## Facts

- Dolores Canales, proceeding pro se, applied for Supplemental Security Income disability benefits in August 1986, alleging multiple physical conditions.
- She had been treated since January 1986 for major depressive disorder with significant psychiatric symptoms, including psychotic features, paranoia, impaired concentration, anxiety, and memory loss.
- The Social Security Administration denied her application initially in January 1987.
- Canales sought reconsideration and requested a hearing before an Administrative Law Judge (ALJ).
- On December 7, 1987, after a hearing, the ALJ found Canales not disabled and advised her of a 60-day period to seek Appeals Council review.
- Canales timely appealed to the Appeals Council.
- By letter dated April 29, 1988, the Appeals Council affirmed the denial and advised that a civil action for judicial review had to be filed within 60 days of receipt.
- Because of limited English proficiency, Canales’s 12-year-old daughter read the Appeals Council letter to her; Canales later asserted she did not understand her right to seek judicial review and became more depressed after the denial.
- After consulting an advocacy attorney who advised the 60-day period had expired, Canales filed a federal complaint in the Southern District of New York 40 days after the deadline, seeking review under 42 U.S.C. § 405(g).

## Issues

1. Whether the 60-day limitations period in 42 U.S.C. § 405(g) for seeking judicial review of a Social Security denial is subject to equitable tolling based on a claimant’s mental impairment.
2. Whether Canales’s allegations were sufficient to require an evidentiary hearing on whether her mental condition prevented timely filing.

## Decision

- The Second Circuit reversed the dismissal of Canales’s complaint as untimely.
- The court held that § 405(g)’s 60-day filing period is a statute of limitations that may be equitably tolled in appropriate circumstances.
- The court held that mental impairment may, in some circumstances, justify equitable tolling of § 405(g)’s filing deadline.
- The court concluded Canales’s allegations were specific enough to require factual development and remanded for an evidentiary hearing on equitable tolling.

## Legal Principles

- The 60-day filing period in 42 U.S.C. § 405(g) is not strictly jurisdictional; it functions as a limitations period and may be equitably tolled in proper cases.
- Equitable tolling in Social Security cases is not limited to situations involving misleading conduct by the government.
- Mental impairment can qualify as an extraordinary circumstance warranting equitable tolling if it may have prevented the claimant from understanding or acting on the right to seek judicial review.
- When a claimant plausibly alleges incapacity during the filing window, dismissal without a factual inquiry may be improper; a hearing may be required to determine whether tolling applies.
- Diligence after the disabling barrier lifts is relevant to tolling; prompt action once the claimant is able to pursue rights supports a tolling inquiry.

## Conclusion

The Second Circuit required an evidentiary hearing because a claimant’s severe mental impairment can justify equitable tolling of § 405(g)’s 60-day filing deadline when the impairment may have prevented timely pursuit of judicial review.


Canales v. Sullivan, 936 F.2d 755 (2d Cir. 1991)