Britney S. v. Berryhill

366 F. Supp. 3d 1022
CourtDistrict Court, E.D. Illinois
DecidedApril 8, 2019
DocketNo. 17 C 8470
StatusPublished
Cited by9 cases

This text of 366 F. Supp. 3d 1022 (Britney S. v. Berryhill) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court, E.D. Illinois primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Britney S. v. Berryhill, 366 F. Supp. 3d 1022 (illinoised 2019).

Opinion

Jeffrey Cole, UNITED STATES MAGISTRATE JUDGE

Plaintiff applied for Disability Insurance Benefits ("DIB") and Child's Insurance Benefits under Title II of the Social Security Act ("Act"), 42 U.S.C. §§ 416(i), 423, over four years ago. (Administrative Record (R.) 210-16). He claimed that he became disabled as of January 18, 1989 (R. 210), due to a learning disability, high blood pressure, asthma, and trouble with his hands. (R. 255). Over the ensuing four years, Plaintiff's application was denied at every level of administrative review: initial, reconsideration, administrative law judge (ALJ), and appeals council. It is the ALJ's decision that is before the court for review. See 20 C.F.R. §§ 404.955 ; 404.981. Plaintiff filed suit under 42 U.S.C. § 405(g), and the parties consented to the jurisdiction of a Magistrate Judge pursuant to 28 U.S.C. § 636(c) on February 14, 2018. [Dkt. # 13]. The case was recently reassigned to me on January 10, 2019. [Dkt. # 32]. Plaintiff asks the court to reverse and remand the Commissioner's decision, while the Commissioner seeks an order affirming the decision.

I.

Plaintiff was born on January 18, 1981, and was 34 at the time of the ALJ's decision, and just 22 at the time his insured status expired. (R. 210, 232-33).2 He has a Bachelor's Degree, (R. 45, 256). His work record is poor. He has not even worked enough to accumulate anything that can be considered past relevant work. (R. 32). Out of the last 15 years, he has worked just 19 months: at a retail outlet, at a Social Security office, and at a library. (R. 238-39). Most recently, he tried to work with the Postal Service, but couldn't get used to driving with the steering wheel on the right side of the vehicle. (R. 49). He claims he looks for work every day on the computer, but thinks the gaps in his work history are holding him back. (R. 52-53). Plaintiff says there is nothing that would prevent him from doing a simple job. (R. 54).

Plaintiff has testified that he goes to a doctor regularly, every three months (R. 50), but the medical record in this case is, *1025essentially, non-existent. Plaintiff concedes as much in his brief and cites to only one piece of evidence from the record. [Dkt. # 21, at 6]. It is a report from August of 1999, setting forth several goals for Plaintiff to meet in high school. (R. 320). The report indicates that, despite a learning disability, he was making "very significant progress" at that time. (R. 321). He was given a number of accommodations in classes, including teacher generated notes.

Not surprisingly, given the dearth of evidence, following an administrative hearing - at which Plaintiff, his grandmother, and a vocational expert testified - the ALJ determined Plaintiff was not disabled. The ALJ found that Plaintiff had a severe impairment: a learning disability. (R. 26). His impairments of asthma and hypertension were non-severe. They were both well-controlled with medications. (R. 26). While Plaintiff alleged a problem with his hands - dropping things - there was no medical evidence to support the existence of such an impairment. (R. 27). The ALJ summarized the medical evidence and determined that Plaintiff's impairment caused a mild restriction in activities of daily living; no restriction in social functioning; and a moderate restriction in maintaining concentration, persistence, and pace. (R. 27-28). Because not one area was affected to a marked level, the ALJ found that Plaintiff's impairments, either singly or in combination, did not meet or equal a listed impairment assumed to be disabling in the Commissioner's listings. (R. 27-29).

The ALJ then determined that Plaintiff could perform "a full range of work at all exertional levels but with the following non-exertional limitations: cannot tolerate concentrated exposure to extreme cold or extreme heat, humidity, dust, odors, fumes, and other pulmonary irritants; can understand, remember, and carry out simple, routine, and repetitive tasks but not at a production rate pace (e.g. no assembly line work); can make simple, work-related decisions; can adapt to changes in a routine work setting; and can interact occasionally with supervisors, and briefly and superficially with coworkers and the general public." (R. 29). Along the way, the ALJ said that he found Plaintiff's "medically determinable impairments could reasonably be expected to cause the alleged symptoms; however, [his] statements concerning the intensity, persistence and limiting effects of these symptoms are not entirely consistent with the medical evidence and other evidence in the record for reasons explained in this decision." (R. 31). The ALJ discussed Plaintiff's minimal medical records and his school records, as well as his testimony and his grandmother's. (R. 30-32). He noted that Plaintiff testified that he could perform simple jobs and that his grandmother said he could perform tasks after repetition of instruction and demonstration. (R. 31, 32).

Next, the ALJ - relying on the testimony of the vocational expert - found that Plaintiff could perform the following jobs that exist in significant numbers in the national economy: packer (5 million jobs), assembler (100,000 jobs), and sorter (90,000 jobs), Accordingly, the ALJ concluded that Plaintiff was not disabled and was not entitled to benefits under the Act. (R. 27).

II.

If the ALJ's decision is supported by substantial evidence, the court on judicial review must uphold that decision even if the court might have decided the case differently in the first instance. See 42 U.S.C. § 405(g). Substantial evidence is "such relevant evidence as a reasonable mind might accept as adequate to support a conclusion."

*1026Richardson v. Perales , 402 U.S. 389, 401, 91 S.Ct. 1420, 28 L.Ed.2d 842 (1971) ; Beardsley v. Colvin , 758 F.3d 834, 836 (7th Cir. 2014).

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Bluebook (online)
366 F. Supp. 3d 1022, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/britney-s-v-berryhill-illinoised-2019.