Peppers v. McKenna

81 F.R.D. 361, 1977 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 16361
CourtDistrict Court, N.D. Ohio
DecidedApril 15, 1977
DocketNo. C 75-329
StatusPublished
Cited by6 cases

This text of 81 F.R.D. 361 (Peppers v. McKenna) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court, N.D. Ohio primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Peppers v. McKenna, 81 F.R.D. 361, 1977 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 16361 (N.D. Ohio 1977).

Opinion

OPINION and ORDER

WALINSKI, District Judge:

This cause is before the Court on cross motions for summary judgment filed pursuant to Fed.R.Civ.P. 56.

Plaintiffs are applicants for, and recipients of, benefits, under the Aid to Families with Dependent Children and Food Stamp programs. They allege that the defendants have failed to provide them with timely hearings on their appeals of benefit denials, reductions and terminations. Plaintiffs claim that this failure to accord them a hearing within the time limits mandated by both federal and state law has deprived them of their Fourteenth Amendment Due Process rights and gives rise to a cause of action under 42 U.S.C. § 1983, the Food Stamp Act of 1964, as amended, 7 U.S.C. § 2011 et seq., the Aid to Families with Dependent Children program authorized by Title IV of the Social Security Act of 1935, 42 U.S.C. §§ 601-44, as amended, and under the Supremacy Clause, U.S.Const. art. VI. [363]*363They have relied for jurisdiction on 28 U.S.C. §§ 1331, 1337 and 1343. An examination of the pleadings, affidavits, depositions and documentary evidence discloses the following uncontested facts.

I.

Prior to February, 1975, Plaintiff Anna Peppers had been paying $56 for $182 worth of food stamps per month. In February she was informed by her caseworker that her benefits were to be reduced and that the same $182 worth of food stamps would henceforth cost $90. Plaintiff Peppers then requested a conference with the Lucas County Welfare Department and a state hearing, which request the Department received on or about February 28, 1975. At the county conference, which was held on March 27, 1975, the plaintiff received an explanation for the benefit reduction and was told that because her request for a county conference and state hearing was received by the Welfare Department more than ten (10) days after the notice was given, as required by 7 C.F.R. § 271.-l(n)(l) and (n)(4)(l), her benefit reduction would take effect immediately.

A hearing on Plaintiff Peppers’ appeal was held on August 14, 1975, and a final decision affirming the benefit reduction was issued on September 5, 1975.

Plaintiff Queen Roddy, a recipient of food stamp benefits, requested a reduction in the price of her food stamps (in effect an increase in benefits). Her request was denied by the Lucas County Welfare Department and on April 2, 1975, she requested a state hearing to review the denial. The hearing request was received by the state on April 7, 1975, but the hearing was not held until August 13, 1975. A decision affirming the denial of her request for increased benefits was issued on September 3, 1975.

Plaintiff Francis Zaborski’s application for food stamp benefits for the second half of February and the entire month of March, 1975, was denied by the Lucas County Welfare Department. The denial was affirmed at the county conference held on April 7, 1975, and on April 25, 1975, the Ohio Department of Public Welfare received the plaintiff’s request for a state hearing on the denial. That hearing was held on August 26, 1975, but the decision reversing the County was not issued until October 24, 1975.

Plaintiff Regenna Peppers, the only named plaintiff who requested a hearing on an Aid to Families with Dependent Children [hereafter AFDC] issue, had been receiving AFDC benefits since April 1, 1974. On March 27,1975, she applied to the Lucas County Welfare Department for AFDC benefits retroactive to the time when she was medically determined to be pregnant. (Her child was born on February 9, 1974.) Her request was denied on the same day the request was made, and she immediately requested a state hearing to review the denial. However, as of October 13, 1976, a state hearing had neither been held nor scheduled.

