Opinion ID: 427235
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: Administrative Res Judicata

Text: 13 Delamater's claim that the Secretary's decision to terminate is barred by administrative res judicata must be rejected for the fundamental reason that the initial decision to award benefits was an administrative decision, whereas res judicata may be applied only to determinations made after an adjudication. 14 The concept of administrative res judicata was first given express sanction by the Supreme Court in United States v. Utah Construction & Mining Co., 384 U.S. 394, 421-22, 86 S.Ct. 1545, 1559-60, 16 L.Ed.2d 642 (1966). There the Court observed that [w]hen an administrative agency is acting in a judicial capacity and resolves disputed issues of fact properly before it which the parties have had an adequate opportunity to litigate, the courts have not hesitated to apply res judicata to enforce repose. Id. at 422, 86 S.Ct. at 1560 (citations omitted); see Restatement (Second) of Judgments Sec. 83 (1982). The reason for applying res judicata to decisions of administrative agencies is not only to 'enforce repose' but also to protect a successful party from being vexed with needlessly duplicitous proceedings. 2 Davis, Administrative Law Treatise Sec. 18.12 (1958). Safir v. Gibson, 432 F.2d 137, 143 (2d Cir.), cert. denied, 400 U.S. 942, 91 S.Ct. 241, 27 L.Ed.2d 246 (1970). 15 The implication in these statements is that if the administrative proceeding has not been of an adjudicative nature, a decision arrived at by the administrative agency cannot have res judicata effect. Thus, in Associated Industries of New York State, Inc. v. United States Department of Labor, 487 F.2d 342 (2d Cir.1973), we stated that  '[o]nly what is adjudicated can be res judicata. Administrative action other than adjudication cannot be res judicata.'  Id. at 350 n. 10 (quoting Davis, supra, Sec. 18.08, at 597). An action taken by an administrative agency to grant or deny a benefit is not an adjudicated action unless the agency has made its decision using procedures substantially similar to those employed by the courts. Restatement, supra, Sec. 83 comment b. 3 Use of such adjudicative procedure ... is necessary to yield an adjudication that is binding under the rules of res judicata. Id. at 270. 16 In its initial action on Delamater's application for disability benefits in 1976, the SSA denied his claim. This decision was an administrative one, which the SSA was free to reconsider and which it shortly did reconsider after Delamater submitted another report from his physician. Its new decision to grant benefits was, no less than its initial decision to deny, an administrative determination. There was no hearing, no testimony, no subpoenaed evidence, no argument, no opportunity to test any contention by confrontation. 4 The doctrine of administrative res judicata thus had no application to the SSA's 1976 action. The Secretary was free in 1980 to proceed to an adjudication of Delamater's entitlement to benefits.