Ruben Limon v. Carolyn W Colvin, No. 2:2013cv07425 - Document 27 (C.D. Cal. 2014)
Court Description: MEMORANDUM OPINION AND ORDER by Magistrate Judge Ralph Zarefsky. (ib)
Download PDF
<![CDATA[
Ruben Limon v. Carolyn W Colvin Doc. 27 O 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT 9 CENTRAL DISTRICT OF CALIFORNIA 10 11 RUBEN LIMON, Plaintiff, 12 13 14 vs. CAROLYN W. COLVIN, Acting Commissioner of Social Security, 15 Defendant. 16 ) ) ) ) ) ) ) ) ) ) ) CASE NO. CV 13-07425 RZ MEMORANDUM OPINION AND ORDER 17 Plaintiff Ruben Limon challenges the Administrative Law Judge s findings 18 about his credibility as a witness, the impact of his obesity and the determination that he 19 did not have a severe impairment relating to his back. 20 The Administrative Law Judge found that Plaintiff had the severe impairments 21 of carpal tunnel syndrome and obesity. [AR 23] He also found that, although Plaintiff 22 could not perform his past relevant work, he still retained the capacity to perform other 23 jobs, including the jobs of counter clerk and conveyor belt bakery worker. [AR 24-28] In 24 making this determination, he included the Commissioner s formulaic statement that 25 26 After careful consideration of the evidence, I find that the 27 claimant s 28 reasonably be expected to cause the alleged symptoms; however, medically determinable impairments could Dockets.Justia.com 1 the claimant s statements concerning the intensity, persistence 2 and limiting effects of these symptoms are not credible to the 3 extent they are inconsistent with the above residual functional 4 capacity assessment. 5 6 [AR 26] He then followed with three reasons that presumably were meant to amplify this 7 boiler-plate. 8 The Commissioner s use of this language does not comport with the rulings 9 of the Ninth Circuit. That Court has ruled that, unless the claimant is malingering, the 10 Administrative Law Judge cannot reject the claimant s testimony as to his subjective 11 symptoms unless he gives clear and convincing reasons for doing so. Lester v. Chater, 81 12 F.3d 821, 834 (9th Cir. 1996). And those reasons are not given in a vacuum, untethered 13 to any evidence; rather, the ALJ must identify what testimony is not credible and what 14 evidence undermines the claimant s complaints. Id., citing Dodrill v. Shalala, 12 F.3d 15 915, 918 (9th Cir. 1993), and Varney v. Secretary of Health and Human Services, 846 F.2d 16 581, 584 (9th Cir. 1988). Here, the Administrative Law Judge sought to fulfill the second 17 part of this proposition identifying what evidence undermines the claimant s complaints 18 but not the first: he did not identify what testimony was not credible. He only referred 19 in general to statements concerning the intensity, persistence and limiting effects of these 20 [unspecified] symptoms. He thus violated the rulings of the Ninth Circuit. 21 Although he did not specify the testimony that was not credible, he did attempt 22 to satisfy the other portion of the requirement, identifying the evidence that he thought 23 undermined those statements, whatever they may have been. Assuming that he had 24 identified the statements that he found not credible, the Court s task would be to assess 25 those reasons and determine if they are clear and convincing, a standard that is the most 26 demanding in Social Security cases. Garrison v. Colvin, 759 F.3d 995, 1015 (9th Cir. 27 2014), quoting Moore v. Commissioner of Social Security Administration, 278 F.3d 920, 28 924 (9th Cir. 2002). -2- 1 2 The first reason he gave was that Plaintiff s testimony as to his activities of daily living were inconsistent. 3 One supposed inconsistency was that Plaintiff stated that he performed few 4 if any chores, but he also said that he lived alone and did not report any particular help in 5 maintaining the residence. The Administrative Law Judge thought it was inconsistent to 6 live alone and in his own apartment and not perform any chores. [AR 26] But Plaintiff did 7 not live alone; he lived in his sister s house, in a separate area in the back, and the sister 8 and her girl friend did the cooking and like tasks. [AR 38-39, 65] 9 The Administrative Law Judge also noted that Plaintiff had testified that he 10 could button his own shirt, eat independently, and bathe himself, and that [t]hese activities 11 would require some use of the claimant s hands, particularly his right dominate [sic] hand. 12 [AR 26] It is not clear to the Court how these statements are thought to be inconsistent; 13 perhaps it is because the Administrative Law Judge earlier had referenced a statement by 14 Plaintiff that he was unable to use his hand to pick up anything. [Id., citing Exhibit 4E, 15 page 2] If so, this would be a clear mis-reading of the evidence. In the cited exhibit, 16 Plaintiff said I can t lift nothing because my right hand just had surgery. [AR 179] That 17 exhibit was dated August 28, 2011, but the testimony that he could button his shirt came 18 almost a year later, on June 25, 2012, not just after he had had surgery. [AR 62] That is 19 not an inconsistency. 