Reinstating DIC for Remarried Spouses

Frederick: Reinstating DIC for Remarried Spouses

Ruth Hill Frederick v. Eric K. Shinseki, Opinion Number 09-0433, decided March 11, 2011 involves the application of a law that liberalized the ability to continue to receive DIC for remarried surviving spouses.

Prior to 2003, a spouse that remarried lost their ability to receive DIC payments. This limitation was liberalized in 2003 to allow the surviving spouse to continue to receive payments if they remarried after the age of 57.

Frederick had received DIC payments but stopped receiving them when she remarried in 1986 at the age of 57. In 2007 she found out about the change in law and sought reinstatement of the DIC benefits. The VA denied her because she sought reinstatement of the benefit more than one year after the passage of the law. Importantly, an uncodified provision of the law said “an individual shall be eligible for such benefits by reason of such amendment only if the individual submits an application for such benefits to the Secretary of Veteran Affairs not later than the end of the one-year period beginning on the date of the enactment of this Act.”

Frederick argued the time limit applied to claimants who remarried after the age of 57 and prior to the enactment of the law, but who had never previously applied for DIC whereas she was not applying for DIC but seeking reinstatement of the benefit.

Simply put, the Court accepted her argument based on a plain reading of the statute and its general liberalizing purpose. The Secretary tried to rely on legislative history that tended to show Congress was compromising and meant to use the time limit to limit the budgetary impact of the legislation. The Court noted the legislative history was less than clear and that in any case the plain meaning of the legislative language was clear.

The decision is very important as it opens up the possibility that a surviving spouse whose DIC payments were stopped on remarriage can have it reopened if that remarriage was after the age of 57.

Decided by Chief Judge Kasold and Judges Hagel and Moorman.