Court Opinion

ID: 9498214
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-05 17:11:19.196036+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:58:41.569207
License: Public Domain

JACOBS, Circuit Judge,
concurring.
I concur in the Court’s opinion. In particular, I agree that — on the current record — Bernardo A. Torres may have been diligent to the limit of his capacities in pursuing timely relief from the denial of his claim for Supplemental Security Income benefits; that he may have been misled into believing that a federal action was timely commenced by his lawyer; that this (and related) circumstances may be sufficiently extraordinary to support application of the doctrine of equitable tolling; that in this Circuit (though not elsewhere) equitable tolling seems to be available regardless of whether the agency’s time extension procedures are in any way defective; and that a hearing is required to sort out those issues. (It is possible to mis-over estimate Torres’ diligence, but there is enough in the record to justify a hearing.)
I write separately, however, because my concurrence is constrained by precedent of this Court that I think is erroneous and that is on the short end of a circuit split. Moreover, this Court’s willingness to extend equitable tolling doctrine in the Social Security context may have the unfortunate effect of encouraging claimants to pursue relief in federal court — under the rigorous standard of equitable tolling — while forgoing application for relief from the agency, which may be granted on terms that are far more indulgent.
*281I
The Commissioner of Social Security has power to extend the 60-day limitations period for a civil action challenging a final order of the Commissioner:
Any individual, after any final decision of the Commissioner of Social Security made after a hearing to which he was a party, irrespective of the amount in controversy, may obtain a review of such decision by a civil action commenced xoithin sixty days after the mailing to him of notice of such decision or within such further time as the Commissioner of Social Security may allow.
42 U.S.C. § 405(g) (emphasis added). By regulation, the Commissioner will grant such an extension upon a showing no more onerous than “good cause.” See 20 C.F.R. § 416.1482 (“If you show that you had good cause for missing the deadline, the time period will be extended.”); 20 C.F.R. § 416.1411(b) (“good cause may exist,” inter alia, where the claimant or an immediate family member was seriously ill or the claimant was unable to find necessary information).
The Supreme Court held in Bowen v. City of New York, 476 U.S. 467, 106 S.Ct. 2022, 90 L.Ed.2d 462 (1986), that the § 405(g) limitations period can also be equitably tolled by a federal court — but only on a condition:
While in most cases the [Commissioner] will make the determination whether it is proper to extend the period within which review must be sought, cases may arise where the equities in favor of tolling the limitations period are so great that deference to the agency’s judgment is inappropriate .... [W]e conclude that application of a traditional equitable tolling principle to the 60-day requirement of § 405(g) is fully consistent with the overall congressional purpose and is nowhere eschewed by Congress.
Id. at 480, 106 S.Ct. 2022 (internal quotations omitted) (emphasis added); see also id. at 481, 106 S.Ct. 2022 (“Tolling, in the rare case such as this ... serves the purpose of the Act where ... the Government’s secretive conduct prevents plaintiffs from knowing of a violation of rights.”) (internal quotation marks omitted); Dixon v. Shalala, 54 F.3d 1019, 1027 (2d Cir.1995) (Bowen “held that the 60-day requirement may be waived in a rare case, according to the traditional principle of equitable tolling, where the equities in favor of tolling the limitations period are so great that deference to the agency’s judgment is inappropriate”) (internal quotation marks omitted).
With one exception, every ease in this Circuit that has applied Bowen’s equitable tolling doctrine is one in which a defect in the administrative process inhibits the claimant’s ability to utilize the agency’s (lenient) time extension procedure. See Pavano v. Shalala, 95 F.3d 147, 152 (2d Cir.1996) (noting that Boxeen and Dixon involved, inter alia, “evidence of (1) systematic misapplication of the law,” and “(2) concealment which prevented beneficiaries from knowing of a violation of rights”); Dixon, 54 F.3d at 1032-33 (affirming district court’s equitable tolling where Social Security Administration systematically applied its regulations in a manner hidden from plaintiffs); State of New York v. Sullivan, 906 F.2d 910, 917 (2d Cir.1990) (“[E]quitable tolling is in order when government misconduct keeps plaintiffs from appreciating the scope of their rights.”); cf. Wong v. Bowen, 854 F.2d 630, 631 (2d Cir.1988) (per curiam) (“Allowing disability claimants who have been denied benefits to toll the sixty-day period on grounds of poor health would thoroughly undermine Section [4]05(g)’s sixty-day limitation period.”).
