Evelyn Hill v. Irene Ibarra, in Her Official Capacity the Denver Department of Social Services Mary Krane, in Her Official CapacityEvelyn Hill v. Irene Ibarra, in Her Official Capacity the Denver Department of Social Services Mary Krane, in Her Official Capacity
Evelyn Hill appeals from a summary judgment entered by the district court dismissing her civil rights action under
We hold that Ms. Hill has no interest in amounts collected by DDSS on its judgment for child support arrears because she did not authorize DDSS to collect current child support payments as required by the
I. BACKGROUND
AFDC is a federal/state welfare program contained in the Social Security Act,
Evelyn Hill received AFDC benefits from DDSS from 1966 until approximately May, 1981. On March 9, 1977, Ms. Hill assigned her rights to receive child support to DDSS, in accordance with the terms specified in Title IV-D. The assignment provided that it was effective as to all of Ms. Hill’s past, present and future support rights against Robert Hill, and that any recovery of child support by DDSS under the assignment would be made and distributed in compliance with the Social Security Act, applicable federal regulations, and the rules of the Colorado Department of Social Services. The assignment further provided that it would terminate with respect to current support rights upon the termination of Ms. Hill’s eligibility for public assistance, and with respect to support rights attributable to the period during which Ms. Hill received public assistance, upon the repayment of such assistance.
In January of 1978, DDSS, on behalf of and in the name of Ms. Hill, obtained a child support award from the Denver Juvenile Court ordering Robert Hill to pay monthly child support payments in the amount of $150.00 increasing to $225.00 by April 1, 1979, for the benefit of Ms. Hill’s three children. DDSS notified Ms. Hill of its efforts to obtain child support payments on behalf of her children and of the order.
As a condition to receiving AFDC, Ms. Hill was required to and did cooperate with DDSS in establishing the support order. Because Ms. Hill was receiving AFDC at the time the support order was entered, the order reflected a pay-over from the court registry to DDSS.
Ms. Hill went off the welfare roll sometime in 1981. On November 23, 1981, DDSS obtained a judgment in the amount of $8,137.50, plus interest, against Robert Hill, for child support arrearages owed to DDSS. Thereafter, DDSS proceeded to collect on its judgment by garnishment and wage assignment, enforced by court order. From December 23, 1981 to May 6, 1989, DDSS collected $5,350.78 from Robert Hill in partial satisfaction of its judgment against him. None of this amount was paid to Ms. Hill for current child support, and she was not notified of the collection proceedings or the amounts collected.
In 1985, DDSS sent Ms. Hill a letter informing her that she could apply for the services of DDSS to help establish and/or collect current support for her one child who was still a minor. The letter provided:
Please be advised that you may apply for the services of the Denver Department of Social Services to help you establish and/or collect support for your Minor Child(ren).
Please contact the department to inquire about our services and fees....
Plaintiff’s Summary Judgment Motion, Ex. J, Addendum to Appellant’s Brief, Tab A-8. The letter did not mention DDSS’ pending wage assignment for arrearages or Ms. Hill’s right to have priority given to the collection and distribution of current support should she choose to have DDSS collect such support on her behalf.
Following cessation of her AFDC benefits in 1981, Ms. Hill had the sole right under state and federal law to enforce against Robert Hill his obligation under state law to pay current child support to her. However, Ms. Hill made no effort to enforce that right.
The district court held that defendants’ actions did not rise to a violation of due process under the Fourteenth Amendment and did not constitute a taking of property without just compensation under the Fifth and Fourteenth Amendments. The district court also held that Title IV-D creates no rights privately enforceable through
II. DISCUSSION
To state a valid cause of action under
A. FEDERAL LAW CLAIMS
Ms. Hill asserts that federal law entitles her to the “right to have priority given to the collection and distribution of current support.” Appellant’s Brief at 8, 29. She alleges that “both federal and state law require DDSS to distribute
any
monies collected first to the family to satisfy current support,”
id.
at 26 (emphasis added), and that “the express language of both the statute and the implementing regulation requires that priority be given to a current support
whenever
collections are made by the state.”
