Singerman v. Alfel

• Court: Court of Appeals for the First Circuit
• Decided: October 10, 2000
• Docket: 00-1177
• Status: Published

Opinion

[NOT FOR PUBLICATION–NOT TO BE CITED AS PRECEDENT]

United States Court of Appeals For the First Circuit

No. 00-1177

GARY R. SINGERMAN,

Plaintiff, Appellant,

v.

KENNETH S. APFEL, COMMISSIONER OF SOCIAL SECURITY,

Defendant, Appellee.

APPEAL FROM THE UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT

FOR THE DISTRICT OF MASSACHUSETTS

[Hon. Joyce L. Alexander, U.S. Magistrate Judge]

Before

Selya, Circuit Judge, Campbell, Senior Circuit Judge, and Boudin, Circuit Judge.

Lindsay P. Rand, Nashawaty, Hayden & Rand and Dana A. Curhan on brief for appellant. Donald K. Stern, United States Attorney, and Christopher M. Tauro, Assistant U.S. Attorney, on brief for appellee.

October 5, 2000 Per Curiam. The district court judgment dismissing

the complaint for lack of subject-matter jurisdiction is

summarily affirmed. Plaintiff advances a pair of arguments

on appeal--alleging that he never received notice of the

1991 denial of his application for social security benefits,

and that the Commissioner undertook a constructive reopening

of that application in the course of addressing plaintiff's

second application for benefits. Neither of these

contentions, however, was properly presented to the district

court. Even in the non-adversarial social security context,

it is "settled that matters not brought to the attention of

the district court are deemed waived on appeal."

Evangelista v. Secretary of Health and Human Serv., 826 F.2d

136, 144 (1st Cir. 1987). We add that both arguments, in any

event, prove to be without substantive merit on the record

before us.

Affirmed. See Loc. R. 27(c).

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