*282In other circuits, the § 405(g) limitations period has been tolled only in cases of some administrative malfunction that hinders a claimant’s ability to pursue his rights. See, e.g., Bess v. Barnhart, 337 F.3d 988, 990 (8th Cir.2003) (“[E]quitable tolling has been allowed only in cases where government has hindered claimant’s attempts to exercise rights by acting in a misleading or clandestine way.”) (per curiam) (in parenthetical citing to Turner v. Bowen, 862 F.2d 708, 710 (8th Cir.1988) (per curiam)); Day v. Shalala, 23 F.3d 1052, 1058 (6th Cir.1994) (“Because this case involves no secretive or clandestine policy, we will not invoke equitable tolling.”); Johnson v. Shalala, 2 F.3d 918, 923 (9th Cir.1993) (“This is not a case in which the Secretary’s failure to publish the policy in the CFR had the same practical effect on claimants as a secret policy. The district court, therefore, abused its discretion in tolling the sixty-day statute of limitations.”) (internal citation and quotation marks omitted); Barrs v. Sullivan, 906 F.2d 120, 122 (5th Cir.1990) (where Social Security claimant, inter alia, “alleged no impropriety on the part of the Secretary” he could “not establish! ] that his case falls within the narrow class of cases in which the equities in favor of tolling the limitations period are so great that deference to the agency’s determination is inappropriate”); Bailey v. Sullivan, 885 F.2d 52, 64 (3d Cir.1989) (“[EJquitable tolling [is] not appropriate unless the government’s clandestine actions have kept plaintiffs from appreciating the scope of their rights.”).
Thus equitable tolling in federal court is limited (in five circuits) to instances where the agency procedures are defective, or defectively implemented. That limitation is justified. Where the ground for equitable tolling is other than an allegation of clandestine or misleading agency conduct, there is no basis for supplementing the lenient recourse afforded by Congress.1
Nevertheless, Second Circuit law took an odd turn in Canales v. Sullivan, 936 F.2d 755 (2d Cir.1991). The Court in Ca-nales “agree[d]” with the district court that “equitable tolling thus far has been allowed only in those cases where the government has hindered a claimant’s attempts to exercise her rights by acting in a misleading or clandestine way,” but concluded nevertheless that “this court has rejected the position that equitable tolling is permissible only in misconduct cases.” Id. at 758 (internal quotation omitted). Canales was relying on State of New York v. Sullivan, which (consistent with Bowen) observed that “[w]hile the decision whether to extend the period of review is usually left to the [Commissioner], cases occasionally arise where the equities in favor of tolling are ‘so great that deference to the agency’s judgment is inappropriate.’ ” 906 F.2d at 917 (quoting Mathews, 424 U.S. at 330, 96 S.Ct. 893). In a passage seemingly at odds with that formulation, however, the Court also observed (in dicta) that such equitable tolling “is not infrequently appropriate.” State of New York v. Sullivan, 906 F.2d at 917. Yet this dicta does not support the new rule that is crafted in Canales, especially in light of the fact that State of New York v. Sullivan was an agency misconduct case.
The rule announced in Canales — that equitable tolling is available other than to *283compensate for the agency’s misleading or clandestine actions — is incompatible with what has been done or said in every other Second Circuit case, and splits with every other circuit. I unhappily conclude that Canales was based on flawed reasoning.