Id.
at 28 (emphasis added). Finally, Ms. Hill claims that Colorado Law requires that social services give priority to the collection and distribution of current support, citing
The problem with Ms. Hill’s argument is that the governing statute and regulations do not empower the state to collect current child support payments for non-AFDC participants unless specifically so authorized by the individual, and, obviously, the state is not obligated to distribute funds it cannot and does not collect. In other words, even if we were to recognize, in general terms, the existence of privately enforceable rights under Title IV-D,
1
as a
(c) Collection after termination of assistance; distribution of support proceeds Whenever a family for whom support payments have been collected and distributed under the plan ceases to receive assistance under part A of this subchap-ter, the State may —
(1) continue to collect amounts of support payments which represent monthly support payments from the absent parent for a period of not to exceed three months from the month following the month in which such family ceased to receive assistance under part A of this subchapter, and pay all amounts so collected, which represent monthly support payments, to the family; and
(2) at the end of such three-month period, if the State is authorized to do so by the individual on whose behalf the collection will be made, continue to collect amounts of support payments which represent monthly support payments from the absent parent and pay the net amount of any amount so collected, which represents monthly support payments, to the family after deducting any costs incurred in making the collection from the amount of any recovery made,
and so much of any amounts of support so collected as are in excess of the payments required to be made in paragraph (1) shall be distributed in the manner provided by subsection (b)(3)(A) and (B) of this section which respect to excess amounts described in subsection (b) of this section. 2
(emphasis added).
The implementing regulations that were in effect as of October 1, 1981 (when Ms. Hill ceased receiving AFDC) provide, as follows:
(e) Whenever a family for whom child support payments have been collected and distributed under the title IV-D State plan ceases to receive assistance under the title IV-A State plan, the IY-D agency may;
(1) Continue to collect current support payments from the absent parent for a period not to exceed three months from the month following the month in which the family ceased to receive assistance under the title IV-A State plan, and pay all amounts so collected to the family and;
(2) At the end of such three month period, if the IV-D agency is authorized to do so by the individual on whose behalf the collection will be made, continue to collect such support payments from the absent parent and pay the net amount of any amount so collected to the family after deducting any costs incurred in making the collection from the amount of any recovery made.
Ms. Hill concedes that she did not authorize the state agency to collect current child support payments during the relevant periods of time when she was not receiving public assistance. It is therefore uncontro-verted that Ms. Hill did not fulfill a condition necessary to her asserted right to have
It would seem virtually tautological that when a statute imposes conditions or qualifications on any right or benefit granted therein, such prerequisites must be satisfied before any enforceable statutory entitlement can be said to exist.
See, e.g., Evans v. Dist. No. 17,
None of Ms. Hill's authorities support a contrary conclusion. She cites
For the purposes of distribution [of child support collections] under this section, amounts collected shall be treated first as payment on the required support obligation for the month in which the support was collected and if any amounts are collected which are in excess of such amount, these excess amounts shall be treated as amounts which represent payment on the required support obligation for previous months.
The cited provisions that require priority to be given to collection of current monthly child support payments,
Ms. Hill states in her brief that she “assumed” any action on her part to collect current child support would be fruitless.
Ms. Hill also claims that defendants violated federal law by not providing an accounting of the amounts collected by DDSS as required by
in any case where support payments are collected for an individual with respect to whom an assignment under section 602(a)(26) of this title is effective ... the individual will be notified at least annually of the amount of the support payments collected....
The regulation implementing this portion of the Act states:
Effective October 1, 1985, the state plan shall provide that the IY-D agency, at least annually, must send a notice of the amount of support payments collected during the past year to individuals who have assigned rights to support under § 232.11 of the title.