Plaintiff Franklin County Welfare Rights Organization, a non-profit organization, is composed of welfare recipients and poor persons. Several of the Organization’s members have waited longer than sixty (60) days in food stamp cases and ninety (90) days in AFDC cases for final administrative action on their appeals of benefit denials, reductions or terminations. Affidavit of Shirley Smith, Feb. 23,1976. On March 10, 1976, this Court accordingly held that the Organization had standing to litigate the rights of its injured members.

In their complaint, the individual plaintiffs and the Franklin County Welfare Rights Organization indicated that they were bringing this action as a class action as well as on their own behalf. On the plaintiffs’ motion, having determined that the Fed.R.Civ.P. 23(a) prerequisites to a class action were satisfied, this Court conditionally certified this cause as a class action under Rule 23(b)(1) and (2), consisting of the following two subclasses:

I. All individuals who have been receiving food stamps in the State of Ohio and whose benefits have been reduced or [364]*364terminated and who have asked for a hearing to review the reduction or termination of their benefits but who have not been afforded prompt, definitive and final administrative action by the appropriate state agency within sixty (60) days of the request for said hearing.
II. All individuals who have been receiving AFDC in the State of Ohio and whose benefits have been denied, reduced or terminated and have asked for a hearing to review the denial, reduction or termination of their benefits but who have not been afforded prompt, definitive and final administrative action by the appropriate state agency within ninety (90) days from the date of the request for said hearing.

Order of Oct. 20, 1975.

In further support of both their individual and class claims, the plaintiffs have submitted evidence of a massive failure on the part of the state to provide timely hearings and decisions.1 Affidavit of Edward C. Barrows, Dec. 6, 1976, appended hereto. Out of 985 hearing decisions rendered during the period from July 1, 1975, through October 31, 1976, in food stamp cases, only 172 out of 985, or 17.5%, were issued within the 60-day period required by federal law. During that same period, only 805 out of 1,697 AFDC hearing decisions, or 47.4%, were rendered within the 90-day period required by federal law.

II.

By Ohio Revised Code § 5107.02 et seq., the State of Ohio has adopted the AFDC program authorized by Title IV of the Social Security Act of 1935, 42 U.S.C. §§ 601 — 44, as amended.

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Related

Anna M. Peppers v. Patricia K. Barry
873 F.2d 967 (Sixth Circuit, 1989)
Moore v. Perales
692 F. Supp. 137 (E.D. New York, 1988)
Minnesota Recipients Alliance v. Noot
527 F. Supp. 140 (D. Minnesota, 1981)
Ca 79-2877 Lorraine Shands, Individually and on Behalf of All Persons Similarly Situated v. Thomas Tull, Individually and in His Capacity as Director of the Camden County Welfare Board, and G. Thomas Riti, Individually and in His Capacity as Director of the Division of Public Welfare of the State of New Jersey, and Ann Klein, Individually and in Her Capacity as Commissioner of the Department of Institutions and Agencies of the State of New Jersey. Winslow L. Thomas, Individually and on Behalf of All Persons Similarly Situated v. David Mathews, Individually and in His Capacity as Secretary of Health, Education and Welfare, and Ann Klein, Individually and in Her Capacity as Commissioner of the Department of Institutions and Agencies of the State of New Jersey, and G. Thomas Riti, Individually and in His Capacity as Director of the Division of Public Welfare of the State of New Jersey. Alvania Richberg, Individually and on Behalf of All Persons Similarly Situated v. Joseph Califano, Jr., Individually and in His Capacity as Secretary of the U. S. Department of Health, Education and Welfare, and Ann Klein, Individually and in Her Capacity as Commissioner of the Department of Institutions and Agencies of the State of New Jersey, and G. Thomas Riti, Individually and in His Capacity as Director of the Division of Public Welfare of the State of New Jersey. Ann Klein and G. Thomas Riti, Director, New Jersey Division of Public Welfare, New Jersey Commissioner of Human Services
602 F.2d 1156 (Third Circuit, 1979)
Shands v. Tull
602 F.2d 1156 (Third Circuit, 1979)

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Bluebook (online)
81 F.R.D. 361, 1977 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 16361, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/peppers-v-mckenna-ohnd-1977.