Congress has empowered the Commissioner to extend the § 405(g) limitations period. See 42 U.S.C. § 405(g) (appeal of Commissioner’s final decision must be filed within 60 days or “such further time as the Commissioner of Social Security may allow”). Under Supreme Court precedent, that determination is left to the Commissioner in “most cases,” and traditional equitable tolling principles come into play only if a federal court determines “that deference to the agency’s judgment is inappropriate.” Bowen, 476 U.S. at 480, 106 S.Ct. 2022. In short, we lack jurisdiction to review the Commissioner’s denial of an extension, 20 C.F.R. § 416.1408(a)(8), and we owe deference to the agency’s judgment absent agency misconduct or a procedural or structural malfunction.
II
As the opinion of the Court recognizes, the standard for equitable tolling of Torres’ claim in this Court is a tough one. “This Circuit, like her sisters, has found attorney error inadequate to create the ‘extraordinary’ circumstances equitable tolling requires.” Smaldone v. Senkowski, 273 F.3d 133, 138 (2d Cir.2001) (per curiam) (citing Sandvik v. United States, 177 F.3d 1269, 1270 (11th Cir.1999) (“mere attorney negligence ... is not a basis for equitable tolling”)). A narrow exception to that rule is created in Baldayaque v. United States, which holds that while “attorney error normally will not constitute the extraordinary circumstances required to toll [a] limitations period ... at some point, an attorney’s behavior may be so outrageous or so incompetent as to render it extraordinary.” 338 F.3d 145, 152 (2d Cir.2003). “Normal errors made by attorneys”' — whatever those are — do not suffice; only “extreme situations” will do. Id.; see also id. at 154 (Jacobs, J., concurring) (observing that, in Baldayaque, the client should not be taxed with the lawyer’s lack of diligence, because there was no actual agency: the lawyer “took a $ 5,000 retainer without undertaking the requested service; set aside his client’s interests in favor of his own; and undertook a futile, unresearched, and frivolous initiative for the sole purpose of keeping the fee”).
As noted above, the Commissioner of Social Security is not constrained by the tough standard of equitable tolling, and has the power and discretion to extend the § 405(g) 60-day limitations period on a lesser showing of “good cause.” 20 C.F.R. §§ 416.1482, 416.1411. The Commissioner has adopted “good cause” regulations that expressly afford redress for claimants upon a minimal showing of hardship, including the very situation that Torres alleges. See 20 C.F.R. § 416.1411(a) (in determining whether good cause exists, the agency considers “any lack of facility with the English language”); 20 C.F.R. § 416.1411(b) (“good cause may exist” in the case of “unavoidable circumstances ... which prevented you from filing timely”); see also Social Security Administration, Program Operations Manual System, GN 03101.020(A)(4)(j) (“good cause may exist” where “the claimant thought his/her representative had filed the appeal”), available at http://policy.ssa.gov/poms. nsf/aboutpoms. •
There is a risk that this Circuit’s (so far) unique policy will induce some appreciable number of claimants with colorable excuses for lateness to seek relief from default in the district court (and here) rather than in the agency. That would be a trap, because all such claimants (including Tor*284res) have always been free to seek an extension of time to file from the Appeals Council on a showing of no more than “good cause.” The erroneous rule developed in this Circuit, which is now faithfully applied in the opinion of the Court (and by me), seems claimant-friendly; but it puts claimants at a disadvantage if they (like Torres) sweat to achieve equitable tolling in federal court rather than push on the agency’s open door.

. Moreover, the phrasing of Bowen — affording relief where "deference to the agency’s judgment is inappropriate” — is quoted from Mathews v. Eldridge, 424 U.S. 319, 330, 96 S.Ct. 893, 47 L.Ed.2d 18 (1976). Mathews used that language to describe the standard for excuse of the administrative exhaustion requirement. That doctrine unquestionably requires some defect in the administrative process. See generally Pavano v. Shalala, 95 F.3d 147, 150 (2d Cir.1996).