Court Opinion

ID: 9483533
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-05 09:23:19.787246+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:49:40.605566
License: Public Domain

SPROUSE, Circuit Judge,
dissenting:
I respectfully dissent. No matter how nicely the equation is drawn, the inevitable interpretation of the Secretary’s regulation is that the deceased Mr. Jepson’s income was required for the support of himself, his wife, and their three children, but that Mrs. Jepson’s income was used solely for her support.
The Secretary’s “pooled fund method” is arbitrary and capricious insofar as it assumes that all of a wife’s income is available for her support alone. When a family consists of only two wage earners, the assumption is reasonable. See, e.g., Drombetta v. Secretary of Health & Human Servs., 845 F.2d 607, 610 (6th Cir.1987). If that were the case here, it would be reasonable to assume that Mrs. Jepson had her full $4,623 income available to cover her $6,915 (one-half of the family income) in costs. But it is unreasonable to make that assumption where, as here, there are other dependents. The Secretary’s assumption is that Mrs. Jepson had her full $4,623 income available to cover her costs of only $2,766 (one-fifth of the family income). Quite obviously, Mrs. Jepson did not have $4,623 available for just herself; she had a husband and three children to support as well.
It is clear that the combined small incomes of a family such as the Jepsons must be entirely consumed by the maintenance of all members of the family. To decree by administrative fiat that the husband’s income is to be considered as supporting the whole family while that of the wife is considered hers alone is, in and of itself, arbitrary and capricious. I would reverse.