Gray v. Celebrezze

245 F. Supp. 718, 1965 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 7265
CourtDistrict Court, W.D. Virginia
DecidedSeptember 21, 1965
DocketCiv. A. No. 64-C-19-L
StatusPublished
Cited by2 cases

This text of 245 F. Supp. 718 (Gray v. Celebrezze) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court, W.D. Virginia primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Gray v. Celebrezze, 245 F. Supp. 718, 1965 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 7265 (W.D. Va. 1965).

Opinion

BARKSDALE, District Judge.

Joseph Gray has instituted this action under the provisions of Section 205(g) of the Social Security Act, 42 U.S.C. § 405(g), to review the final decision of the Secretary of Health, Education and Welfare denying his application for disability insurance benefits. Both plaintiff and defendant have filed motions for summary judgment supported by memo-randa, and oral argument has been heard. The Social Security Act was amended in a number of particulars, which amend[719]*719ments became effective on July 30, 1965, but counsel have agreed that none of these amendments has any practical application in this case.

STATEMENT OF THE CASE.

On February 13, 1962, plaintiff filed his application for disability insurance benefits and to establish a period of disability as of October 18,1961. His application was denied on the ground that he was not disabled under the meaning of the Act. Upon plaintiff’s request for reconsideration, the initial determination was affirmed. The plaintiff requested, and was accorded, a hearing before a hearing examiner on October 9, 1963, and the examiner affirmed the prior denial of plaintiff’s application. Upon review, the Appeals Council remanded the case to another hearing examiner to take additional testimony, and following a hearing on July 14, 1964, plaintiff’s application was again denied. This denial became the final decision of the Secretary on August 27, 1964, when the Appeals Council denied plaintiff’s request for review. Timely institution of this action followed.

The question now for determination is whether or not the findings and conclusions adopted by the Secretary are supported by substantial evidence.

THE FACTS.

Plaintiff was born in West Virginia and is now in his fifty first year. He attended public school for five years, completing the fourth grade, but is unable to read or write other than signing his name. He is married, has five children, three of them being still dependent. His first employment was as a laborer on a WPA project of road construction. He was next employed as a laborer for five or six years at a junk yard in Lynchburg. Then for four years he was employed as a sand cutter by a foundry company in Lynchburg. Next he was employed by the Norfolk & Western Railway as a section hand, but by reason of asthma, he was unable to endure outside work on a year-round basis, so he left this job and entered the employment of the Lynchburg Foundry Company as a “grinder”. This employment involved cleaning and removing excess iron from castings when they were removed from the moulds, with an airpowered emery wheel weighing about twenty five pounds. Castings upon which plaintiff worked varied in size from ten pounds to more than a ton. His work was performed in the main foundry building, where he was exposed to much dust, dirt and heat. Grinders now wear respirators, but plaintiff did not wear one while he was working. Plaintiff worked as a grinder for Lynchburg Foundry Company for seventeen years, and was working as such when he was taken ill and “fell out” while grinding on October 18, 1961, and was hospitalized for about ten days. He has done no work since that time. In 1957 he was sent to a State Tuberculosis Sanitorium for about three months. However, it was determined that he did not have tuberculosis, and he returned to his employment. Plaintiff has done no work of any kind since his seizure on October 18, 1961.

At the hearing, this plaintiff described his disabilities as poor hearing, not too much use of his right arm, progressive weakness, stiffness upon sitting very long, shortness of breath, chest and right side pains, dizziness, and not being able to walk much. He further stated that his condition had been growing progressively worse. Since filing his application, plaintiff has been examined by a number of doctors, all of whom agree that plaintiff is suffering from silicosis and other ills consequent to or related to the silicosis. The first diagnosis of silicosis was made by the Company’s doctor when an x-ray film of plaintiff’s chest was referred to him by the Lynch-burg Foundry Company in April 1961. Some pulmonary disease must have been suspected in 1957 when plaintiff was sent to the State Tuberculosis Sanitorium. Plaintiff’s own physician has furnished three reports, the earliest in March 1962 when he stated that plaintiff was suffering from early silicosis, from which he had not improved since October 1961. [720]*720In his latest report, made May 1964, this doctor stated that plaintiff’s condition had neither improved nor worsened, and that it was his opinion that plaintiff was permanently disabled to perform any type of physical labor for which he was qualified. It is to be noted that in all the jobs plaintiff has had, he was engaged in heavy manual labor. There is agreement in all the medical evidence in this case that plaintiff is totally unfit for heavy manual labor, or any employment which would expose him to dusty atmosphere, chemical fumes, or other airborne irritants.

However, there is some evidence from the Secretary’s witnesses that plaintiff, is, and has been since October 1961, able to perform semi-skilled or unskilled light work. For instance, Dr. Carroll E. Smith, a vocational consultant, after examining all the available exhibits and listening to the testimony, relying on the “Dictionary of Occupational Titles” published by the United States Department of Labor, and the companion volume, “Worker Trait Requirements for Four Thousand Jobs, as Defined in the Dictionary of Occupational Titles”, testified that, although plaintiff was precluded from engaging in heavy manual labor, he was, and had been, able to engage in substantial gainful activity doing “light work, semi-skilled or unskilled bench work, perhaps, in an environment where there would be an absence of airborne irritants”. As examples of jobs which he said plaintiff was capable of holding, he listed the jobs of “bag sealer” in a bakery, “snout-puller” in the slaughtering industry, “antisqueak filler” in a shoe factory, and “flagman” on a railroad. He further testified that these jobs do exist in the national economy, and according to the 1960 Census figures did exist in the State of Virginia. However, he admitted that he couldn’t say that they exist in or near Lynchburg, and that he had no knowledge of this locale at all. When asked if he knew that in Lynchburg shoe factories anti-squeak filling was done by the person who did the stitching, he replied: “They may do it in Lynchburg. This is still listed as an occupation.” He further testified that, as to the job opportunities he had mentioned, they do not necessarily exist in Lynchburg, but “They exist in the American economy, which is broader than Lynchburg.” And further, when asked whether or not there are any opportunities available to this man in his environment, he said: “I make no statements what are available in Lynchburg.”

After he became ill on the job on October 18, 1961, plaintiff filed an application for benefits under the Virginia Workmen’s Compensation Act. On this application, a hearing was had by a member of the Industrial Commission of Virginia on March 29,1962, and plaintiff was held to be entitled to disability benefits as being permanently disabled. The award stated in part:

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Bluebook (online)
245 F. Supp. 718, 1965 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 7265, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/gray-v-celebrezze-vawd-1965.