20 Last, the Administrative Law Judge wrote that Plaintiff said he could lift no 21 more than three pounds, but then testified that he could lift a gallon of milk, which is eight 22 pounds. [AR 26] Here too the Administrative Law Judge has not stated the evidence 23 fairly. At the hearing, the Administrative Law Judge first asked Plaintiff how much weight 24 he could lift, and Plaintiff responded One to two pounds, three pounds at the most I would 25 say. I haven t lifted three pounds. [AR 59] Then, the Administrative Law Judge asked 26 Plaintiff if he could lift a gallon of milk, to which Plaintiff responded Yes, I can. [Id.] 27 In a gotcha moment, the Administrative Law Judge then said Well, that s about eight 28 pounds. [Id.] Plaintiff went on to explain that he could lift a gallon with his left hand, but -3- 1 not his right. It is clear from the context of the questions and answers that these were all 2 estimates; indeed, the weight of a gallon itself obviously was an estimate, as nobody 3 testified to its weight. One could not fairly call this an inconsistency that would impeach 4 Plaintiff s credibility; certainly, one could not do so under the clear and convincing 5 standard. 6 The second reason the Administrative Law Judge gave for disbelieving 7 Plaintiff was that Plaintiff s motives for seeking disability benefits were questionable. This 8 was so, the Administrative Law Judge concluded, because Plaintiff s alleged onset date 9 appeared to coincide closely with the termination of the unemployment benefits he received 10 following the loss of his job. [AR 26] Factually, this is incorrect. Plaintiff stopped 11 receiving unemployment benefits approximately a year before his claimed date of onset, 12 and approximately two years before he applied for Social Security disability. [AR 48, 136, 13 21] This reason, too, does not satisfy the clear and convincing standard. 14 The third and final reason the Administrative Law Judge gave was that 15 Plaintiff s treatment was essentially routine and conservative in nature. [AR 27] He 16 seemed to acknowledge, however, that surgery on Plaintiff s hands was not routine, but put 17 it to one side because it was successful. [Id.] So the essentially routine and conservative 18 treatment addressed Plaintiff s back and shoulder impairments. This may be a valid 19 consideration for assessing whether Plaintiff had a severe impairment to his back and 20 shoulders, and it might impeach Plaintiff insofar as the testimony the Administrative Law 21 Judge was addressing had to do with complaints about Plaintiff s back and shoulders 22 as noted, the Administrative Law Judge did not specify the testimony that he thought was 23 not credible but the Court does not find it a clear and convincing reason for impeaching 24 Plaintiff s complaints about his hands, the area in which the Administrative Law Judge 25 found Plaintiff to have severe impairments. 26 In short, the Administrative Law Judge did not comport with Ninth Circuit law 27 about subjective symptoms in two ways. He did not identify the testimony about such 28 symptoms that he found not to be credible. And he did not offer clear and convincing -4- 1 reasons for disbelieving any testimony, even had he specified the testimony about the 2 symptoms that he found not to be credible. 3 Other than challenging the Administrative Law Judge s credibility 4 determinations, Plaintiff makes two other arguments here. First, he asserts that the 5 Administrative Law Judge did not address his obesity. 6 Administrative Law Judge stated that Plaintiff s obesity was a severe impairment [AR 23] 7 and stated that he had applied an internal Social Security Ruling disclosing that the 8 Administration will make an individualized assessment of the impact of obesity on an 9 individual s functioning when deciding whether the impairment is severe, and that the 10 Administrative Law Judge had done so here. [AR 26] But the decision contains no other 11 discussion of the impact of Plaintiff s obesity. On remand, the Administrative Law Judge 12 must evaluate and decide the impact of this severe impairment. The Court agrees. The 13 Finally, Plaintiff asserts that the Administrative Law Judge erred in failing to 14 consider Plaintiff s lumbar spine impairment as severe. Severity is, as Plaintiff says, a 15 de minimis screening device, Yuckert v. Bowen, 841 F.2d 303, 306 (9th Cir. 1988); Smolen 16 v. Chater, 80 F.3d 1273, 1290 (9th Cir. 1996), but whether a person has a severe 17 impairment is a question of functionability. 20 C.F.R. ยงยง 404.1521, 416.921. Since the 18 matter must be remanded, the Commissioner may wish to evaluate further Plaintiff s 19 assertions about his lumbar spine. 20 The decision of the Commissioner is reversed, and the matter is remanded for 21 further proceedings consistent with this opinion. 22 IT IS SO ORDERED. 23 24 DATED: October 10, 2014 25 26 27 RALPH ZAREFSKY UNITED STATES MAGISTRATE JUDGE 28 -5-
]]>
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.
