Court Opinion

ID: 9725769
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-26 12:09:30.674164+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:25:19.579892
License: Public Domain

PARAS, J.
Because I disagree with the majority’s interpretation of Welfare and Institutions Code section 11005.5,1 dissent.
I
I begin my analysis, as does the majority, with a quotation from the pertinent sentence of the statute. “Aid granted under this part... to a recipient or recipient group . . . shall not be considered in determining eligibility for or the amount of aid of any other recipient or recipient group.” It is unnecessary to go any further in search of meaning. The sentence juxtaposes “a recipient or recipient group” to “any other recipient or recipient group” and simply provides that aid to the former does not affect aid to the latter. Of what “aid” does the statute speak? Of “aid granted under this part, etc.” Why on earth would the statute relate *107to any “aid” other than that which it has just expressly defined? I see very clearly that it defines “aid” by use of an immediately succeeding adjectival phrase the first time the word appears in the sentence; that was deemed enough. A second use of the same word invariably suggests that it is being given the same meaning as before (Pitte v. Shipley (1873) 46 Cal. 154, 160), and it is simply poor grammatical syntax to repeat the once-given definition. I rely upon this very natural reading of the sentence, whereas the majority gratuitously and inappropriately adds after the second use of the word “aid” the words “under division 9.”
II
A consideration which fully supports my interpretation arises from the fact that section 11005.5 is the successor to former section 11006. The change was made by the Legislature as a part of a substantial legislative package enacted on December 5, 1973 as urgency.legislation (Stats. 1973, ch. 1216) to implement the federal Social Security amendments of 1972 (Pub.L. 92-603, 86 Stat. 1329 et seq.) and acquire for California the increased federal contribution to welfare expenditures. (See Disabled & Blind Action Committee of Cal. v. Jenkins (1974) 44 Cal.App.3d 74, 76-77 [118 Cal.Rptr. 536].)
Former section 11006 and present section 11005.5 both contain the following opening sentence: “All money paid to a recipient or recipient group as aid is intended to help the recipient meet his individual needs or, in the case of a recipient group, the needs of the recipient group, and is not for the benefit of any other person.”
Former section 11006 followed with: “Aid granted shall not be construed as income to any person other than the recipient or, in the case of a recipient group, the recipient group.” Section 11005.5 changed this to read: “Aid granted under this part or Part A of Title XVI of the Social Security Act to a recipient or recipient group and the income or resources of such recipient or recipient group shall not be considered in determining eligibility for or the amount of aid of any other recipient or recipient group.” Why the change? Presumably in order to alter the statute’s meaning. (McDonough Power Equipment Co. v. Superior Court (1972) 8 Cal.3d 527, 534, fn. 5 [105 Cal.Rptr. 330, 503 P.2d 1338], and cases there cited.) There are no limitations in the statute as it formerly read, and the majority would therefore necessarily agree that it then applied to all categories or types of “aid,” as the word is defined in section 10052 (which was not changed in the 1973 emergency legislation). *108Since the majority now holds that section 11005.5 still applies to all forms of aid, the same as it did when it was section 11006, the change was an idle act.
I don’t believe it. The Legislature did not act idly; it intended by the change to restrict the meaning and effect of the statute to those types of aid which are included in part 3 (“this” part) of the Welfare and Institutions Code and Part A of Title XVI of the Social Security Act.
Ill
There is yet further support for my interpretation of section 11005.5. Of the six “Parts” of division 9 (“Public Social Services”), parts 1 and 2 are procedural and of general application, part 3 deals with state funded financial benefits to welfare recipients (AFDC, SSP, APSB, etc.), part 4 deals with state institutional care for children and aged persons, part 5 deals with general assistance, and part 6 with miscellaneous state programs not involving payment of moneys to recipients. In part 5 only (§ 17000 et seq.), the Legislature has directed the counties to provide for the relief of indigents out of their own funds and has given broad control and discretion as to the amount and kind of relief to the boards of supervisors, limiting the state to general supervision only. Parts 3, 4, and 6 are all funded and substantively controlled by the state.
Having expressly given such broad discretion to the counties (see e.g., §§ 17001, 17107, 17111, 17200, etc.), and left it to them to supply the funds for general assistance, it is totally inconsistent with the legislative scheme for the state to interfere with such authority by prohibiting the attribution of income to general assistance recipients, under section 11005.5. This is a lefthanded way of doing it, to say the least. More logically, the Legislature intended in 1973 to make it clear that general assistance would not be controlled by the limitations of former section 11006; it effectively did so by the altered language of section 11005.5.
Finding no illegality or impropriety in the eligibility practices of the respondent welfare departments, I would deny the writ.
A petition for a rehearing was denied June 2, 1976, and the petitions of all the parties for a hearing by the Supreme Court were denied July 28, 1976. Clark, J., was of the opinion that the petitions should be granted.