Source: http://supreme.nolo.com/us/537/371/case.html
Timestamp: 2019-11-19 22:40:07
Document Index: 768210272

Matched Legal Cases: ['§ 405', '§404', '§ 405', '§ 13', '§ 388', '§ 388', '§ 1257', '§ 407', '§ 407', '§ 407', '§ 405', '§404', '§ 407', '§ 405', '§ 407', '§ 407', '§ 407', '§407', '§ 74', '§ 407', '§ 405', '§ 405', '§ 407', '§ 405', '§ 407', '§ 405', '§405']

WASHINGTON STATE DEPARTMENT OF SOCIAL AND HEALTH SERVICES ET AL. v. GUARDIAN­ SHIP ESTATE OF KEFFELER ET AL - 537 U.S. 371 - 2003 - Full Text - US Supreme Court Center - USSC Cases - Nolo
US Supreme Court Center > Volume 537 > WASHINGTON STATE DEPARTMENT OF SOCIAL AND HEALTH SERVICES ET AL. v. GUARDIAN­ SHIP ESTATE OF KEFFELER ET AL 537 U.S. 371 (2003) > Full Text
*Briefs of amici curiae urging reversal were filed for the State of Florida et al. by Robert A. Butterworth, Attorney General of Florida, Thomas E. Warner, Solicitor General, and Matthew J. Conigliaro, Deputy Solicitor General, and by the Attorneys General for their respective jurisdictions as follows: William H. Pryor, Jr., of Alabama, Bruce M. Botelho of Alaska, Fiti A. Sunia of American Samoa, Janet Napolitano of Arizona, Bill Lockyer of California, Ken Salazar of Colorado, M. Jane Brady of Delaware, Thurbert E. Baker of Georgia, Earl I. Anzai of Hawaii, James E. Ryan of Illinois, Steve Carter of Indiana, Thomas J. Miller of Iowa, Carla J. Stovall of Kansas, Richard P. Ieyoub of Louisiana, G. Steven Rowe of Maine, J. Joseph Curran, Jr., of Maryland, Thomas F. Reilly of Massachusetts, Jennifer M. Granholm of Michigan, Mike Moore of Mississippi, Jeremiah W (Jay) Nixon of Missouri, Don Stenberg of Nebraska, Frankie Sue Del Papa of Nevada, Philip T. McLaughlin of New Hampshire, David Samson of New Jersey, Eliot Spitzer of New York, Betty D. Montgomery of Ohio, W A. Drew Edmondson of Oklahoma, Hardy Myers of Oregon, Anabelle Rodriguez of Puerto Rico, Sheldon Whitehouse of Rhode Island, Charles M. Condon of South Carolina, Mark Barnett of South Dakota, Paul G. Summers of Tennessee, John Cornyn of Texas, Mark L. Shurtleff of Utah, William H. Sorrell of Vermont, Jerry W Kilgore of Virginia, Iver A. Stridiron of the Virgin Islands, Darrell V. McGraw, Jr., of West Virginia, James E. Doyle of Wisconsin, and Hoke MacMillan of Wyoming; for the Counties of the State of California et al. by Lloyd W Pellman, Ada Gardiner, Catherine J. Pratt, Alan K. Marks, and Julie J. Surber;
Marsha L. Levick filed a brief for the Juvenile Law Center et al. as amici curiae.
In addition, the Commissioner is required to notify the beneficiary or the beneficiary's legal guardian of her intention to appoint a representative payee. 42 U. S. C. §§ 405(j)(2)(E)(ii), 1383(a)(2)(B)(xii); see 20 CFR §§404.2030,416.630. "Any individual who is dissatisfied ... with the designation of a particular person to serve as representative payee shall be entitled to a hearing by the Commissioner," with judicial review available thereafter. 42 U. S. C. §§ 405(j)(2)(E)(i), 1383(a)(2)(B)(xi).
The State of Washington, through petitioner Department of Social and Health Services, makes foster care available to abandoned, abused, neglected, or orphaned children who have no guardians or other custodians able to care for them adequately. See Wash. Rev. Code §§ 13.34.030(5),
2 In April 2001, the department repealed § 388-70-069 and replaced it with a functionally similar provision. The new regulation provides that the department "must use income not exempted to cover the child's cost of care." Wash. Admin. Code § 388-25-0210.
