CHRISTINA CHAPPELL V. CAROLYN COLVIN, No. 13-36012 (9th Cir. 2015)

Annotate this Case

Download PDF

FILED NOT FOR PUBLICATION UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS DEC 17 2015 MOLLY C. DWYER, CLERK U.S. COURT OF APPEALS FOR THE NINTH CIRCUIT CHRISTINA M. CHAPPELL, Plaintiff - Appellant, No. 13-36012 D.C. No. 3:12-cv-05302-RBL v. MEMORANDUM* CAROLYN W. COLVIN, Acting Commissioner of Social Security, Defendant - Appellee. Appeal from the United States District Court for the Western District of Washington Ronald B. Leighton, District Judge, Presiding Argued and Submitted December 9, 2015 Seattle, Washington Before: HAWKINS, McKEOWN, and TALLMAN, Circuit Judges. Plaintiff Christina M. Chappell appeals the district court’s decision affirming the Social Security Administration’s denial of disability benefits. We affirm. The Administrative Law Judge (“ALJ”) did not err at steps four and five, as she gave specific, legitimate reasons based on substantial evidence for giving greater * This disposition is not appropriate for publication and is not precedent except as provided by Ninth Circuit Rule 36-3. weight to non-examining sources than to treating and examining sources; specific, clear, and convincing reasons for finding Chappell’s testimony not credible; and germane reasons for rejecting Chappell’s mother’s lay testimony. See Molina v. Astrue, 674 F.3d 1104, 1111-14 (9th Cir. 2012). Although the ALJ erred at step three by relying on Dr. Moore’s testimony to find that Chappell did not meet Listing 12.04’s paragraph C criteria when Dr. Moore did not specifically testify about the paragraph C criteria, the error was harmless in light of the other evidence in the record. See id. at 1115. AFFIRMED. 2

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.