(Download) "Carrasco v. Secretary of Health" by First Circuit United States Court Of Appeals # Book PDF Kindle ePub Free
eBook details
- Title: Carrasco v. Secretary of Health
- Author : First Circuit United States Court Of Appeals
- Release Date : January 11, 1980
- Genre: Law,Books,Professional & Technical,
- Pages : * pages
- Size : 65 KB
Description
This appeal presents the question whether, in the peculiar circumstances of this case, the plaintiff-appellant, Bonaficia Carrasco, is entitled to coverage for disability under the Social Security Act, 42 U.S.C. § 401 et seq., for self-employment income in Puerto Rico, a community property jurisdiction. The Secretary of Health, Education and Welfare (now Health and Human Resources) held that she had not overcome the statutory presumption, stated in 42 U.S.C. § 411(a)(5)(A), that in a community property jurisdiction income from a trade or business (other than one conducted by a partnership) is treated as the husband's income, unless the wife exercises substantially all of the management and control of the business. The plaintiff raises a constitutional attack on the statutory presumption as a gender classification in violation of the equal protection element of the due process clause of the fifth amendment. The case is further complicated by the Government's mistaken assumption that the business in which the plaintiff was employed, cattle-raising, belonged to Carrasco and her husband, Margaro Acevedo Marcano, and was therefore community property. One of the judges on the panel, during the argument, noted that the cattle were the plaintiff's separate and paraphernal property which she brought into the marriage. She had lived in concubinage with Acevedo for some 20 years before the two were married. Carrasco managed her small cattle-raising business until she became mentally incompetent. Acevedo then took over the care of the herd. The Secretary credited the plaintiff with 19 of the necessary 20 quarters for coverage. She would have been entitled to full coverage if, after her incompetency, the relations between Carrasco and Acevedo with respect to their cattle raising constituted a partnership within the meaning of the Social Security Act either an implied partnership during their concubinage or a partnership by operation of law after marriage. Because the partnership issue had not been briefed, the Court directed the parties to file supplemental briefs.