Opinion ID: 3064784
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: The Gillett-Netting Decision

Text: In Gillett-Netting, we contemplated the Act’s application to posthumously-conceived children for the first time. The case centered around twins conceived 10 months after their father’s passing. Gillett-Netting, 371 F.3d at 595. Their father, Netting, delayed cancer treatment in order to deposit semen for later use by his wife. Id. at 594. Before he died, he confirmed that he wanted his wife to have their child using his frozen sperm. Id. at 595. [1] We first noted that to receive benefits under the Act, a claimant must show that: (1) he or she is a “child,” under the Act; and (2) he or she “was dependent on the insured wage earner at the time of his death.” Id. at 596 (citing 42 U.S.C. § 402(d)(1)). We then interpreted the word “child,” for purposes of 42 U.S.C. § 416(e), “to mean the natural, or biological, child of the insured.” Id. In doing so, this court held that, contrary to the SSA’s interpretation, a child did not also have to satisfy the terms of § 416(h)(2), (3) (demonstrating right to take through intestacy laws of the State and other means of establishing paternity) where parentage was not disputed. Id. at 596-97. We next examined the dependency requirement of § 402(d). The Act does not require proof of actual dependency for those children that are deemed dependent, through a determination either that they are the legitimate child of the insured under state law or a deemed legitimate child through compliance with § 416(h). See § 402(d)(3).1 Applying Ari- 1 Section 402(d)(3) reads as follows: A child shall be deemed dependent upon his father . . . at the time . . . 7184 VERNOFF v. ASTRUE zona law, we held that the twins were the deemed dependents of Netting because they were his legitimate children under state law, which recognizes “[e]very child [as] the legitimate child of its natural parents.” Gillette-Netting, 371 F.3d at 598 (quoting Ariz. Rev. Stat. § 8-601). Netting was the “natural parent” of the twins, in turn, as the “biological father of a child born using artificial insemination” of his spouse. Id. at 599 (citing Ariz. Rev. Stat. § 25-501).2