Martin

Marin County and Alameda County, as plaintiff and intervener, respectively, in the action below sought among other things, a declaration of their rights “concerning claims for federal and state reimbursement for public assistance expenditures,” as against the defendant Director of the State Department of Social Welfare (hereafter the “Department”), Deeming itself aggrieved, the Department has appealed from the judgment, and from an order denying a motion to vacate the judgment, which was thereafter entered.

California, like all or most of the states, participates in the federal categorical aid programs, created by the Social Security Act. ( 42 U.S.C. §§301 -1396g, inclusive.) The programs are funded by the states and matching federal grants, and by county participation on the order of about 16 percent (at least in Marin County) of the amount locally disbursed.

The state’s 58 counties, by statutory compulsion, are agents of the state in the administration of the public assistance programs. By Welfare and Institutions Code section 10600 (hereafter all statutory references, unless noted otherwise, will be to that code), the Department is “designated as the single state…