfare, is the only proper party against whom suit can be brought pursuant to said Section 405(g), this being the jurisdictional section alleged in the complaint, and said Oveta Culp Hobby is an indispensable party who has not been made a party defendant. Further, that said action is in fact an unauthorized suit against the United States who has not been made a party defendant and who cannot be made a party defendant because it has not consented to be sued in an action to recover on a claim arising under Title II- of the Social Security Act.

Service of process in this case was made by serving the District Director of the Social Security Administration in Charleston, South Carolina, and by serving an Assistant United States Attorney for the Eastern District of South Carolina. It is admitted that no copy of summons and complaint was forwarded by registered mail to the Attorney General of the United States at Washington, D. C., nor was a copy served on or furnished to the Social Security Administration, the defendant named herein. Rule 4(d) (5) provides that service of the summons and complaint shall be made “Upon an officer or agency of the United States, by serving the United States and by delivering a copy of the summons and of the complaint to such officer or agency.”

Rule 4(d) (4) provides that service of the summons and complaint shall be made “Upon the United States, by delivering a copy of the summons and of the complaint to the United States attorney for the district in which the action is brought or to an assistant United States attorney or clerical employee designated by the United States attorney in a writing filed with the clerk of the court and by sending a copy of the summons and of the complaint by registered mail to the Attorney General of the United States at Washington, District of Columbia, * *

The language of Rule 4(d) (4) is clear and unambiguous and it is well settled that service upon the Attorney General as prescribed in said Rule is mandatory. In the recent case of Messenger v. United States, 231 F.2d 328, 330, Judge Medina, speaking for the United States Court of Appeals Second Circuit, stated

“We hold that both the delivery to the United States Attorney and the mailing to the Attorney General are mandatory requirements. There is nothing in the language of the Rule or its history to suggest otherwise.”

It is also clear from the record in this case that the plaintiff has failed to properly serve the named defendant since the only service was made upon an employee who has not been authorized or designated as an agent for the acceptance of service of process, there being no evidence of any service or attempted service on the Social Security Administration.

Even if proper service of process has been made, this action could not be maintained. Provision for judicial “review” of “final” decisions on claims for benefits, under Title II of the Social Security Act (hereinafter referred to as “the Act”), is made in, and expressly limited by, Section 205(g) and (h) of said Act, 42 U.S.C.A. § 405(g) and (h). The remedy provided by Section 205(g) of the Act is obviously exclusive. So far as pertinent here, Section 205(g) and (h) provide as follows:

Section 205(g). “Any individual, after any final decision of the Administrator made after a hearing to which he was a party, irrespective of the amount in controversy, may obtain a review of such decision by a civil action commenced within sixty days after the mailing to him of notice of such decision [218]*218* * *. As part of its answer the Administrator shall file a certified copy of the transcript of the record including the evidence upon which the findings and decision complained of are based. The court shall have power to enter, upon the pleadings and transcript of the record, a judgment affirming, modifying, or reversing the decision of the Administrator, with or without remanding the cause for a rehearing. The findings of the Administrator as to any fact, if supported by substantial evidence, shall be conclusive * * *.”
Section 205(h). “* * * No findings of fact or decision of the Administrator shall be reviewed by any person, tribunal, or governmental agency except as herein provided. No action against the United States, the Administrator, or any officer or employee thereof shall be brought under section 24 of the Judicial Code of the United States [the section defining the jurisdiction of the Federal courts which has been superseded by Section 1331 et al. of new Title 28 U.S.C.A.] to recover on any claim arising under this title.”

Under Reorganization Plan No. 1 of 1953, 67 Stat. 631, 5 U.S.C.A. § 623 note, the office of the Federal Security Administrator was abolished and all functions of the Administrator were transferred to the Secretary of Health, Education, and Welfare.

As has been stated, the Social Security Administration is the defendant named in this action.

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
20 F.R.D. 215, 1957 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 4489, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/lemmon-v-social-security-administration-southcarolinaed-1957.