Source: http://openjurist.org/945/f2d/449
Timestamp: 2015-09-04 06:01:30
Document Index: 509766551

Matched Legal Cases: ['§ 515', '§ 1485', '§ 1944', '§ 515', '§ 1480', '§ 500', '§ 510', '§ 1480', '§ 503', '§ 1480', '§ 1944', '§ 1944', '§ 510', '§ 1480', '§ 403', '§ 504', '§ 1480', '§ 503']

945 F2d 449 Brewer v. R Madigan | OpenJurist
945 F. 2d 449 - Brewer v. R Madigan Home
945 F2d 449 Brewer v. R Madigan 945 F.2d 449
Barbara BREWER, Plaintiff, Appellant,v.Edward R. MADIGAN, etc., et al., Defendants, Appellees.
Heard May 10, 1991.Decided Sept. 26, 1991.
Patrick Ende, with whom Pine Tree Legal Assistance, Inc., Augusta, Me., was on brief for plaintiff, appellant.
D. Bruce la Pierre, Appellate Staff, Civil Div., Dept. of Justice, with whom Stuart M. Gerson, Asst. Atty. Gen., Washington, D.C., Richard S. Cohen, U.S. Atty., Portland, Me., and Barbara C. Biddle, Appellate Staff, Civil Div., Dept. of Justice, Washington, D.C., were on brief for defendants, appellees.
Barbara Brewer resided in a low-income rural housing project owned by Realty Resources, Inc., and financed by the Farmers Home Administration ("FmHA") under § 515 of Title V of the Housing Act of 1949, 42 U.S.C. § 1485. In July of 1987, Realty Resources, Inc., served Mrs. Brewer with an eviction notice, yet refused to grant her a hearing relying on a recent amendment to regulations which excluded evictions of tenants of FmHA-subsidized housing from the grievance and appeals procedure of the FmHA. 7 C.F.R. § 1944.551-.559 (1990). Mrs. Brewer brought a class action on behalf of all Maine residents living in § 515 housing challenging the amendment as inconsistent with its enabling statute, 42 U.S.C. § 1480(g), and as an arbitrary and capricious action of the Secretary of Agriculture in violation of the Administrative Procedure Act, 5 U.S.C. § 500 et seq. The district court dismissed the complaint on its merits. We affirm.
In 1978 Congress amended the tenant grievance and appeals procedures embodied in § 510(g) of the National Housing Act of 1949, codified at 42 U.S.C. § 1480(g). The amendment authorized the Secretary to issue rules and regulations ensuring that persons living in housing financed by the FmHA who are denied assistance or whose assistance is substantially reduced or terminated be given (1) written notice of the adverse decision and (2) an opportunity to present additional information on appeal to a person, other than the original decisionmaker, who has the authority to reverse the decision. Housing and Community Development Act of 1978, Pub.L. No. 95-557, § 503, 92 Stat. 2080, 2112; 42 U.S.C. § 1480(g). Within six months of its passage, the FmHA implemented this statute by promulgating tenant grievance and appeals procedure regulations which provided for administrative review of evictions. 7 C.F.R. § 1944.551-.559 (1990) (current provisions as amended). Upon their issuance, however, the FmHA invited public comments and announced its intention to republish the regulations after further study. 44 Fed.Reg. 54983 (Sept. 24, 1979).1
In 1982 the FmHA proposed a revision of its tenant grievance and appeals procedure regulations to, inter alia, "remove from the grievance process all eviction actions which are governed by State law." 47 Fed.Reg. 17300 (Apr. 22, 1982). After a comprehensive rulemaking process, the FmHA announced its final rule in which it introduced what it termed a "major change": that "the termination of tenancy and eviction will be conducted by a judicial process in accordance with State or local law." 48 Fed.Reg. at 56176 (Dec. 19, 1983). Specifically, the regulation, which is the subject of this appeal, now provides that "[t]he termination of tenancy and eviction must be based on material violation of the lease terms or other good cause" and that the landlord "shall not evict any tenant except by judicial action pursuant to State law." 7 C.F.R. § 1944.553(f) (1990).2
This case was submitted to the district court on a stipulated record. The question on appeal is therefore whether the district court committed error of law, and the applicable standard of review calls for de novo scrutiny. New England Legal Foundation v. Massachusetts Port Authority, 883 F.2d 157, 167 (1st Cir.1989). Since we are confronted with an agency's interpretation of a statute it administers, however, the scope of our de novo review is somewhat curtailed:
When a court reviews an agency's construction of the statute it administers, it is confronted with two questions. First, always, is the question of whether Congress has directly spoken to the precise question at issue. If the intent of Congress is clear, that is the end of the matter, for the court, as well as the agency, must give effect to the unambiguously expressed intent of Congress. If, however, the court determines Congress has not directly addressed the precise question at issue, the court does not simply impose its own construction of the statute, as would be necessary in the absence of an administrative interpretation. Rather, if the statute is silent and ambiguous with respect to the specific issue, the question for the court is whether the agency's answer is based on a permissible construction of the statute.
