Source: https://casetext.com/case/head-v-jellico-housing-authority
Timestamp: 2019-03-25 22:38:42
Document Index: 744124211

Matched Legal Cases: ['§ 2716', '§ 1437', 'art 913', '§ 913', '§ 913', '§ 960', '§ 913', '§ 1437', '§ 1437', '§ 966', '§ 966', '§ 966', '§ 966']

Head v. Jellico Housing Authority, 870 F.2d 1117 | Casetext
Head v. Jellico Housing Authority
870 F.2d 1117 (6th Cir. 1989)
ReadReadAttorney AnalysesAnalyses0lockCiting BriefsBriefs1lockCiting CasesCiting Cases253
Headv.Jellico Housing Authority
Nos. 88-5353, 88-5354.
Argued February 6, 1989.
Lenny L. Croce (argued), Rural Legal Services of Tennessee, Inc., Oak Ridge, Tenn., for Lucille Head Helen Melton.
Wanda G. Sobieski (argued), Baker, Worthington, Crossley, Stansberry Woolf, Knoxville, Tenn., for Jellico Housing Authority.
Once each year as requested by Management, Tenant agrees to furnish to Management a signed statement and certification containing accurate information as to family income, employment, and composition, for use by Management in determining whether the rental should be changed. . . .
A. During the period between admission and Annual Reexamination, Tenant will be on a FULL INTERIM REPORTING BASIS, this means that Tenant is REQUIRED, to report ANY and ALL changes in total family income and family composition to the Project Office within ten (10) days after they occur.
(1) Increase in Rent — Increases in Rent are to be made effective the first of the month following that in which the change occurred.
E. In the event of any rent adjustment pursuant to the above, Management will mail or deliver a `Notice of Rent Adjustment' to Tenant which shall accept [sic] as an amendment to this lease.
Head informed JHA of this income as her lease required. On May 14, 1986, JHA issued Head a notice of rent adjustment, which advised her that her lease was being amended to charge retroactive rent in the amount of $913.02 for "back rent off SSI." Head paid this amount without protest on May 15, 1986. On June 10, 1986, JHA issued a second notice of rent adjustment. This notice advised her that her lease was being amended to charge additional retroactive rent in the amount of $1607.27, "for back rent on SS." This notice also advised Head that her new rent, effective July 1, 1986, would be $108.00 (compared to her current rent at that time of ninety-seven dollars). Head did not pay the $1607.27 requested. In a letter dated June 18, 1986, Head, through her counsel, protested the retroactive rent charges, requested a refund of the $913.02 already paid, and filed a grievance pursuant to section fourteen of the lease.
The general standard an appellate court applies in reviewing a grant of summary judgment is the same as the district court employs initially under Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 56(c). Gutierrez v. Lynch, 826 F.2d 1534, 1536 (6th Cir. 1987); 10 C. Wright, A. Miller M. Kane, Federal Practice and Procedure § 2716 (1983). "[T]he burden on the moving party may be discharged by `showing' — that is, pointing out to the District Court — that there is an absence of evidence to support the nonmoving party's case." Celotex Corp. v. Catrett, 477 U.S. 317, 325, 106 S.Ct. 2548, 2554, 91 L.Ed.2d 265 (1986). "Where the moving party has carried its burden of showing that the pleadings, depositions, answers to interrogatories, admissions and affidavits in the record, construed favorably to the nonmoving party, do not raise a genuine issue of material fact for trial, entry of summary judgment is appropriate." Gutierrez, 826 F.2d at 1536.
As we mentioned above, 42 U.S.C. § 1437a authorizes the Secretary of HUD to set rental payments not to exceed a percentage of family income as defined by the Secretary. 24 C.F.R. Part 913 "establishes definitions, policies and procedures related to income limits and the determination of eligibility, income and rent for applicants and tenants in Public Housing." 24 C.F.R. § 913.101. 24 C.F.R. § 913.106 provides in relevant part as follows:
(a) Annual income is the anticipated total income from all sources received by the Family head and spouse (even if temporarily absent) and by each additional member of the Family, including all net income derived from assets for the 12 month period following the effective date of the initial determination or reexamination of income, exclusive of certain types of income as provided in paragraph (c) of this section.
(5) Payments in lieu of earnings, such as unemployment and disability compensation, worker's compensation and severance pay (but see paragraph (c)(3) of this section);
(3) Lump-sum additions to Family assets, such as inheritances, insurance payments (including payments under health and accident insurance and worker's compensation), capital gains and settlement for personal or property losses (but see paragraph (b)(5) of this section);
(9) Temporary, nonrecurring or sporadic income (including gifts)[.]
Although subsection (a) defines annual income as "anticipated total income," subsection (b)(4) expressly includes in annual income the full amount of periodic payments received from Social Security, including a lump-sum payment for the delayed start of a periodic payment. "[O]ne of the oldest and most respected rules of statutory construction teaches us that general terms should be construed in light of the specific examples that are expressly identified as included therein." Director, OWCP v. Perini North River Assoc., 459 U.S. 297, 327, 103 S.Ct. 634, 652, 74 L.Ed.2d 465 (1983) (Stevens, J., dissenting). See Anderson v. Mills, 664 F.2d 600, 604 (6th Cir. 1981). Applying this rule of statutory construction to the instant case, requires the conclusion that the regulations permit the lump-sum payments at issue to be counted as annual income. We are especially confident of this conclusion since section 913.106(b)(4), which expressly includes lump-sum payments for the delayed start of Social Security benefits, was promulgated more recently than the more general subsection (a).
We are confident of our conclusion for yet another reason. 24 C.F.R. § 960.209(b), which is made applicable through 24 C.F.R. § 913.209, requires compliance with lease provisions regarding interim reporting of changes in income and contemplates corresponding adjustments in rent. This section would make no sense if annual income was given the narrow construction urged by Head.
