Pyfrom v. Commissioner of Public Welfare

659 N.E.2d 1206, 39 Mass. App. Ct. 621, 1996 Mass. App. LEXIS 6
CourtMassachusetts Appeals Court
DecidedJanuary 22, 1996
DocketNo. 94-P-949
StatusPublished
Cited by21 cases

This text of 659 N.E.2d 1206 (Pyfrom v. Commissioner of Public Welfare) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Massachusetts Appeals Court primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Pyfrom v. Commissioner of Public Welfare, 659 N.E.2d 1206, 39 Mass. App. Ct. 621, 1996 Mass. App. LEXIS 6 (Mass. Ct. App. 1996).

Opinion

Porada, J.

The Department of Public Welfare (department) appeals from a Superior Court judge’s allowance of the plaintiff’s motion for summary judgment restoring her Aid to Families with Dependent Children (AFDC) benefits. The department terminated the plaintiff’s benefits because the plaintiff’s daughter was placed in the temporary custody of her father. That termination was upheld by the hearing officer in the department’s administrative appeal process. The plaintiff sought review in the Superior Court under G. L. c. 30A, § 14. The judge reversed the hearing officer’s decision and ordered that the plaintiff’s benefits be restored. The [622]*622department then filed this appeal on the grounds that the judge erred by applying an erroneous standard of review to the hearing officer’s decision and in holding that the result in this case was controlled by Johnson v. Commissioner of Pub. Welfare, 414 Mass. 572 (1993). We affirm the judgment for the reasons stated herein.

It is well settled that the “purpose of the AFDC program is to enable children, one or both of whose parents are absent or unable to provide support, to continue living at home through the provision of funds for their shelter, food, and other necessary items.” Civetti v. Commissioner of Pub. Welfare, 392 Mass. 474, All (1984). One of the eligibility requirements is that a “child must be living with his or her relative . . . in a place of residence maintained by such relative as a home.” 106 Code Mass. Regs. § 303.230(A) (1992). The “living with” requirement is met even if “[t]he child or relative is temporarily absent from the home, so long as the grantee-relative exercises responsibility for the care and control of the child.” Id. at § 303.230(A) (2).

At issue in this case is whether the plaintiff exercised responsibility for the care and control of her child after the child’s father obtained temporary custody. The hearing officer found that the plaintiff did not. She based her conclusion on her findings that the child sees the plaintiff two evenings a week from 4 p.m. to 7:30 p.m. and on Sundays from 9 a.m. to 7 p.m. during which she provides food, clothing, toys, and a bedroom for the child. She found that the rest of the time the child is in the care of her father or in private day care from which the plaintiff cannot remove the child. The hearing officer also found that the plaintiff maintains minimal contact with the day care provider and has taken her daughter to a doctor only once since she has been in the temporary custody of her father. The Superior Court judge reversed the hearing officer’s decision based on his belief that the hearing officer improperly focused on the plaintiff’s failure to exercise day-to-day control of her child during the child’s temporary absence, instead of focusing on the “substantial involvement in the child’s life” standard articulated [623]*623in Johnson, 414 Mass, at 574. The judge concluded that there was substantial evidence to meet this standard.

In Johnson, the Supreme Judicial Court determined that a mother whose child had been placed in the temporary custody of the Department of Social Services (DSS) for more than two years was entitled to receive AFDC benefits because she had a substantial involvement in her child’s life, the maximum that the DSS service plan allowed. The department argues that Johnson is distinguishable because it was governed by a specific regulation which provides that “[a] child who is in the temporary care or custody of a public or private agency is not excluded from eligibility if the grantee-relative continues to exercise responsibility for the care and control of the child.” 106 Code Mass. Regs. § 303.230(A) (2) (b) (1991). This regulation was promulgated as a specific example of a situation which meets the standard of temporary absence established in § 303.230(A) (2); namely, “[t]he child ... is temporarily absent from the home, so long as the grantee-relative exercises responsibility for the care and control of the child.”1 Because the words “care and control” in both sections of the regulation, § 303.230(A) (2), and § 303.230(A) (2) (b), are identical, the same meaning should be ascribed to them. Connolly v. Division of Pub. Employee Retirement Admn., 415 Mass. 800, 802-803 (1993). 2B Singer, Sutherland Statutory Construction § 51.02, at 122 (5th ed. 1992). There is nothing in the language of the regulation that suggests the contrary, and there appears to be no reason to distinguish between a child in the temporary custody of a relative and a child in the temporary custody of a private or public agency. We conclude, therefore, that the judge was correct in ruling as a matter of law that the same standard applies to a child in the temporary custody of a relative as to a child in the tempo[624]*624rary custody of a public or private agency; namely, a demonstration by the parent of “substantial involvement in the child’s life” during the child’s temporary absence.2 Johnson, 414 Mass, at 574.

We differ with the motion judge, however, in his conclusion that the hearing officer determined that the plaintiff had to provide day-to-day care for her child in order to satisfy the “living with” requirement of the regulations. There is nothing in the hearing officer’s decision to indicate that she based her decision on the plaintiff’s failure to exercise day-to-day care of her child. Rather, the hearing officer focused her decision on the extent to which the plaintiff exercised care and control of her child after temporary custody was awarded to the child’s father. The hearing officer found the plaintiff’s care and control insufficient to satisfy the regulations.

Nevertheless, we reach the same result as the motion judge because we conclude that the hearing officer, without explanation, ignored uncontradicted evidence presented by the plaintiff which would have supported a finding that she exercised the requisite care and control over her child. Johnson, 414 Mass, at 581. An administrative agency’s decision must be supported by substantial evidence, which is defined as “such evidence as a reasonable mind might accept as adequate to support a conclusion.” G. L. c. 30A, § 1, as inserted by St. 1954, c. 681, § 1. In order to determine if an agency’s [625]*625decision is supported by substantial evidence, one must examine the entire administrative record and take into account whatever detracts from its weight. New Boston Garden Corp. v. Assessors of Boston, 383 Mass. 456, 466 (1981). An agency’s determination may be set aside if “the evidence . . . points to an overwhelming probability of the contrary.” Ibid. (Citation omitted.) Johnson, supra at 581.

We summarize that evidence in the present case. The plaintiff is the mother of a four year old child. Until August 26, 1992, the child lived with the plaintiff in her home and the plaintiff provided all of her daughter’s care. On that date the plaintiff attempted suicide. As a result, on August 27, 1992, the Probate Court awarded temporary physical custody to the child’s father. The plaintiff retained legal custody of her child, which gives her the right to make decisions regarding the child’s medical care, education, and religious upbringing.

Approximately one month after the plaintiff attempted suicide, the Probate Court gave her supervised visitation rights.

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Bluebook (online)
659 N.E.2d 1206, 39 Mass. App. Ct. 621, 1996 Mass. App. LEXIS 6, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/pyfrom-v-commissioner-of-public-welfare-massappct-1996.