Plaintiff-appellant Dorothy Albertson appeals from an August 10, 2000 judgment of the United States District Court for the Eastern District of New York (Arthur D. Spatt, Judge) that upheld the determination of defendant-appellee Kenneth S. Apfel, Commissioner of Social Security, that plaintiff was not entitled to Social Security benefits as a "surviving divorced wife" pursuant to 42 U.S.C. §§ 402(e) and 416(d).

Albertson was married to Thomas Greilich, the wage earner, on February 9, 1952. She obtained a divorce from him on February 3, 1962, in Mexico City, Mexico, which the Consul of the United States authenticated on February 6, 1962. After Greilich's death in July 1995, Albertson applied for survivorship benefits as a "surviving divorced wife" under 42 U.S.C. § 402(e). To qualify for survivorship benefits, however, § 416(d)(2) requires that a "surviving divorced wife" must have been married to the wage-earning spouse, prior to his death, "for a period of 10 years immediately before the date the divorce became effective." 42 U.S.C. § 416(d)(2). Because, under the best case scenario for Albertson, her divorce from Greilich became effective three days shy of the requisite ten years (e.g., when it was authenticated by the U.S. Consul), the Social Security Administration ("SSA") denied her application for survivorship benefits.

Albertson appealed to the district court and argued that she should be credited with three days because there were three leap years during her marriage, thus, in her view, making the duration of the marriage exactly 10 years as required by § 416(d)(2). The district court rejected this argument; it reasoned that "leap years are considered to be nothing more than ordinary calendar years, and do not provide a'spare day' to be added." We agree.

The statutory requirement of "10 years" in § 416(d)(2) does not differentiate between leap years and non-leap years. See George v. Sullivan, 909 F.2d 857, 862 (6th Cir. 1990) (requiring 10 full years); Moon v. Shalala, No. 93-1267, 1994 WL 740899, at *3 (N.D.N.Y. Oct. 4, 1994) (same). Rather, it simply denotes the recognized "calendar year" which, as it happens, includes an extra day every fourth year.1 See also Merriam Webster's Collegiate Dictionary 1371 (10th ed. 1997) (defining "year" as, inter alia, "a cycle in the Gregorian calendar of 365 or 366 days divided into 12 months beginning with January and ending with December").

Because Albertson's marriage to Greilich did not last ten calendar years, we find that her application for survivorship benefits was properly denied. Accordingly, the judgment of the district court is hereby affirmed.