3 Of the 1,480 children in foster care as of September 1999 who were receiving Social Security benefits, 923 were receiving SSI benefits, 469 were receiving OASDI benefits, and 88 were receiving both, and the department acted as representative payee for 1,411.
4 In light of this holding, the State Supreme Court did not address respondents' other arguments, including the contention, accepted in the alternative by the trial court, that the department violated procedural due process by failing to provide notice of the "'intended result'" of its appointment as representative payee. 145 Wash. 2d 1, 15,32 P. 3d 267, 274 (2001) (quoting Memorandum Opinion, No. 96-2-00157-2 (Wash. Super. Ct., Okanogan Cty., Sept. 29, 1998), p. 8, App. to Pet. for Cert. A-130).
5 The State Supreme Court ultimately remanded for further consideration of the scope and basis for awarding attorney's fees. Our jurisdiction, which is premised on a "[f]inal judgmen[t] or decre[e]" within the meaning of 28 U. S. C. § 1257(a), is unaffected by this disposition. See Pierce County v. Guillen, ante, at 142-143.
The questions to be answered in resolving this case, then, do not go to the State's character as a creditor. The questions, instead, are whether the department's effort to become a representative payee, or its use of respondents' Social Security benefits when it acts in that capacity, amounts to em-
6 Respondents have apparently never argued that the reimbursement violates the § 407(a) bar to "transfe[r]" of benefits; nor would such a claim seem to hold any promise on the facts here. Respondents do, however, contend that the department's budgeting in anticipation of receiving Social Security benefits constitutes an "assign[ment]" prohibited by § 407(a). Congress could hardly have intended for this sort of budgeting, done by private and public representative payees alike, to run afoul of the antiattachment provisions of the Act, particularly since the Administration makes OASDI payments with a I-month lag. See infra, at 387. To the extent that the text of § 407(a) is ambiguous on this score, the Commissioner's interpretation of the provision to permit such budgeting requires deference. See Skidmore v. Swift & Co., 323 U. S. 134, 139-140 (1944).
7 Quite apart from any consequence of the interpretive canons discussed in the succeeding text, the mere fact of the department's appointment as representative payee could not reasonably be taken to contravene the antiattachment provision, contrary to respondents' suggestion. As already noted, the department's appointment is consistent with the sections of the Act governing appointment of representative payees, see 42 U. S. C. §§ 405(j)(2)(C), (3)(B) and (F), (4)(B), 1383(a)(2)(B)(v), (vii) (II), (C)(ii), (D)(ii), and with the Commissioner's regulations interpreting that section to authorize appointment of custodial institutions as a last resort, see 20 CFR §§404.2021(b)(7), 416.621(b)(7). To suggest that the department's appointment as representative payee, under the same statutory scheme that forbids the use of "other legal process," is itself forbidden legal process disregards the "cardinal rule that a statute is to be read as a whole," King v. St. Vincent's Hospital, 502 U. S. 215, 221 (1991), and ignores the Commissioner's reasonable regulations implementing the Act. See King v. Schafer, 940 F.2d 1182, 1185 (CA8 1991) ("We cannot believe Congress contemplated this result in enacting § 407(a), particularly when this result would be contrary to another provision of the Social Security Act: § 405(j), providing for the appointment of representative payees"), cert. denied sub nom. Crytes v. Schafer, 502 U. S. 1095 (1992); 940 F. 2d, at 1185 ("Section 407(a) was not intended to outlaw a procedure expressly authorized by the Social Security Administration's own regulations").
