Schafer v. Astrue
United States Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit
641 F.3d 49 (4th Cir. 2011)
Don Schafer deposited sperm before dying of cancer, intending -- though never in writing -- that his wife Janice (plaintiff) use it to conceive after his death; Don was domiciled in Virginia when he died, and Janice conceived their child W.M.S. via in vitro fertilization about seven years later. Janice applied to the Social Security Administration (SSA) (defendant) for surviving-child benefits on W.M.S.'s behalf, but the SSA denied the claim because the Social Security Act ties a posthumously conceived child's status to whether the child could inherit under the domicile state's intestacy law, and Virginia law didn't recognize parenthood for any biological child born more than 10 months after the parent's death; the district court affirmed the denial, and Janice appealed, arguing the intestacy-law requirement shouldn't apply where parentage itself isn't disputed.
Whether, in determining if a benefits applicant is the legal child of an insured individual, the Secretary of the Social Security Administration must apply the law that would govern the devolution of intestate personal property in the courts of the state where the individual was domiciled at death.