Source: http://openjurist.org/969/f2d/1082/johnson-v-united-states-railroad-retirement-board
Timestamp: 2014-10-01 23:15:32
Document Index: 277601817

Matched Legal Cases: ['§ 231', '§ 1631', '§ 129', '§ 1361', '§ 703', '§ 231', '§ 355', '§ 355', '§ 1160', '§ 355', '§ 1255', '§ 1255']

969 F2d 1082 Johnson v. United States Railroad Retirement Board | OpenJurist
969 F. 2d 1082 - Johnson v. United States Railroad Retirement Board	Home969 f2d 1082 johnson v. united states railroad retirement board
969 F2d 1082 Johnson v. United States Railroad Retirement Board 969 F.2d 1082
297 U.S.App.D.C. 82
Nancy JOHNSON, Petitioner-Appellant,v.UNITED STATES RAILROAD RETIREMENT BOARD, Respondent-Appellee.
Nos. 90-1243, 90-5380.
Argued Oct. 23, 1991.Decided July 10, 1992.Rehearing Denied Sept. 11, 1992.
Gill Deford, with whom Neal S. Dudovitz, Los Angeles, Cal., and Toby S. Edelman, Washington, D.C., were on the brief, for petitioner.
Karl T. Blank, Gen. Atty., R.R. Retirement Bd., Chicago, Ill., and Susan A. Nellor, Asst. U.S. Atty., with whom Jay B. Stephens, U.S. Atty., John D. Bates and R. Craig Lawrence, Asst. U.S. Attys., Washington, D.C., Steven A. Bartholow, Deputy Gen. Counsel, and Edward S. Hintzke, Asst. Gen. Counsel, R.R. Retirement Bd., Chicago, Ill., were on the brief, for respondent.
In a bold challenge to judicial authority, the United States Railroad Retirement Board argues that it is free, when it chooses, to ignore the decisions of United States courts of appeals. Since 1981, the Board has cut off benefits for the spouses and widows of railroad workers after their dependent children turn sixteen, even though the Railroad Retirement Act of 1974, 45 U.S.C. §§ 231-231v (1988), says that they are entitled to benefits until the children turn eighteen. In 1985, the Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit rejected the Board's position that an amendment to the Social Security Act required the change. Costello v. United States R.R. Retirement Bd., 780 F.2d 1352 (8th Cir.1985). The Board, however, refused to apply the Costello decision, even within the Eighth Circuit, and continued to deny benefits at the administrative level. In March 1991, the Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit rejected the Board's position for the same reasons as the Eighth Circuit. Johnson v. United States R.R. Retirement Bd., 925 F.2d 1374 (11th Cir.1991). The Board still refuses to acquiesce. Since individual challenges have been ineffective, Nancy Johnson, whose spousal benefits were denied, tried to bring a class action in district court challenging the Board's interpretation of the Railroad Act and its policy of intracircuit nonacquiescence.
Because we think that Mrs. Johnson has not been denied "meaningful" access to judicial review, we uphold the district court's conclusion that the Railroad Act vests exclusive jurisdiction in the courts of appeals. But we join the Eighth and Eleventh Circuits and reject the Board's interpretation of the Railroad Act for the third time. We also think that the Board's unapologetic policy of nonacquiescence is inconsistent with the Board's own jurisdictional arguments and troubling on statutory and constitutional grounds. If the Board continues to deny benefits after our decision today, we expect that the policy itself can be directly challenged in an appropriate action before this court.