In this case, the product of these canons of construction is confirmed by legal guidance in the Commissioner's own interpretation of "legal process." The Social Security Administration's Program Operations Manual System (POMS), the publicly available operating instructions for processing Social Security claims, defines "legal process" as used in § 407(a) as "the means by which a court (or agency or official authorized by law) compels compliance with its demand; generally, it is a court order." POMS GN 02410.001 (2002), available at http://policy.ssa.gov/poms.nsf/aboutpoms (as visited Jan. 23, 2003) (available in Clerk of Court's case file). Elsewhere in the POMS, the Commissioner defines "legal process" similarly as "any writ, order, summons or other similar process in the nature of garnishment. It may include, but is not limited to, an attachment, writ of execution, income execution order or wage assignment that is issued by ... [a] court of competent jurisdiction ... [or a]n authorized official pursuant to an order of a court of competent jurisdiction or pursuant to State or local law ... [a]nd is directed to a governmental entity." POMS GN 02410.200 (emphasis added). While these administrative interpretations are not products of formal rulemaking, they nevertheless warrant respect in closing the door on any suggestion that the usual rules of statutory construction should get short shrift for the sake of reading "other legal process" in abstract breadth. See Skidmore v. Swift & Co., 323 U. S. 134, 139-140 (1944);
8 In arguing that § 407(a) applies here, respondents rely in part on § 407(b), which provides that "[n]o other provision of law ... may be construed to limit, supersede, or otherwise modify the provisions of this section except to the extent that it does so by express reference to this section." Given our conclusion that §407(a), by its terms, does not apply, however, respondents' reliance is misplaced.
10 Moreover, as the Government notes, the position of the Supreme Court of Washington and respondents is ultimately "one of empty formalism" because a State could, indisputably, use a foster child's Social Security benefits directly for the costs of care and then reduce the State's own funding by the same amount. Brief for United States as Amicus Curiae 28. The financial result would be the same as in the system currently used by the department, yet the practical advantages of the reimbursement method of accounting would be lost.
11 It bears mentioning that nothing in the State Supreme Court's reasoning limits its holding to state agencies. The state court's logic would apply equally to parents serving as representative payees, since they, like the department, are under a legal obligation to support their children's basic needs irrespective of Social Security benefits. See, e. g., Wash. Rev. Code § 74.20A.01O (2002). We find it hard to believe that Congress would have intended this result, which would likely impose onerous and absurd accounting requirements on parents. See, e. g., Mellies v. Mellies, 249 Kan. 28, 33, 815 P. 2d 114, 117 (1991) (holding that a parent "had no obligation to exhaust his personal finances in providing for [his child's] support before spending any of [the child's] social security benefits on the child's maintenance"); In re Guardianship of Nelson, 547 N. W. 2d 105, 108, 109 (Minn. Ct. App. 1996) (stating that because Social Security benefits are "not a windfall" for the beneficiary, "a representative payee parent can use his or her child's social security survivor benefits for the child's current maintenance regardless of the parent's financial ability to meet those needs").
12 Respondents also go beyond the § 407(a) issue to argue that the department violates § 405(j) itself, by, for example, failing to exercise discretion in how it uses benefits, periodically "sweeping" beneficiaries' accounts to pay for past care, and "double dipping" by using benefits to reimburse the State for costs previously recouped from other sources. These allegations, and respondents' § 405(j) stand-alone arguments more generally, are far afield of the question on which we granted certiorari. Moreover, constitutional claims aside, respondents' complaint and the class-action certification related only to § 407(a). Accordingly, we decline to reach respondents' § 405(j) arguments here, except insofar as they relate to the proper interpretation of § 407(a). Respondents are free to press their stand-
alone § 405(j) arguments before the Commissioner, who bears responsibility for overseeing representative payees, or elsewhere as appropriate.
13 The Act does allow a state representative payee to use the lesser of 10 percent of monthly benefits or $25 per month to offset administrative expenses. See 42 U. S. C. §§405(j)(4)(A)(i), 1383(a)(2)(D)(i). Nevertheless, at least with respect to SSl, many States spend considerably more to identify eligible foster children and assist them in obtaining benefits. According to the department, for example, the process of screening potential SSl applicants among foster children and applying for benefits on their behalf involves 27 staff members and costs $1.9 million annually. See Application to Recall and Stay the Mandate of the Supreme Court of Washington Pending Certiorari, No. 01A557, pp. 18-19. For this reason, the department has said that it would not seek to become the representative payee for SSl beneficiaries absent an ability to use benefits to recoup some costs. See ibid.