Court Opinion

ID: 9468131
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-05 02:05:48.535479+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:40:42.369956
License: Public Domain

WILLIAM E. DOYLE, Circuit Judge.
The case before us is an appeal from a final order of the United States District Court for the District of Colorado, which order denied appellant widow’s disability benefits under Title II of the Social Security Act, more specifically 42 U.S.C. § 416(h)(1)(B). The issue in this case is whether, under the statutes as revised, the so-called deemed widow statute, plaintiff-appellant is entitled to receive benefits from the account of Mr. Martin, deceased, notwithstanding that there was not a valid marriage between them. The evidence shows that there was an impediment to Mr. Martin’s entering into a marriage; he had not divorced his first wife. Solution of the problem calls for consideration of the terms of the statutes and the construction.
The application by appellant for widow’s benefits on the earnings of Elmer Martin occurred on May 25, 1973. Appellant had ceremonially married Martin on May 6, 1969. He died on May 26, 1972. Appellant’s application was initially denied upon a finding that she and Mr. Martin did not live in the same household at the time of his death. However an administrative law judge overturned that decision and found that appellant was eligible for deemed widow’s disability benefits pursuant to 42 U.S.C. § 416(h)(1)(B), which statute provides as follows:
(B) In any case where under subparagraph (A) an applicant is not (and is not deemed to be) .. . the widow ... of a fully or currently insured individual, or where under subsection ... (c) ... such applicant is not the . . . widow ... of such individual, but it is established to the satisfaction of the Secretary that such applicant in good faith went through a marriage ceremony with such individual resulting in a purported marriage be*430tween them which, but for a legal impediment not known to the applicant at the time of such ceremony, would have been a valid marriage, and such applicant and the insured individual were living in the same household at the time of the death of such insured individual . . . then, for purposes of subparagraph (A) and subsection (c) ... such purported marriage shall be deemed to be a valid marriage .. . [F]or purposes of this subparagraph, a legal impediment to the validity of a purported marriage includes only an impediment (i) resulting from the lack of dissolution of a previous marriage or otherwise arising out of such previous marriage or its dissolution ....
Appellant received social security deemed widow’s benefits under the statute until the Appeals Council of the Social Security Administration reopened her case on Sept. 6, 1977. The holding of the Council was that appellant was precluded from receiving such benefits by reason of the existence of one Jennie Lamore, a prior “legal widow” of Mr. Martin, who had previously received benefits based upon Mr. Martin’s earnings. Martin had never been legally divorced from Jennie. She had been previously awarded wife’s insurance benefits on Mr. Martin’s social security account, and after his death on May 26, 1972, drew widow’s insurance benefits on his account until her remarriage on October 18, 1972. At the time that appellant applied for widow’s benefits on May 23,1973, Jennie had remarried and hence was not then receiving social security benefits from Mr. Martin’s account.
The Appeals Council’s decision to deny appellant widow’s benefits was based on what is termed the “exclusion clause” of the deemed widow statute, part of which is set forth above. This clause provides:
.. . The provisions of the preceding sentence shall not apply (i) if another person is or has been entitled to a benefit under subsection ... (e) of § 402 on the basis of the wages and self-employment income of such insured individual and such other person is (or is deemed to be) ... a widow of such insured individual under subparagraph (A) at the time such applicant files the application. . .
Following the entry of the denial of benefits by the Appeals Council appellant filed this action in the district court seeking to obtain a reversal and to enjoin the appellee from terminating her assistance. On October 28, 1977 the district court granted appellant’s motion for a preliminary injunction and ordered appellee to continue paying the benefits to appellant during the pendency of the suit.
The district court remanded the case to the Secretary for an administrative determination of the meaning of the deemed widow’s statute in light of the social policy behind it to determine whether appellant was a deemed widow according to the statute. The case was assigned to an administrative law judge who heard oral arguments and again found appellant was a deemed widow entitled to benefits. Again the Appeals Council reversed. The district court upheld the decision of the Appeals Council. This appeal has been taken from that denial and affirmance.
There is little dispute about the essential facts. Thus, there is no dispute as to the fact that appellant would be entitled to deemed widow’s benefits were it not for the fact that Jennie Lamore was alive and previously had received benefits from Martin’s social security account. It is also conceded that appellant acted in good faith in going through this marriage ceremony with Martin. She was unaware of any legal impediment to the marriage. She was living with Martin at the time of his death.