Nancy Johnson is the wife of Edward Johnson, a former railroad employee. As the mother and stepmother of his five children, the Board found her eligible for a spousal annuity effective September 10, 1976. In late 1986, the Board notified her that the Tier I component of her annuity would be cut off on April 1, 1987, when her youngest child turned sixteen. (The Railroad Act divides the benefit into two tiers, with separate eligibility criteria). On reconsideration, Mrs. Johnson's claim was denied, and her monthly payment was reduced from $391.11 to $84.11. She filed an administrative appeal, and was told that the issue presented "was solely a matter of law," and did not require a hearing. The first appeals referee denied Mrs. Johnson's claim, and came to the remarkable conclusion [297 U.S.App.D.C. 84] that the Costello case requires her benefits to be terminated, even though the case explicitly requires the opposite result. Railroad Bd. No. 90-1243 (Sept. 29, 1987). A second appeals referee reopened the decision and again rejected her argument, noting that "Costello was not a class action case and the Board did not pursue it further." Id. (July 12, 1988). Mrs. Johnson appealed again, and on May 16, 1989, a three-member panel of the Board issued its final decision, affirming the decision of the second appeals referee in a one-sentence order. The third panel member dissented vigorously, calling the Board's policy of nonacquiescence "grossly unjust" and urging payment of Tier I benefits to all widows and spouses with children between sixteen and eighteen. Id. (May 16, 1989) (Chamberlain, C.J., dissenting).
Having exhausted her administrative remedies, Mrs. Johnson filed a class action in district court, suing individually and on behalf of similarly situated beneficiaries under the Act. She claimed that the Board's denial of full benefits to those in her circumstances violated the Act and the Fifth Amendment's Due Process clause. She also claimed that the Board's policy of intracircuit nonacquiescence violated the statutory and constitutional rights of her class.
The district court decided that the Railroad Act gives the federal courts of appeals exclusive jurisdiction to review the Board's decisions. Concluding, accordingly, that it lacked subject matter jurisdiction over Mrs. Johnson's complaint, it transferred her case to this court pursuant to 28 U.S.C. § 1631 on July 12, 1990. This presented Mrs. Johnson with a dilemma: although an appeals court can adjudicate her individual claim, it cannot adjudicate the class action; and if she chose to pursue the transfer, she would have to abandon the class action challenge. She chose instead to move for reconsideration, requesting that the district court dismiss her complaint, or that it certify its order finding no jurisdiction for interlocutory review under 28 U.S.C. § 129(b). While her complaint was pending in the district court, Mrs. Johnson petitioned this court for review, to protect her individual claim for benefits. The district court, in turn, granted reconsideration, vacated the transfer, and on October 4, 1990, dismissed Johnson's case for lack of jurisdiction.
Two circuits are split about whether district courts have subject matter jurisdiction to entertain class action suits raising purely legal challenges to the Board's determination of benefits under the Railroad Act. Compare Linquist v. Bowen, 813 F.2d 884, 888 (8th Cir.1987) (district court properly exercised mandamus jurisdiction under 28 U.S.C. § 1361 to entertain class action on behalf of dual beneficiaries under Social Security Act and Railroad Retirement Act) with Denberg v. United States R.R. Retirement Bd., 696 F.2d 1193, 1197-98 (7th Cir.1983), cert. denied, 466 U.S. 926, 104 S.Ct. 1706, 80 L.Ed.2d 180 (1984) (reversing district court's exercise of jurisdiction over class action challenging Act's treatment of male and female spouses on equal protection grounds). Although Mrs. Johnson's jurisdictional argument is plausible, the logic of the precedents persuades us to reject it.
Section 10(b) of the Administrative Procedure Act says that "the form of proceeding for judicial review is the special statutory review proceedings relevant to the subject matter in a court specified by statute or, in the absence or inadequacy thereof, any applicable form of legal action ... in a court of competent jurisdiction." 5 U.S.C. § 703 (1988) (emphasis added). We begin, therefore, by asking whether the statutory review proceedings govern Mrs. Johnson's claim and, if they do, whether the review they provide is adequate.
Decisions of the Board must be reviewed according to the terms of the Railroad Retirement Act of 1974, 45 U.S.C. § 231g (1988). The relevant section, "Claims for benefits," says that[297 U.S.App.D.C. 85] [f]indings of fact and conclusions of law of the Board in the determination of any claim for benefits or refund, the determination of any other matter pursuant to subsection (c) [concerning 'Hearing and review of decisions on claims'] ... shall not be subject to review in any manner other than that set forth in subsection (f) of this section.
45 U.S.C. § 355(g) (1988).
Subsection (f), in turn, says that "[a]ny claimant, or railway labor organization ... of which claimant is a member, or any other party aggrieved by a final decision under subsection (c) of this section, may, only after [exhausting administrative remedies], obtain a review of any final decision of the Board" in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the circuit in which he lives or works, or in the Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit or the Seventh Circuit.
