United States Seventh Circuit

In a suit to offset the repayment of retirement benefits for which the recipient was ineligible by the amount of benefits that the recipient was entitled to claim for the same period, summary judgment for the Social Security Administration is reversed where information provided by an agency employee qualified as "misinformation" since: 1) an inquiry about the relative amounts of benefits necessarily implies the question whether one is eligible for those benefits in the first place; and 2) the employee had a duty to inquire about information relevant to the benefit application calculus.

Appellate Information

• Argued 06/05/2007
• Decided 08/23/2007
• Published 08/23/2007

Judges

• EASTERBROOK, Chief Judge., Before EASTERBROOK, Chief Judge, and MANION and WOOD, Circuit Judges.

Court

• United States Seventh Circuit

Counsel

• For Appellant:
  
• Edward Kraus (argued), Chicago-Kent College of Law, Chicago, IL, Steven J. Plotkin, Evanston, IL, for Plaintiff-Appellant.


• For Appellees:
  
• Kristin N. Wuerffel (argued), Social Security Administration, Office of the General Counsel, Chicago, IL, for Defendant-Appellee.