Appellant Head also argues that the retroactive rent charges made in the instant case are unreasonable and in violation of 42 U.S.C. § 1437d(e)( l). We reject this argument.
42 U.S.C. § 1437d(e)( l) provides that a public housing agency must utilize leases which do not contain unreasonable terms and conditions. As mentioned above, section 960.209(b) specifies that tenants must comply with lease provisions requiring interim reporting of changes in income. This section further mandates "any [rent] adjustments determined to be appropriate." Apparently, this section authorizes retroactive rent adjustments which are determined to be appropriate.
The lease in the instant case provided generally that "[i]ncreases in rent are to be made effective the first of the month following that in which the change occurred." (Emphasis added). Appellant's lease expressly authorized retroactive rent charges in two places. First, retroactive rent charges were mandated if found to be necessary at the time of a scheduled special reexamination. Second, retroactive rent charges were mandated if it was found that the tenant had misrepresented and/or failed to report facts upon which her rent was based, so that the rent she was paying was less than she would have been charged. Although retroactive rent is mandated only under these two circumstances, the general provision for rent increases likewise may be construed to permit retroactive rent charges in the event that income changes are retroactive, i.e., reflect accrued income. In such a case, the income change can easily be considered to have occurred at the beginning of the accrual period.
The Secretary shall by regulation require each public housing agency receiving assistance under this chapter to establish and implement an administrative grievance procedure under which tenants will —
The grievance procedures and requirements promulgated by the Secretary are contained in 24 C.F.R. § 966.55(e). The lease states that grievance procedures are posted in the Project Office and are incorporated as part of the lease. The notices of rent adjustment issued in the instant case indicated that the rent adjustments were "for back rent off SSI" and "for back rent on SS." Appellant did request and receive an informal hearing. One prerequisite for a formal hearing is an escrow deposit of the amount of rent at issue. 20 C.F.R. § 966.55(e). This deposit was not made in the instant case.
Appellant argues that section 966.55(e) is not implicated because she is contesting a rent redetermination, which is governed exclusively by section 24 C.F.R. § 966.4(c). We reject this argument. The fact that the situation involves a rent determination does not prevent 24 C.F.R. § 966.4(b), which is captioned, "Payments due under the lease" and defines the amount of rent at issue for the purpose of section 966.55(e), from applying.
[T]he decision as to when `justice requires' an amendment is within the discretion of the trial judge, and we review the decision under an abuse of discretion standard. In addition, it is well settled law that the district court may deny a motion to amend if the court concludes that the pleading as amended could not withstand a motion to dismiss. However, when a district court bases its decision solely on a legal conclusion that the amended pleading would not withstand a motion to dismiss, this court must review the legal conclusion de novo. Whether an abuse of discretion occurred in such a case depends in whole upon the correctness of the district court's predicate legal conclusion.
In the instant case, the district court denied Head's motion to amend her complaint in two sentences as follows: "Plaintiff seeks to amend her complaint to add a claim of denial of equal protection under Chapter 8 of HUD's regulations. Plaintiff concedes that a federal court should not decide federal constitutional questions where a dispositive non-constitutional ground is available. Hagans v. Lavine, 415 U.S. 528, 547, 94 S.Ct. 1372, 1384, 39 L.Ed.2d 577 (1974)."
Appellant Head argues that the district court misconstrued the holding of Hagans v. Lavine and denied her motion to amend her complaint based on faulty legal analysis. Head's argument has some merit. In Hagans, 415 U.S. 543, 94 S.Ct. at 1382, the Supreme Court held that given a constitutional and a statutory claim, "[t]he latter was to be decided first and the former not reached if the statutory claim was dispositive." "Dispositive" in this context must mean resolved in favor of the plaintiff. See Id. at 549-50, 94 S.Ct. at 1385-86. In the instant case, the statutory claim was not resolved in favor of plaintiff; therefore, it was not dispositive. For this reason, Hagans does not support the district court's failure to allow amendment of the complaint.
By assessing and collecting retroactive rent on the basis of a Social Security `lump-sum payment for the delayed start of a periodic payment' from tenants of housing units owned by the JHA, but not from tenants of privately owned housing units subsidized under Section 8 administered by the JHA and from tenants receiving one-time, lump-sums other than Social Security disability benefits, Lucille Head has been denied equal protection of laws guaranteed by the fifth and fourteenth amendments to the United States Constitution[.]
Defendants' response to plaintiff's first set of requests for admissions, interrogatories and requests for production of documents for inspection and copying, states that "[JHA] would state that to its knowledge, no Section 8 Moderate Rehabilitation tenant has received lump-sum Social Security benefits representing retroactive payment for delayed start of periodic payments." This statement is uncontradicted. Therefore, as a matter of law, there exists no factual predicate for an equal protection violation, and the district court properly could not have granted appellant's motion to amend her complaint.
Upon timely application anyone may be permitted to intervene in an action: (1) when a statute of the United States confers a conditional right to intervene; or (2) when an applicant's claim or defense and the main action have a question of law or fact in common. . . . In exercising its discretion the court shall consider whether the intervention will unduly delay or prejudice the adjudication of the rights of the original parties.
Rule 24(b) grants the district court discretionary power to permit intervention if the motion is timely, and if the `applicant's claim or defense and the main action have a question of law or fact in common.' Fed.R.Civ.P. 24(b)(2). Rule 24(b)(2) also provides that `[i]n exercising its discretion the court shall consider whether the intervention will unduly delay or prejudice the adjudication of the rights of the original parties.' We therefore review a denial of a Rule 24(b) motion only for an abuse of discretion.