Ms. Hill maintains that because her (now-terminated) assignment of rights to DDSS remains enforceable with respect to unpaid support arising during the period she received public assistance, the cited statute and regulation require that she receive an accounting of the amounts DDSS collected from Robert Hill at least from 1985 on. However, because the statute and regulation are unclear as to whether a former AFDC recipient is entitled to such an accounting, HHS circulated a memorandum to clarify the agency’s policy regarding the notice of collection of assigned support. HHS concluded in its memorandum that former AFDC recipients no longer receiving Title IV-D services need receive the annual notice. HHS Memorandum, Defendant Ibarra’s Response to Plaintiff’s Motion for Summary Judgment, Ex. A, Addendum to Appellees’ Brief, Tab K. Where, as here, the law entrusted to agency administration is ambiguous, we must accept the agency’s position so long as it reflects a “permissible construction” of the language in question.
Colorado ex rel. Colorado State Banking Bd. v. Resolution Trust Corp.,
B. DUE PROCESS CLAIMS
Ms. Hill claims that she was denied due process under the Fourteenth Amendment because defendants did not give her notice of her right to have DDSS collect child support on her behalf and to have priority given to distribution of current support. She also claims that her due process rights were violated because she was not given notice and a hearing before being deprived of support payments.
Ms. Hill claims there are two property rights she was deprived of by defendants: 1) the right to priority in any monies defendants collected from Robert Hill, and 2) the right to current child support. As already discussed at some length, Ms. Hill would have had an enforceable priority with respect to the monies collected by defendants only if she had authorized DDSS to collect current support on her behalf. Since Ms. Hill admittedly never did so, she had no property rights in the money that DDSS collected to satisfy its judgment against Robert Hill.
On the other hand, Ms. Hill clearly does have a state-created property right to current child support from Robert Hill. And, since 1981, Ms. Hill has had the exclusive authority under state and federal law to enforce that right. However, nothing DDSS has done in enforcing its own rights has precluded or impeded Ms. Hill from collecting the current support payments to which she is entitled.
See People in Interest of D. C.,
Ms. Hill cites
Bennett v. White,
Ms. Hill also bases her due process claim on the allegation that she was not provided sufficient notice of the child support enforcement program established by Title IV-D. Ms. Hill does not dispute that DDSS sent her a letter in July, 1985 informing her that she could apply for the services of DDSS to help her establish and/or collect support for her children. Plaintiffs Summary Judgment Motion, Ex. J, Addendum to Appellant’s Brief, Tab A-8. Rather, Ms. Hill claims that the letter constituted
inadequate
notice because it did not specifically inform her that if she responded to the letter and authorized DDSS to collect child support on her behalf, she would have priority in the distribution of any collections made by DDSS. Ms. Hill cites
Ortiz v. Eichler,
Ms. Hill has not shown that she has been deprived of any substantive rights. Absent such a deprivation, her Fourteenth Amendment claims against defendants must fail.
C. FIFTH AMENDMENT CLAIMS
Finally, Ms. Hill complains that her property was taken without just compensation, in violation of the Fifth Amendment. This claim requires little comment in light of the analysis we have pursued thus far. Defendants have neither deprived Ms. Hill of her right to collect on Robert Hill’s current child support obligations, which she has always remained free to enforce over DDSS’ efforts to collect on its arrearage judgment, nor have they deprived Ms. Hill of any property interest based on her fight of priority in monies collected by DDSS, which is merely a conditional right that, due to her own (non)eleetion, never developed into a cognizable interest. Because there has been no taking of Ms. Hill’s property, her Fifth Amendment claim fails.
III. CONCLUSION
Accordingly, for the reasons stated, we hold that Ms. Hill has stated no cause of action cognizable under
AFFIRMED.
Notes
. In light of our alternative disposition of plaintiffs claims,
see Griess v. Colorado,
. Subsection (b)(3)(A) and (B) provide that any amounts collected by the state as support that are in excess of amounts required to be distributed to the family on AFDC as monthly support shall be retained by the state to reimburse it for assistance payments made. If the amounts are above what is required to reimburse the state for the monthly assistance, such amounts shall be paid to the family.
. Since the statute limits the annual accounting requirement to cases in which child support payments are
“collected for an individual"
we think it may fairly be read to apply the requirement only to the authorized collection of current support.
. As suggested in footnote 1,
supra,
a grant of summary judgment by the district court may be upheld on any grounds supported by the record.
Jaffke v. Dunham,