Gerald Larson v. Frank Bisignano

Opinion

United States Court of Appeals For the Eighth Circuit ___________________________

No. 25-3365 ___________________________

Gerald D. Larson

lllllllllllllllllllllPlaintiff - Appellant

v.

Frank Bisignano, Commissioner of Social Security Administration

lllllllllllllllllllllDefendant - Appellee ____________

Appeal from United States District Court for the District of Minnesota ____________

Submitted: July 15, 2026 Filed: July 20, 2026 [Unpublished] ____________

Before GRUENDER, SHEPHERD, and JUSTIN D. SMITH, Circuit Judges. ____________ PER CURIAM.

Gerald Larson appeals the district court’s1 order affirming the denial of supplemental security income. We agree with the court that substantial evidence in the record as a whole supports the adverse decision. See Cropper v. Dudek, 136 F.4th 809, 813 (8th Cir. 2025) (standard of review). We find the ALJ properly evaluated the persuasiveness of the state agency psychological consultants’ opinions. See Austin v. Kijakazi, 52 F.4th 723, 729 (8th Cir. 2022) (finding ALJ did not improperly ignore part of medical opinion, as ALJ was free to accept some but not all of opinion, was not required to explicitly reconcile every conflicting shred of medical evidence, and properly evaluated overall persuasiveness of opinion). The ALJ’s determination that these opinions were generally persuasive did not require her to adopt verbatim all aspects of the opinions in determining Larson’s residual functional capacity (RFC), nor was the RFC determination inconsistent with those opinions. See Shaibi v. Berryhill, 883 F.3d 1102, 1107 (9th Cir. 2017) (finding no obvious inconsistency between physicians’ opinions that claimant could relate to others on superficial basis and ALJ’s determination that claimant was limited to work in non- public setting with occasional interaction with coworkers). Further, substantial evidence supported the RFC determination regarding Larson’s social interaction abilities. See Page v. Astrue, 484 F.3d 1040, 1043 (8th Cir. 2007) (RFC determination was supported by substantial evidence, including medical evidence, state agency consultants’ opinions, and claimant’s subjective statements).

The judgment is affirmed. ______________________________

1 The Honorable Nancy E. Brasel, United States District Judge for the District of Minnesota, adopting the report and recommendations of the Honorable Douglas L. Micko, United States Magistrate Judge for the District of Minnesota.

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