Case Title: Slocum v. Dept. of Social Welfare

Citation: 

Docket Number: 

State: vermont

Court: Vermont Supreme Court

Date: 1989-11-01T00:00:00Z

Document:
NOTICE:  This opinion is subject to motions for reargument under V.R.A.P. 40
as well as formal revision before publication in the Vermont Reports.
Readers are requested to notify the Reporter of Decisions, Vermont Supreme
Court, 111 State Street, Montpelier, Vermont 05602 of any errors in order
that corrections may be made before this opinion goes to press.


                           Nos. 88-338 & 88-589


Constance Slocum, Richard Wilson,            Supreme Court
Glendeen Bragg, Stephen Yates and
Marjorie Kimber
                                             On Appeal From
     v.                                      Human Services Board

Department of Social Welfare                 November Term, 1989


Cindy Clark

     v.

Department of Social Welfare


Alan B. George, Pamela Kraynak, Isabel R. Childs and William F. Farrell,
  board members (88-338)

Alan B. George, Isabel R. Childs and Alayne Rabow, board members (88-589)

John J. McCullough III, Vermont Legal Aid, Inc., Montpelier, for plaintiffs-
  appellants

Jeffrey L. Amestoy, Attorney General, Montpelier, and Jane Elizabeth Gomez
  and Donelle Staley, Assistant Attorneys General, Waterbury, for defendant-
  appellee


PRESENT:  Allen, C.J., Peck and Gibson, JJ., and Barney, C.J. (Ret.) and
          Springer, D.J. (Ret.), Specially Assigned


     ALLEN, C.J.   Petitioners appeal from a decision of the Human Services
Board (Board) authorizing the Department of Social Welfare (DSW) to recover
from Supplemental Security Income (SSI) awards, General Assistance (GA)
benefits paid by DSW.  We reverse and remand.
     SSI is a federally funded and operated program with its own disability
and financial eligibility requirements.  In 1974, Congress amended the
Social Security Act to enable the Social Security Administration (SSA) to
pay retroactive awards of SSI benefits directly to the states in order to
reimburse the states for "interim assistance," known in Vermont as GA. (FN1) See
42 U.S.C. { 1383(g)(3); 20 C.F.R { 416.1902.
     GA is a program operated, regulated and funded solely by the State of
Vermont.  The program provides financial assistance to individuals unable to
support themselves by working and who do not qualify for other benefits.
     The facts were not in dispute, and thus the cases were consolidated on
appeal.  In each case, petitioner applied for SSI and received GA in the
interim while their applications were pending.  Upon the approval of their
SSI applications, the Social Security Administration transmitted the full
retroactive SSI award to DSW.  DSW, in turn, deducted the amount of GA paid
to the petitioners, and forwarded them the remainder.  In each case, DSW
reimbursed the State for benefits paid more than two years before the date
of the SSI award.
     This dispute concerns the proper interpretation of W.A.M. (Welfare
Assistance Manual) { 2600d.  At the time of the fair hearing, the regulation
provided:
            General Assistance shall be furnished with the
         understanding that when a recipient subsequently
         acquires benefits or resources in any amount from:  an
         inheritance; cash prize; sale of property; retroactive
         lump sum Social Security, Supplemental Security Income/
         Aid to Aged, Blind and Disabled [SSI/AABD], Veterans,
         or Railroad Retirement Benefits; or court awards or
         settlements; he shall be required to make reimbursement
         for that amount of aid furnished during the previous two
         years.

            The GA applicant who is also an SSI/AABD applicant
         must sign a Recovery of General Assistance Agreement
         . . . which authorizes SSA to send the initial check to
         this department so that the amount of General Assistance
         received can be deducted.  The deduction will be made
         regardless of the amount of the initial SSI/AABD check.
         Any remainder due the SSI/AABD recipient shall be
         forwarded to him within 10 days.  The deduction shall
         be made for General Assistance issued during the period
         from the first day of the month of the SSI/AABD
         eligibility to the date the remainder of the initial
         SSI/AABD remainder of the initial SSI/AABD check is
         mailed by the Department to the recipient.

     Petitioners argue that the last clause of the first paragraph controls,
and, therefore, { 2600d limits the reimbursement to GA payments made within
two years of the SSI award.  DSW claims that the Board properly deferred to
the agency's interpretation of its own regulation by ruling that the last
sentence of the second paragraph authorizes DSW to reimburse the State for
all GA payments issued to the recipient, not only for those benefits awarded
within the previous two years.
     When construing an administrative rule or regulation, we use the same
rules that we use in construing a statute.  See Blundon v. Town of Stamford,
1 Vt. L.W. 181, 82 (Apr. 27, 1990) (No. 89-108) (zoning ordinances).  In so
doing, the primary rule is to give language its plain, ordinary meaning.  In
re Hydro Energies Corp., 147 Vt. 570, 573,