The Ruling of the District Court

It was held by Judge Finesilver that jurisdiction to hear the case was grounded on 42 U.S.C. § 405(g).
The court held that appellant was not the deemed widow of Elmer Martin within the meaning of § 416(h)(1)(B). The court stated that in enacting the deemed widow’s statute Congress intended to create an entitlement to benefits in those women whose marriages to a wage earner were not entirely valid; that the enactment was in *431recognition of the hardship which the technicalities of state marriage laws often produced. The court went on to find that the plain meaning of § 416(h)(1)(B), however, did not evidence a scheme for successive entitlements of both legal widows and deemed widows under a single wage earner’s account; that Ms. Lamore who had previously received benefits from Martin’s account, was a widow under the law, and, thus, the present Mrs. Martin was precluded from also receiving such benefits.
The court held that the fact that Ms. Lamore was remarried at the time that Mrs. Martin applied for widow’s benefits did not change Ms. Lamore’s status as a legal widow of Mr. Martin within the meaning of the statute. The reasoning was that once Ms. Lamore’s entitlement became vested, she could not be later divested of that status even by her remarriage; rather she would continue to be Martin’s legal widow should she be in a position to apply for benefits once again.
The district court further held that the provisions of Title II which regulate a deemed widow’s entitlement to benefits are not out of harmony with the equal protection guarantees of the due process provision of the Fifth Amendment. The court held that it is constitutionally sufficient that Congress has expressed a legitimate interest in having the wage earner’s account preserved for the benefit of the legal widow; that a legislative preference for a wage earner’s legal widow, as opposed to a deemed widow, did not reflect an odious discrimination. The conclusion was that the Act rationally provided that where there is no longer any need to preserve the account for the legal widow’s use, or where the legal widow has not demonstrated a desire to draw on the funds, the deemed widow is entitled to the benefits.

