Del Pilar v. Sullivan

756 F. Supp. 117, 1990 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 14734, 1990 WL 263572
CourtDistrict Court, S.D. New York
DecidedNovember 2, 1990
DocketNo. 88 Civ. 6611 (SWK)
StatusPublished
Cited by3 cases

This text of 756 F. Supp. 117 (Del Pilar v. Sullivan) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court, S.D. New York primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Del Pilar v. Sullivan, 756 F. Supp. 117, 1990 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 14734, 1990 WL 263572 (S.D.N.Y. 1990).

Opinion

MEMORANDUM OPINION AND ORDER

KRAM, District Judge.

Plaintiff has appealed the decision of the Secretary of Health and Human Services denying her application for disability insurance benefits. The parties cross-moved before Magistrate Michael Dolinger for judgment on the pleadings. Magistrate Doling-er has submitted a Report and Recommendation, which recommends that plaintiffs motion be granted, that defendant’s motion be denied and that the case be remanded to the Secretary for calculation of benefits. Defendant has conceded that its motion on the pleadings cannot be granted, but he objects to the report's recommendation that the plaintiff’s motion be granted. Instead, the defendant urges that the Court remand this case to the Secretary for further proceedings. Plaintiff has responded to this objection and contends that the recommendation of the report should be accepted. Pursuant to Fed.R.Civ.P. 72(b), this Court considers matters in the report to which an objection has been made de novo.

Background1

Plaintiff was born in Puerto Rico in 1933, completed the sixth grade and does not speak English. In her 1986 application for benefits, plaintiff reported that she last worked in 1984, at which time she was laid off from her job as a hotel housekeeper. She had previously worked as a hotel housekeeper continuously for twenty years. This work involved changing sheets, vacuuming, sweeping and mopping. Her previous employment involved eight hour work days, consisting of one hour of sitting and seven hours of walking. Her job also entailed constant bending and reaching, as well as lifting and carrying as much as twenty pounds at a time.

Plaintiff has complained of severe chest pains, diagnosed as angina, as well as high blood pressure and heart palpitations. She takes nitroglycerin three times a day for her heart condition, in addition to other medications. In the year prior to her administrative hearing, she was hospitalized for a severe angina attack. She also testified that she lives with her sister in an elevator building and does not go out without a companion because she has had repeated blackouts. The blackouts were confirmed by plaintiff’s daughter, who also testified that her mother does not go out alone. Plaintiff also states that she has diabetes and that her vision is impaired.

Plaintiff testified that she has been a long time patient of the Metropolitan Hospital clinic and that she also sees a private physician. The administrative record, which contains hospital records between May 1, 1984 and October 1987, demonstrates that plaintiff has been both an outpatient and an admitted patient at Metropolitan since 1977. Since 1978, her symptoms and ailments have included chest pain, hypertension, anxiety, arthritis and diabetes. Her first hospitalization for [119]*119these symptoms was in December 1983 when she was diagnosed as suffering from angina, diabetes, and arthritis. Subsequent visits to the clinic for chest pain also resulted in similar diagnoses, including diagnosis of unstable angina. Other conditions diagnosed at Metropolitan include ar-teriosclerotic heart disease with enlargement of the heart (cardiomegaly), diabetes mellitus, hypertension, obesity, and degeneration of the lumbar spine.

The report of a consultative physician, Dr. Antonio De Leon, addressed plaintiffs physical condition. His diagnosis was that plaintiff suffered from chest pain, “undetermined,” “moderately severe” hypertension, diabetes, “mild” obesity, and arthral-gia in the neck. Consultative psychiatrist Dr. Ellis Charles found no psychological impairment in one examination, and a mild impairment due to anxiety in another. Another consultative psychiatrist, Dr. Jorge Oldan, concluded that plaintiff has an adjustment reaction with some anxiety.

Plaintiff sought from the Metropolitan mental health clinic a letter with her diagnosis for the Social Security Administration. The clinic psychiatrist noted that she did not suffer from serious psychological impairment and that the letter should come from the medical clinic. Plaintiff then attended the medical clinic, and the records of visit suggest that a treating physician listed her physical ailments — diabetes melli-tus, angina, hypertension and anxiety — and wrote the words “Not Employable” in the record with a note “To Correspondence,” suggesting that a letter would be prepared. No such letter appears and the Magistrate found the record unclear as to whether the clinic ever followed up on the matter.

Discussion

A decision to award benefits instead of ordering remand may be made only if the administrative record as a whole indicates that the claimant is disabled and entitled to benefits. See Gold v. Secretary of Health, Education and Welfare, 463 F.2d 38, 44 (2d Cir.1972). There is no reason to remand for agency reconsideration where application of correct legal principles to the record could lead to only one conclusion, that is, that plaintiff is disabled as defined by agency regulations. Murdaugh v. Secretary of Dep’t of Health & Human Services, 837 F.2d 99, 102 (2d Cir.1988) (no reason for remand where treating physician found disability and the record did not demonstrate substantial evidence contradicting treating physician); Johnson v. Bowen, 817 F.2d 983, 986 (2d Cir.1987) (where there may have been substantial evidence in opposition to treating physician’s diagnosis, remand was appropriate). However, where the record indicates serious gaps or uncertainties in it, then the law of this Circuit would require remand to allow the Secretary to further develop the record. See, e.g., Johnson, supra, 817 F.2d at 987; Hankerson v. Harris, 636 F.2d 893, 897 (2d Cir.1980).

The Magistrate concluded in a thorough analysis of the record that:

In this case a remand would serve no purpose since the record compels the conclusion that plaintiff is disabled. I note that plaintiff, who had worked for approximately twenty years at the same type of job until she was laid off in 1984, was diagnosed as early as 1983 as suffering from angina, as well as diabetes and hypertension. She has been consistently diagnosed since then as suffering from these maladies as well as, more recently, from arteriosclerotic heart disease. The medical records of her treating physicians reflect clinical confirmation of these conditions, and the one opinion in the record concerning her ability to work — that of an unidentified physician at Metropolitan — is that she is “Not Employable.” In addition, plaintiff and her daughter testified to plaintiffs severe pain and other impairments, and the medical records and long history of diagnoses are consistent with this testimony.

Report at 43. The Report also indicated that the record provided no evidence contrary to the conclusion that plaintiff was in fact disabled. Id.

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
756 F. Supp. 117, 1990 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 14734, 1990 WL 263572, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/del-pilar-v-sullivan-nysd-1990.