Frieda Rosenberg v. Elliot Richardson, Secretary of Health, Education & Welfare

IRVING R. KAUFMAN, Chief Judge:

Although preservation of the fisc is a laudable goal, public officials must pursue it with discretion, lest deserving individuals be deprived of payments Congress clearly intended them to have. This maxim applies with even greater force when the benefits are not governmental largesse, but instead have been purchased by or for the claimant. It is therefore difficult to understand why the Government has, in this case, spent seven years and untold thousands of dollars in administrative and legal fees in a seemingly rigid and arbitrary attempt to deprive Frieda…