Opinion ID: 338364
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: jurisdiction

Text: 10 The government originally contended on appeal that the District Court lacked federal subject matter jurisdiction, relying upon Weinberger v. Salfi,422 U.S. 749, 95 S.Ct. 2457, 45 L.Ed.2d 522 (1975). It now concedes that jurisdiction may be found under 42 U.S.C. § 405(g) 3 in light of the recent Supreme Court opinion in Mathews v. Eldridge, 424 U.S. 319, 96 S.Ct. 893, 47 L.Ed.2d 18 (1976); we agree. 4 In Eldridge, the Court explained the application of the test announced in Salfi : 11 Salfi identified several conditions which must be satisfied in order to obtain judicial review under § 405(g). Of these, the requirement that there be a final decision by the Secretary after a hearing was regarded as central to the requisite grant of subject matter jurisdiction . . . . Id., 422 U.S. at 764, 95 S.Ct. at 2466. Implicit in Salfi however, is the principle that this condition consists of two elements, only one of which is purely jurisdictional in the sense that it cannot be waived by the Secretary in a particular case. The waivable element is the requirement that the administrative remedies prescribed by the Secretary be exhausted. The nonwaivable element is the requirement that a claim for benefits shall have been presented to the Secretary. Absent such a claim there can be no decision of any type. And some decision by the Secretary is clearly required by the statute. (footnote omitted) 96 S.Ct. at 899. 5 12 As in Eldridge, the special circumstances of this case warrant our holding that the test of Salfi has been met. First, the plaintiff and the members of the class have effectively presented a claim to continued presumptive disability benefits to the Secretary. When the administration of the program shifted from state to federal authorities, the files of the plaintiff and the class members were transferred to the federal authorities and no more information was solicited from the claimants. The plaintiff was notified by letter that his case was under review and that he would not be required to provide any additional information or do anything further unless notified. The Secretary clearly had the plaintiff's claim for continued benefits before him, and no more could have been done by the plaintiff to present the claim. Likewise, the claims of all the members of the class were before the Secretary. We thus conclude that the first element of this Salfi condition was met. Second, this case presents exactly the same claim for a pre-termination hearing as was presented in Eldridge, where the Court held that denial of the request for benefits constituted a final decision for the purposes of Section 405(g) jurisdiction over the collateral constitutional claim to a pre-termination hearing. 13 We conclude therefore that the District Court had jurisdiction under Section 405(g) as made applicable to the SSI program by 42 U.S.C. § 1383(c)(3).