Edna U. Cain v. Secretary of Health, Education and Welfare

WINTER, Circuit Judge:

The Secretary of Health, Education and Welfare appeals from a decision reversing his denial of benefits to Mrs. Edna U. Cain (“claimant”). Mrs. Cain sought benefits for herself, as the purported widow of Allen Cain, Jr., the natural child of the former marriage, and her children by other fathers, as the purported stepchildren of the deceased wage earner. The Secretary determined that the claimant and the wage earner had been divorced and refused to give effect to an ex parte order of a South Carolina County court, which, over twenty months after the wage earner’s death…