Chevron, U.S.A., Inc. v. Natural Resources Defense Council, Inc., 467 U.S. 837, 842-43, 104 S.Ct. 2778, 2781-82, 81 L.Ed.2d 694 (1984). With these principles in mind, we evaluate the propriety of the regulation promulgated by the Secretary of Agriculture.
* The question before this court is whether Congress required a particular form of review for evictions from FmHA-subsidized housing or whether it intended to provide the agency with a choice between administrative and judicial review. To answer this, we first look to the specific language of the statute at issue. The 1978 amendment to § 510(g) of the National Housing Act of 1949 provided that the Secretary of Agriculture shall have power to:
issue rules and regulations which assure that applicants denied assistance under this subchapter or persons or organizations whose assistance is being substantially reduced or terminated are given written notice of the reasons for the denial, reduction or termination and are provided at least an opportunity to appeal an adverse decision and to present additional information relevant to that decision to a person, other than the person making the original determination, who has authority to reverse the decision.
42 U.S.C. § 1480(g). A plain reading of the statute reveals that it simply imposes two specific conditions on the rulemaking powers conferred upon the Secretary. Tenants of FmHA-subsidized housing whose assistance is altered to their detriment must be given, first, written notice of the adverse decision and, second, at least an opportunity to appeal and present additional information to a person, other than the original decisionmaker, with the authority to reverse the decision. Nothing in the terms of the statute expressly requires a judicial or an administrative review process. No mention of either process is made, nor is there any reference to any judicial, intra-agency or administrative mechanism. Thus, a fair assessment of the statute reveals language broad enough to allow for either interpretation.
Confronted with this argument, however, appellant directs our attention to the use of the word "appeal" in the statute to support her contention that Congress contemplated an administrative appeals process instead of a judicial one. "Appeal," her argument goes, connotes an affirmative action by one seeking review of another person's decision; and, being a defendant in an eviction action is not the same as allowing a person to affirmatively "appeal" a landlord's decision to evict. The argument is undeniably attractive, prompting us to turn to the statute's legislative history for guidance.
Section 1480(g) is the product of a compromise between two starkly different proposals for procedural protection of tenants in FmHA-subsidized housing. On the one hand, the bill originally approved by the House of Representatives, H.R. 12433, 95th Cong., 2d Sess. § 403 (1978), simply provided that an applicant denied assistance must receive written notice of the reasons for the decision. On the other hand, the bill originally approved by the Senate, S. 3084, 95th Cong., 2d Sess., § 504 (1978), established an administrative appeals process and spelled out in detail the tenant's procedural rights. However, the Conference Committee, whose version of § 1480(g) was approved without amendment, did not adopt the Senate bill's detailed proposal for an administrative appeals process nor the House's de minimis requirement of written notice of adverse decision. Instead, § 503 of the Conference Committee bill omitted the Senate's reference to an "appeals of