The Merits

Numerous points are tendered by the appellant on review, including the constitutional matter just described. However, the major issue concerns the question of whether Ms. Lamore was the legal widow of Mr. Martin at the time Mrs. Martin applied for widow’s benefits.
The main statutory provision to be considered is the exclusion clause which, as we have noted above, provides that the preceding paragraph pertaining to the rights of a deemed widow does not apply “if another person is or has been entitled to benefits under subsection (A) of § 402 on the basis of the wages and self-employment income of such insured individual and such other person is * * * a widow of such insured individual under subparagraph (A) at the time such applicant files the application.” The significant words are “is or has been entitled to.” (emphasis supplied) These words are fully applicable here because another person, namely the present Ms. Jennie Lamore, has previously been entitled to a benefit under subsection (e). Thus Ms. La-more qualified as a widow under the statute and the deemed widow is in a difficult position with regard to the attempt to have Widow Lamore’s rights set aside.
The main argument of appellant is that under subparagraph (A) a person is a widow if the courts of the state in which the insured is domiciled at the time of death would find that the insured and that person were validly married at the time the insured died. Additionally, under 42 U.S.C. § 402(e)(1)(A), one of the eligibility requirements for the payment of widows benefits is that the applicant be unmarried. Therefore, appellant maintains that a legal widow loses her status as such once she remarried. This is not what the statute says, however.
Appellant also advances the argument that since there is presently no competition for the benefits between Jennie Lamore and Mrs. Martin, inasmuch as Ms. Lamore is concededly ineligible for benefits at the present time due to her remarriage, that the rationale of Rosenberg v. Richardson, 538 F.2d 487 (2nd Cir. 1976) should be applied.
In Rosenberg it was determined that the deemed widow’s statute ought to be liberally construed and applied to achieve the overriding purpose of the Social Security *432Act, which is to provide for working people and their dependents in their old age. In that case the court permitted the deemed widow to receive benefits where only a fraction of the widow’s benefits were required to go to the deceased’s legal widow under the statute. The rationale of Rosenberg has apparently been generally rejected by the other courts that have considered this. Indeed it was recently rejected by the Third Circuit in Dwyer v. Califano, 636 F.2d 908 (1980).
In Dwyer v. Califano the result was seemingly inequitable for the reason that the deceased had married wife number 1 in 1925. Wife number 1 left the deceased and their children in 1932 and later began to live with another man whose name she took, and with whom she had three children. The deceased was married by a minister to wife number 2 in 1945 and lived with her for over 31 years until his death in 1976. The second marriage was not valid inasmuch as the deceased had never been divorced from wife number 1. Nevertheless the Third Circuit held that it was obliged to follow the law; that wife number 1 as the legal widow of the deceased was entitled under the statute to the social security benefits of the deceased. The court gave effect to the terms of the statute and particularly to the part of subsection (e) which declared that if another person is or has been entitled to benefit under subsection (e) of § 402 on the basis of the wages and self-employment income of the insured such other person is deemed to be a widow of such insured individual. So the Dwyer v. Califano decision is a much harder case on the facts than the one which is before us. Here the deemed widow lived with the decedent for a period of approximately three years only. Nevertheless, the Dwyer court followed the law rather than the equities.
In Rosenberg v. Richardson the opinion of the Second Circuit recognized that the legal widow is in the preferential position. In the Rosenberg case, as in this case, a valid divorce was not obtained from Rosenberg’s first wife. Rosenberg did get a Mexican divorce based upon information that Connecticut recognized such a divorce decree. He went through a marriage ceremony with wife number 2 in that state. Subsequently he and his second wife proceeded to live in New York. Following his death, his second wife applied for widow’s benefits. On this stated fact the Second Circuit gave a liberal interpretation to the statute and held generally in favor of the deemed widow in the ensuing contest. Notwithstanding that the first wife was receiving a small benefit, the court proceeded to allow the second wife to receive the balance payable. The first wife had a benefit of her own which resulted in her only receiving $1.40 and, thus, in reversing the district court, the Second Circuit reasoned that the words of the statute did not preclude the second wife from receiving the balance of the amount that would be ordinarily payable.
Davis v. Califano, 603 F.2d 618 (2nd Cir. 1979); and Woodson v. Califano, 455 F.Supp. 457 (S.D.Texas 1978) both are in accord with Dwyer v. Califano and have rejected the rule of Rosenberg v. Richardson. We agree with Dwyer and Woodson. As we view the wording of the statute and particularly the so-called “exclusion clause,” it is inescapable that Congress intended to limit and restrict the deemed widow provision. The court in Davis, supra, gave full effect to the exclusion clause which we have already mentioned. 603 F.2d at 626. The court said:
We stated earlier that the explicit language of Section 416(h)(1)(B) provides that the deemed spouse provision does not operate if a legal widow under Section 416(h)(1)(A) ‘is or has been entitled to a benefit.’ 42 U.S.C. § 416(h)(1)(B). The legislative history surrounding the amendment, although sparse, is instructive in resolving the conflict between the entitlement of a deemed spouse upon the entitlement of a legal spouse. The House Ways and Means Committee reported unequivocally: ‘An applicant who went through a marriage ceremony with an insured individual will not be deemed to be the . . . widow ... of that insured *433individual if another person is or has been entitled to ... widow’s . . . benefits based on the insured individual’s earnings and the other person has the status of .. . widow ... of the insured individual at the time the application for benefits is filed.’ H.Rep.No. 1799, 86th Cong., 2d Sess., reprinted in [1960] U.S.Code Cong. & Admin.News pp. 3608, 3684.
The same result was reached in Woodson v. Califano, supra.
In summary, then, we conclude that the language of the statute was intended to recognize the rights of a deemed widow, that is one who had been the victim of a marriage in which the partner was disqualified from entering. However, Congress has limited these rights to a very great extent. At all times Congress has recognized the superior right of the legal widow. The statutory language is straight forward and plain. It states that the deemed widow may not receive benefits if another person is or has been entitled to a benefit; these words leave no room for construction. Mrs. Lamore was entitled to benefits. Moreover she continues to have a conditional right to benefits. Accordingly our view is that the judgment of the district court should be affirmed on this point.
We have also considered the argument that there is a violation of the Fifth Amendment allegedly based on discrimination between a deemed widow and a legal widow. We are unable to perceive any discrimination. The classification was in no way arbitrary, and is fully justified. It is reasonable and logical to distinguish between a legal widow and one who has had the misfortune to enter into a marriage under conditions such as those shown. It is not unreasonable for the law to give priority to a legal widow. The statute is not unconstitutional. See, e. g., Burnett v. Richard E. Schweiker, 643 F.2d 1168 (5th Cir., 1981).
Finally, we have not suggested that this is a fraudulent type of condition or situation. Far from it. Furthermore, it is not the kind of a case which does not have equitable aspects and it is not easy to turn one’s back on them. Nevertheless, these equities do not justify ignoring the plain and express words of the statute under the guise of giving effect to an unexpressed congressional objective which is in conflict with the words of the statute. So, with that, we conclude that the claim of Mrs. Martin has to be denied.
It is so ordered. The judgment of the district court is affirmed.