Mrs. Johnson argues that § 355 refers (as its name suggests) to individual "claims for benefits," not to class actions challenging the Board's policies and practices. She points to McNary v. Haitian Refugee Center, Inc., 498 U.S. 499, 111 S.Ct. 888, 112 L.Ed.2d 1005 (1991), in which the Supreme Court recently decided that a similarly worded section of the Immigration Reform and Control Act of 1986 forecloses district court review of individual applications but not "general collateral challenges to unconstitutional practices and policies used by the agency in processing applications." Id. 111 S.Ct. at 896. Just as the critical language in the Immigration Act refers to "a determination respecting an application," 8 U.S.C. § 1160(e) (1988), so Mrs. Johnson argues that the critical language in the Railroad Act refers to "the determination of any claim." 45 U.S.C. § 355(f).
We conclude, however, that the statutory review provision does govern Mrs. Johnson's case. First, the language in the Railroad Act is broader than the corresponding language in the Immigration Act. Subsection (f) of the Railroad Act refers not only to "the determination of any claim," but also to "the determination of any other matter" relating to the "review of decisions on claims." It also refers to judicial review of "any final decision," while the Immigration Act refers only to judicial review "of such a denial." Second, subsection (g) of the Railroad Act says that "[f]indings of fact and conclusions of law" shall be subject to review; while the Immigration Act refers only to "findings of fact and determinations contained in [the administrative] record." 8 U.S.C. § 1255a(f)(4)(B) (1988). The textual differences suggest to us that the Railroad Act contains a broader preclusion of district court jurisdiction than the Immigration Act does.
Although the text of the review provision seems to preclude district court jurisdiction, Mrs. Johnson argues that this court has already interpreted the legislative history to suggest a contrary result. Without deciding the jurisdictional question explicitly, we suggested in passing that "Congress did not have in mind a design to preclude class actions when it provided for direct review in the courts of appeals of decisions under the Railroad Retirement Act." Burns v. United States R.R. Retirement Bd., 701 F.2d 189, 191 (D.C.Cir.1983). Before 1946, the district courts reviewed social security and railroad retirement determinations, while the courts of appeals reviewed determinations under the Railroad Unemployment Insurance Act. In the interest of economy and uniformity, Congress amended the Railroad Act so that cases involving both Railroad Acts would be resolved "in a single consolidated proceeding with a single court review." Id. at 191 (quoting S.REP. NO. 1710, 79th Cong., 2d Sess., pt. 2, at 21 (1946)). The Board suggests that this shows an intent to prohibit class actions; and it points to a statement by Lester P. Schoene, who helped to draft the 1946 amendment on behalf of railway labor: "[T]he judgment of three members on the circuit court is bound to be more carefully thrashed out than the judgment of one man," he said. Hearings on H.R. 1362 Before the House Comm. on Interstate and Foreign Commerce, 79th Cong., 1st Sess., pt. 3, at 1083-93 (1946) ("House Hearings"). But Mr. Schoene seems to have been referring to individual claims, not to class actions, and the Board does not explain why a labor representative [297 U.S.App.D.C. 86] would design a bill to shield illegal Board policies from national challenges by the wives of railway workers. We conclude, in any event, that even if the legislative history raises questions about Congress's intent to preclude district court jurisdiction, they are not sufficient to overcome the text of the review provision, which seems relatively clear.
Having concluded that the statutory mechanism governs Mrs. Johnson's claim, we must now decide whether an exception is justified because the review offered is "inadequate" or less than "meaningful" within the meaning of the Administrative Procedure Act, 5 U.S.C. 703 (1988), cf. McNary, 111 S.Ct. at 898. The focus on the "adequacy" of judicial review is the one thread that runs throughout the cases; and it helps to reconcile decisions that appear to be irreconcilable, such as Denberg and Linquist; McNary and our recent decision in Ayuda, Inc. v. Thornburgh, 948 F.2d 742 (D.C.Cir.1991) ("Ayuda IV"). Mr. Denberg, for example, admitted that he could have gone to the court of appeals directly after the denial of his application. The Denberg court refused to find district court jurisdiction, noting that "[t]here was no problem of 'absence or inadequacy' of the special statutory review proceedings of section 5(f)." 696 F.2d at 1196. The Linquist court, by contrast, held that the district court did have mandamus jurisdiction over a challenge to the Social Security Administration and the Railroad Retirement Board. Direct review in the court of appeals was "inadequate," the court noted, because determinations of the social security administration are reviewed in the district court, and the defendants could not have been joined in a single proceeding before the court of appeals. 813 F.2d at 888.
