Opinion ID: 519240
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: Plaintiff Cheryl Robinson

Text: 7 Plaintiff Cheryl Robinson, a food stamp recipient, lived with her eleven year-old son in a three-story house owned by her brother. 2 Cheryl's sister Margo Robinson and her daughter, also food stamp recipients, eventually moved into the house, although Cheryl apparently had no say in the matter. Over the years, Cheryl and Margo had several serious disagreements, and living in close quarters only seemed to exacerbate the existing tensions between them. When DPW discovered that Cheryl was living in the same house as her sister, she was given notice that unless she appealed, her food stamp benefits would be terminated. Cheryl did not file a timely appeal and her food stamp case was closed. 8 Cheryl and her sister were then notified by DPW, through the County Assistance Office, that under the federal and state regulations they would have to be included in the same household unit for food stamp purposes. The sisters agreed that Margo's name would be designated as payment name for purposes of receiving food stamps for the household. At one point, relations between the sisters became so strained that Cheryl asked her caseworker if she could be designated as payment name. The caseworker suggested that Cheryl find another place to live, apart from her sister. 9 Soon after the Robinsons were combined into a single household for purposes of receiving food stamps, the local caseworker discovered that Margo's daughter was not living with her, as she had claimed. As a result, Margo's food stamp benefits were terminated, thereby also depriving Cheryl and her son of benefits. Cheryl appealed. 10 At about the same time, the DPW caseworker began to suspect that Cheryl's brother, Keith Robinson, was living with Cheryl, inasmuch as his driver's license and voter registration card indicated his address as being the same as hers. The caseworker gave Cheryl an opportunity to show that Keith lived elsewhere--a burden that was hers, see infra at 208 --and the caseworker also attempted to establish where he lived. Because Cheryl was unable (or unwilling) to provide verification that her brother was living elsewhere, her reapplication for food stamps was denied. Cheryl again appealed. At her hearing, Cheryl testified that she did not want to provide the caseworker with a copy of her brother's voter registration card or driver's license, which listed her mother's address, because she knew that this information was false. 11 In light of these various problems, the caseworker made two appointments for Cheryl to reapply for benefits in her own name at a different location. Cheryl failed to, or chose not to, make such a reapplication. 12 On July 13, 1984, DPW's hearing officer denied both of Cheryl's appeals. The hearing officer stated that DPW's [r]egulations are explicit in providing that in no event is separate household status extended to siblings unless one sibling is elderly or disabled (emphasis added). After filing this suit for declaratory and injunctive relief, and some seven months after her food stamp benefits were discontinued, Cheryl moved to Michigan; her son remained in Philadelphia. Cheryl also seeks restoration of the benefits allegedly unlawfully denied her.