Attmore v. Colvin, No. 13-36048 (9th Cir. 2016)
Annotate this CasePlaintiff was awarded social security disability benefits due to her bipolar disorder. Plaintiff was disabled as of April 15, 2007, but had medically improved to the point she was no longer disabled beginning on March 24, 2009. The court concluded that in closed period cases an ALJ should compare the medical evidence used to determine that the claimant was disabled with the medical evidence existing at the time of asserted medical improvement. Although the ALJ in this case made the appropriate comparison, the court concluded that substantial evidence does not support the ALJ’s finding of medical improvement. The ALJ erroneously focused on only temporary periods and isolated aspects of plaintiff's improvement that were not representative of the continuing severity of her symptoms. In this case, plaintiff's improvement was not sustained and was considerably limited in scope. Accordingly, the court reversed and remanded with instructions.
Court Description: Social Security. The panel reversed the district court’s summary judgment in a Social Security case in which an administrative law judge found in a single decision that a disability benefits claimant was disabled for a closed period but had since medically improved. The panel held that in a closed period case, the ALJ should compare the medical evidence used to determine that the claimant was disabled with the medical evidence existing at the time of asserted medical improvement. The panel held that the ALJ in this case made the appropriate comparison, but substantial evidence did not support the ALJ’s finding of medical improvement. The panel remanded the case to the district court with instructions to remand it to the ALJ to calculate an award of benefits.
Some case metadata and case summaries were written with the help of AI, which can produce inaccuracies. You should read the full case before relying on it for legal research purposes.
This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.