In McNary, similarly, the Supreme Court noted "several aspects" of the statutory scheme that would preclude "meaningful" review in the courts of appeals. First, the lack of an administrative record in deportation proceedings meant that courts of appeals would "have no complete or meaningful basis upon which to review application determinations." 111 S.Ct. at 898. Second, most aliens can obtain review in courts of appeals only if they voluntarily surrender themselves for deportation. "Quite obviously," the Court emphasized, "that price is tantamount to a complete denial of judicial review for most undocumented aliens." Id. Third, to challenge the INS policies, the Haitian Refugee Center had to gather a host of evidence which would have been irrelevant in an administrative hearing and unattainable in a court of appeals, without "the factfinding and record-developing capabilities of a federal district court." Id. For all three reasons, the Supreme Court concluded that "restricting judicial review to the courts of appeals ... is the practical equivalent of a total denial of judicial review of generic constitutional and statutory claims." Id.
And then there is Ayuda, in which the Supreme Court asked this court to reexamine its interpretation of a parallel provision of the Immigration Act, 8 U.S.C. § 1255a (1988), in light of McNary. See 880 F.2d 1325 (D.C.Cir.1989), vacated and remanded, --- U.S. ----, 111 S.Ct. 1068, 112 L.Ed.2d 1174 (1991). The panel found, on remand, no reason to revise its original position that the district court lacked jurisdiction over broad challenges to an INS policy or legal position that could apply to many determinations. It focused on the McNary Court's conclusion that an inadequate administrative record made it "unlikely that a court of appeals would be in a position to provide meaningful judicial review" of deportation orders. 111 S.Ct. at 898. Since the administrative record in Ayuda was adequate, the panel concluded that judicial review was meaningful. Ayuda IV, 948 F.2d at 749.
In McNary, the Supreme Court noted that requiring aliens to turn themselves in for deportation before they can challenge INS policy "is tantamount to a complete denial of judicial review for most undocumented aliens." McNary, 111 S.Ct. at 898. The Seventh and Ninth Circuits have interpreted McNary to find district court jurisdiction over a challenge to a regulation limiting eligibility for legalization whose validity could have been raised by the alien plaintiffs in individual deportation proceedings.. [297 U.S.App.D.C. 87] See Catholic Social Servs., Inc. v. Thornburg, 956 F.2d 914, 920-21 (9th Cir.1992) (Hug, J.) cert granted sub nom. Barr v. Catholic Social Servs., --- U.S. ----, 112 S.Ct. 2990, 120 L.Ed.2d 867 (1992); Morales v. Yeutter, 952 F.2d 954 (7th Cir.1991) (Posner, J.). Although its application of the principle is disputed in these other circuits, Ayuda 's focus on the adequacy of judicial review is consistent with the general logic of McNary, Denberg, and Linquist.
Applying that logic, we reject Mrs. Johnson's jurisdictional claim. Mrs. Johnson does not suggest that the relevant parties could not be joined in a single proceeding before the court of appeals, as in Linquist, 813 F.2d at 888. She does not suggest that the administrative record in her case is inadequate, as in McNary; nor does she suggest that claimants in her position have no access to judicial review because they fear a heavy penalty like deportation, or because the government refuses to deport them, as in Ayuda. 948 F.2d at 751.
Mrs. Johnson does argue forcefully that the Board's policy of nonacquiescence forecloses meaningful judicial review. The Board refuses to petition for Supreme Court review of adverse circuit court rulings in individual appeals, and at the same time, it continues to apply the rejected interpretation not only in other circuits, but to other individuals' claims in the same circuit. The practical effect of this policy, Mrs. Johnson says, is to insure that few claimants will actually obtain the relief to which federal courts say they are entitled by law. We agree that th