Adams v. Heckler

566 F. Supp. 1047, 36 Fed. R. Serv. 2d 1135, 1983 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 16575
District Court, W.D. Virginia·Decided June 1, 1983·No. Civ. A. Nos. 81-0190(B), 82-0001(A)·Published

Opinion

MEMORANDUM OPINION

GLEN M. WILLIAMS, District Judge.

By order entered January 25, 1982, these cases were consolidated so as to facilitate the consideration of their common questions of law and fact. Shortly thereafter, plaintiffs moved for certification of a class and remand of their individual claims. In this opinion, the court will undertake to consider the motion for class certification. Plaintiffs’ individual claims will be considered in a separate memorandum opinion and order to be entered in conjunction with the instant opinion.

I.

The underlying facts of this matter are essentially undisputed. Arthur Adams has filed a complaint in this court challenging the final decision of the Secretary of Health and Human Services denying Adams’ claim for disability insurance benefits under the Social Security Act, as amended, 42 U.S.C. § 423. Willie Mullins has filed a complaint challenging the Secretary’s final decision denying Mullins’ claim for supplemental security income benefits under the Social Security Act, as amended, 42 U.S.C. § 1381 et seq. At the outset, it is appropriate to note that both Adams and Mullins have satisfied the jurisdictional requirements of 42 U.S.C. § 405(g), in that they filed their civil actions within 60 days from the date upon which the Secretary rendered a final decision denying their claims.

The common element in these cases is that in denying both plaintiffs’ claims, the Secretary relied on a medical report and evaluation by Dr. Larry E. Martin.1 Dr. Martin was formerly a member of a medical group which provided volume medical examinations for use in the administrative adjudication of social security disability cases. This court has had the opportunity to review Dr. Martin’s medical practices in a number of individual social security cases. In the course of one of those earlier cases, Dr. Martin’s deposition was taken. This deposition has been included in the record of the instant proceedings.

In an unreported memorandum opinion entered October 1,1981, and attached as an appendix hereto, the court summarized Dr. Martin’s approach as a volume provider as follows:

Testimony from Dr. Martin established that in general practice, he would examine a claimant for a few minutes and then dictate a few cursory notes. Another doctor in the medical group, who had never seen the claimant, would then review the notes and produce a written report and physical capacities evaluation. The second doctor would then sign Dr. Martin’s name to the report.

The court went on to offer the following comments:

Such practice is abominable. While the false signature is deceptive and fraudu[1049] lent in itself, it is merely the tip of the iceberg. The physical capacities evaluation form requires very specific and detailed findings. A cursory physical examination is simply not adequate for proper completion of the form. It goes without saying that the completion of the form by a doctor who has not even seen the claimant, and based on nothing more than the cursory notes of another doctor, constitutes an affront to the government, to the court, certainly to the claimant, and to ethical principles in general. Such ridiculousness is compounded by the fact that the medical vocational guidelines, which now govern such disability evaluations, accord great emphasis to the findings contained in a physical capacities evaluation form.

Much additional information has now been developed relative to Dr. Martin’s practices as well as those of the medical group which employed Dr. Martin.2 However, in the court’s opinion, no facts or circumstances have been identified which would indicate that Dr. Martin’s approach in such cases is any less reprehensible than that previously stated by the court. Perhaps sharing the court’s indignation, plaintiffs filed their motion for class certification in an apparent attempt to rectify such abuses.

II.

In their Rule 23 Motion, plaintiffs proposed certification of the following class:

All past, present, or future applicants, wherever, situated, for Social Security disability benefits or Supplemental Security Income (SSI) disability benefits who have been examined by Dr. Larry E. Martin or any other physician employed by Dr. Steven Thurman, Dr. Grafton Thurman or Dr. Peter Thurman, a/k/a Thurman, a/k/a Thurman and Thurman, a/k/a Suburban Medical Group, a/k/a Suburban Internal Medicine Group, a professional corporation incorporated in the State of Tennessee and doing business in the States of Alabama, Georgia, Tennessee, Kentucky, Virginia, Illinois and Indiana, as part of consultative examinations scheduled by the Secretary or his representative, the Disability Determination Service of any State of the United States, and have had a report by Dr. Martin or any other physician employed by Thurman and Thurman filed in conjunction with their claim for benefits, and have been denied benefits by a final decision of the Secretary or have been denied benefits by a not yet final decision of the Secretary.

Stated briefly, plaintiffs maintain that all the projected class members suffered a deprivation of their Fifth Amendment right to due process of law in that the denials of their disability claims were based at least in part on fraudulent medical reports in clear contravention of the statutory scheme for fundamentally fair and impartial adjudication. Richardson v. Perales, 402 U.S. 389, 402, 91 S.Ct. 1420, 1427, 28 L.Ed.2d 842 (1971). Inasmuch as constitutional rights are implicated, plaintiffs further maintain that it is of no great importance that many of the potential class members are unable to satisfy the jurisdictional prerequisites of 42 U.S.C. § 405(g), See Califano v. Sanders, 430 U.S. 99, 109, 97 S.Ct. 980, 986, 51 L.Ed.2d 192 (1977).

Several explanatory comments need be made concerning the proposed class. To the extent that plaintiffs’ pleadings can be read to suggest that this court’s earlier opinions have covered all doctors employed by the Suburban Internal Medicine Group, it should be observed that the court to this date has only found the reports of Dr. Larry E. Martin to be invalid for purposes of claims adjudication. While the complicity [1050] of at least one other doctor is obvious,3 the evidence developed up to this time indicates that only the reports attributed to Dr. Martin were completed by a physician who did not actually examine the claimant. In short, the court is concerned that the evidence does not support the broad sweep of plaintiffs’ proposed class.

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Adams v. Heckler, 566 F. Supp. 1047, 36 Fed. R. Serv. 2d 1135, 1983 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 16575 (W.D. Va. 1983).

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Related

Richardson v. Perales
402 U.S. 389 (Supreme Court, 1971)
Califano v. Sanders
430 U.S. 99 (Supreme Court, 1977)
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