Johnson v. United States Railroad Retirement Board
United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia
969 F.2d 1082 (D.C. Cir. 1992)
Johnson (plaintiff) received a spousal railroad annuity that Congress's 1981 Social Security amendment (lowering the child-benefit termination age from 18 to 16) did not directly amend for the Railroad Act, yet the Railroad Retirement Board (defendant) nonetheless applied the lower age-16 cutoff, an interpretation the Eighth and Eleventh Circuits had already rejected. Rather than seek Supreme Court review or Congressional clarification, the Board simply kept applying its rejected interpretation administratively, eventually informing Johnson she would lose part of her benefits once her youngest child turned 16; Johnson filed a class action challenging both the interpretation and the Board's practice of ignoring adverse appellate rulings, but the district court dismissed for lack of jurisdiction.
Whether a federal agency's policy of nonacquiescence to circuit court precedent may be challenged in a federal circuit court.