Court Opinion

ID: 9548270
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-07 18:00:54.345165+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T15:18:44.571087
License: Public Domain

SCHAUBR, J.,
Dissenting. — The majority opinion concedes, as it must, that “the question of ‘need’ is one of fact for the board [Social Welfare]” but avoids the board’s finding by holding that “the Legislature has seen fit to set the standard of need” and that petitioners as a matter of law come within the prescribed standard. Certainly 1 agree that the Legislature has, within limits, set the standard, but in respect to the fact question as to whether the petitioners, upon the record, as a matter of law fall within that standard, I agree with the Social Welfare Board and with the superior court rather than with the majority. In my view the majority opinion unduly extends the concept of '“need” which is basic to the philosophy and required by the letter of the statutes governing the granting of old age security. The opinion relies, among other things, upon isolated statements from County of Los Angeles v. La Fuente (1942), 20 Cal.2d 870 [129 P.2d 378], a case'which dealt with a situation materially different from that presented here, and which is hereinafter discussed.
*535The law which provides for the payment of aid by the state to the aged has since its inception been based upon the concept of need. It was provided by Stats. 1929, ch. 530, p. 914, § 1, as it is now provided by section 2001 of the Welfare and Institutions Code, that residents of the state are entitled to aid in old age “if in need.” The petitioners here, according to the findings of the State Social Welfare Board, and of the superior court, are not in need. In accord with their beliefs they have transferred all their property to Christ’s Church of the Golden Rule. They all perform tasks, according to their abilities, at the theological seminary. In accord with the canon law of the church, “As the material needs of the various persons and their families and dependents must of necessity be met to permit these persons to dedicate their work, services, and studies to carry out the religious purposes of the ecclesiastical society, the religious apostolic society form of living is selected as the means to accomplish these results ...” and “The ecclesiastical Church Government shall determine how much is necessary for the common community treasury to carry out the religious purposes through the apostolic society form of living.” The petitioners subscribe to these tenets.
The board has further found that petitioners “are now receiving, full, complete, and adequate support including incidental expenses from said Christ’s Church of the Golden Rule, of which they are members, through the Elected Delegates Committee, a temporal agency of said Christ’s Church of the Golden Rule in accordance with their needs as they and the said Christ’s Church determined them to exist”; “That to the extent that any of the appellants were in need within the meaning of the Old Age Security Law, they were so as a result of a continuing voluntary acceptance of lower standards of living in accordance with their adherence to the precepts of Christ’s Church of the Golden Rule and their entrance into ‘the religious apostolic society form of living’ ”; and “That all or a major portion of any grant of Old Age Security made to the appellants would not be devoted to meeting their individual and personal needs as those needs are defined by the Welfare and Institutions Code and the Manual of Policies and Procedures of the State Department of Social Welfare, but would, on the contrary, be devoted systematically and continuously to the advancement of the objectives of Christ’s Church of the Golden Rule.”
It thus appears that although petitioners do not have en*536foreeable, temporal contracts for receipt of their material needs, they do in fact, in accord with the canon law, which they continue to espouse, receive such needs.
In County of Los Angeles v. La Fuente (1942), supra, 20 Cal.2d 870, this court affirmed a judgment for plaintiff county for reimbursement for old age benefits furnished to the parents of defendant. It was shown that defendant was financially able to contribute to the support of her parents. The parents had refused the child’s offer to support them in her home. It was held (p. 875 of 20 Cal.2d) that this refusal of support in the home did not' render the parents ineligible for old age assistance.
In the La Fuente case it is said (as stated at [mte, p. 533] of the majority opinion) that “the ‘need’ of the applicant necessary to qualify for the benefits of the law is defined by the Legislature to be the absence of actual receipt of support by the applicant from responsible relatives [those who, according to law, owe a duty of support] and by the property limitations of the law” (p. 875 of 20 Cal.2d). But this statement should be considered in the context in which it was made; i.e., in a ease where this court was considering, in effect, whether aged parents should be deprived of old age assistance because they preferred to maintain their own home with such aid rather than to be forced to accept the offer of an inharmonious residence with their child. If the quoted statement from the La Fuente case is read literally out of context, then every aged person in the state who has no relatives liable for his support, and whose property is less than that stated in sections 2163 and 2164 of the Welfare and Institutions Code, is entitled to old age assistance regardless of his income. Such is not the law. (See Welf. & Inst. Code, § 2020: “The amount of aid to which any applicant shall be entitled shall be, when added to the income (including the value of currently used resources, but excepting casual income and inconsequential resources) of the applicant from all other sources, eighty-five dollars ($85) per month. If, however, in any case it is found the actual need of an applicant exceeds eighty-five dollars ($85) per month, such applicant shall be entitled to receive aid in an amount, not to exceed eighty-five dollars ($85) per month, which when added to his income (including the value of currently used resources, • but excepting casual income and inconsequential resources) from all other sources, shall equal his actual need.”) Thus “actual need” and “income . . . from all other sources” are *537elements integral to the legislative plan; being integral to the plan, it seems essential that the agency charged with its administration shall have power within the scope of the plan to make the practical factual determinations incidental to its application'.
Some argument has been advanced to the effect that petitioners are being deprived of a right to dispose of their state aid as they may see fit. There is no such holding either by the administrative agency or the superior court. The argument begs the question by assuming that petitioners are entitled as a matter of law to receive the aid. Until and unless they become entitled to receive it, they should not be heard to argue a right to dispose of it. We therefore need not consider an opposing argument suggesting the profits which might be garnered by a smooth-talking promoter who under the guise of religious, political or social theme could sell old persons on a plan of contributing $85 a month to the “Master,” together with such personal services as they were able to render, all for a roof and keep on frugal scale.
These petitioners have elected to live modestly in their communal, religious fashion; they are enjoying the material, social and spiritual compensations which they find therein. In my view, the finding of the board, in substance, made on substantial evidence, that they have voluntarily accepted such a'standard and circumstances of living as fulfilling their needs, and hence are not persons in need, is not, as held in the majority opinion [ante, p. 534] immaterial, but is vital and determinative. I would affirm the judgment.
Shenk, J., concurred.
Respondent’s petition for a rehearing was denied December 14, 1955. Shenk, J., and Schauer, J., were of the opinion that the petition should be granted.