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SOCIAL SECURITY ADMINISTRATION
Office of Hearings and Appeals

HALLEX
Volume I

Transmittal No. I-5-4-4 (Revised)

Division 5: Temporary Instructions

Subject: Hyatt v. Apfel

Background

On December 19, 1985, the Office of Hearings and Appeals (OHA) issued Interim Circular No. 163 (Revised), subsequently incorporated into HALLEX as Temporary Instruction (TI) 5-404, to implement relief to a class of individuals that later became known as the Hyatt I class. On August 9, 1988, OHA issued Supplement A to I.C. 163, also incorporated into HALLEX as TI 5- 404, to implement relief to the Hyatt II class.

On March 21, 1994, the district court approved a joint Stipulation and Order of Settlement that describes the relief to be provided to the Hyatt III class. OHA then issued a completely revised TI to implement the provisions of the March 21, 1994 settlement order. On October 20, 1995, OHA issued a transmittal to TI 5-404 to reflect organizational changes.

On November 4, 1996, the parties entered into a signed settlement agreement to supplement the March 21, 1994 settlement order in Hyatt III as it pertains to the reassessment and appeal of certain settlement subclass claims. Therefore, on September 19, 1997, OHA issued a second transmittal to revise TI 5-404 to provide instructions for the reassessment and appeal of certain settlement cases, to reflect changes in the Hyatt screening sheet and to note the substitution of plaintiff's counsel.

On October 21, 1999, the district court issued its order containing the relief which plaintiffs requested. The order states that SSA may not deny class membership when:

  1. a subsequent claim was adjudicated by an Administrative Law Judge (ALJ) or Appeals Council Judge (AAJ) on or after August 6, 1990 or by the Disability Determination Services (DDS) on or before November 14, 1991, unless:

    • it is clear that the DDS/ALJ/AAJ reopened and readjudicated the entire period covered by the Hyatt III claim and

    • the notice of determination/decision identified the claim that had been reopened and readjudicated, or

  2. the claimant was a Hyatt (HY) responder and before receiving a final determination/decision under HY, withdrew or failed to pursue HY relief.

  3. a subsequent claim also adjudicated a Hyatt III claim based upon an amended onset date of disability, unless the Hyatt III claim was reopened and was in the process of being adjudicated at the time the claimant amended his/her onset date.

Explanation of Content and Changes

We are issuing a completely revised TI 5-404 to implement then provisions of the court's October 21, 1999 order.

Remove

Remove from 5-400, Court Cases:

TI 5-404 dated November 16, 1994 (including pages revised on October 20, 1995 and September 19, 1997).

Insert

Insert in 5-400, Court Cases:

TI 5-404 (Revised) dated November 15, 2000.

Date: November 15, 2000