Task: songer_typeiss

What follows is an opinion from a United States Court of Appeals.
Your task is to determine the general category of issues discussed in the opinion of the court. Choose among the following categories. Criminal and prisioner petitions- includes appeals of conviction, petitions for post conviction relief, habeas corpus petitions, and other prisoner petitions which challenge the validity of the conviction or the sentence or the validity of continued confinement. Civil - Government - these will include appeals from administrative agencies (e.g., OSHA,FDA), the decisions of administrative law judges, or the decisions of independent regulatory agencies (e.g., NLRB, FCC,SEC). The focus in administrative law is usually on procedural principles that apply to administrative agencies as they affect private interests, primarily through rulemaking and adjudication. Tort actions against the government, including petitions by prisoners which challenge the conditions of their confinement or which seek damages for torts committed by prion officials or by police fit in this category. In addition, this category will include suits over taxes and claims for benefits from government. Diversity of Citizenship - civil cases involving disputes between citizens of different states (remember that businesses have state citizenship). These cases will always involve the application of state or local law. If the case is centrally concerned with the application or interpretation of federal law then it is not a diversity case. Civil Disputes - Private - includes all civil cases that do not fit in any of the above categories. The opposing litigants will be individuals, businesses or groups.

PER CURIAM.
Upon attaining age 65, plaintiff applied for and received old-age insurance benefits of $85.00 per month beginning January 1954. In 1958 plaintiff reported a real estate commission of $8,800, precipitating a review of his social security status and resulting in a suspension by the Bureau of further payments and a direction of restitution of amounts previously paid to him in the years 1954 through 1957, totalling $4,620. Upon plaintiff’s request a hearing was held on February 17, 1959. The Referee’s Decision of April 15, 1959 affirmed the decision of the Board and held that plaintiff had received and was receiving wages in excess of $2,080 per annum, the amount at which benefits were to be totally suspended under Sections 203(b) and 203 (e) of the Social Security Act, 42 U.S.C. §§ 403(b) and 403(e). Upon denial of review by the Appeals Council of the Social Security Administration this decision became final and plaintiff then sought review in the District Court which dismissed his complaint, and he appeals. Opinion below reported at 205 F.Supp. 683. We hold this dismissal was proper.
The evidence showed that when plaintiff filed his retirement claim, he was president, general manager, principal stockholder and the only paid employee of the Dondero Holding Company, Inc., a real estate corporation formed in 1930, whose principal assets were a parcel of improved real estate yielding an annual rental of $10,000 and bank accounts and securities yielding annual interest and dividends of $1,000. Plaintiff’s salary of $4,200 and business expenses consumed most of the earnings. Plaintiff’s apartment served as office, with light secretarial work performed without compensation by his wife. After his “retirement” in 1954, plaintiff’s salary was reduced to $900 per annum and for the first time the wife was put on the payroll at $60 a week, although the somewhat minimal duties and services performed by each did not materially change and the plaintiff at all times remained the “moving force” of the operation.
The Referee thought that plaintiff’s testimony was discredited by the circumstances above outlined, and that the record established a “scheme of shifting wages” whereby plaintiff indirectly received “remuneration which is, in effect, wages to him.” We hold that these determinations were permissible and supported by substantial evidence as required under Section 205(g) of the Social Security Act, 42 U.S.C. § 405(g). Newman v. Celebrezze, 2 Cir., 1962, 310 F.2d 780; Poss v. Ribicoff, 2 Cir., 1961, 289 F.2d 10, cert. denied, 368 U.S. 902, 82 S.Ct. 178, 7 L.Ed.2d 96, rehearing denied, 1962, 368 U.S. 963, 82 S.Ct. 393, 7 L.Ed.2d 393; Walker v. Altmeyer, 2 Cir., 1943, 137 F.2d 531, 533-34.
In so holding, we reaffirm our prior statement in Newman v. Celebrezze, supra, that a claimant has the right to receive old-age benefits “irrespective of any dividend or other non-wage payments he might receive.” This principle, however, is inapplicable to the instant case since the joint income and corporation tax forms and the other relevant evidence established that the moneys, potentially payable as rents, dividends, and interest, with the attendant disadvantages involved in this form of distribution, were actually paid out and consistently treated as wages earned. Nor do we find in the decision below any attempt to penalize plaintiff for corporate or individual income tax procedures which may or may not be questionable.
The proceedings hitherto had, of course, constitute only an adjudication as of the time through which evidence was submitted, and are without prejudice to a new application by plaintiff based on a new set of facts. Newman v. Celebrezze, supra.
Affirmed.

Question: What is the general category of issues discussed in the opinion of the court?
A. criminal and prisoner petitions
B. civil - government
C. diversity of citizenship
D. civil - private
E. other, not applicable
F. not ascertained
Answer:

Answer: B