Hall v. Berryhill

906 F.3d 640
CourtCourt of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit
DecidedOctober 15, 2018
DocketNo. 17-2628
StatusPublished
Cited by101 cases

This text of 906 F.3d 640 (Hall v. Berryhill) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Hall v. Berryhill, 906 F.3d 640 (7th Cir. 2018).

Opinion

Per Curiam.

While loading chemicals onto a truck, Curtis Hall felt a sharp pain in his back. This back pain formed the basis of his application for disability insurance benefits. An administrative law judge denied his application, and a district court upheld that determination. On appeal, Hall contends that the ALJ improperly discounted his treating physician's opinion and discredited his own testimony. Because substantial evidence supports the ALJ's decision, we affirm.

I

Hall, a tanker loader at a chemical company, was hooking a hose underneath a tanker truck in mid-2006 when he felt pain in his low back. His pain persisted so he saw Dr. George Miz, an orthopedic surgeon, who ordered an MRI of Hall's lumbar spine. After reviewing the MRI, Dr. Miz found that Hall had a large disc herniation at L-5 that was pinching a spinal nerve root. Dr. Miz recommended "conservative treatment," so Hall began physical therapy while continuing to work, and he reported progress from the therapy. As of November 2006, Hall was still experiencing "ups and downs" in terms of pain, and by December, Dr. Miz thought that any improvement Hall felt with his back had "essentially plateaued." Because the pain persisted, Hall and Dr. Miz began planning a lumbar microdiscectomy to relieve the pressure on his spinal nerve root.

In March 2007, Hall stopped working and underwent the operation. The surgery was successful. Hall's back improved, and by June his range of motion during physical therapy had increased. He reassured Dr. Miz the next month that he had "slow but steady progress with physical therapy." By December, after an epidural steroid injection, Hall reported that his pain was "down to 2 to 3/10."

Meanwhile, since the day of his surgery, Hall has received temporary total worker's compensation benefits. The record shows that Hall continues to receive these benefits to this day.

In 2008, Hall's functionality continued to improve. In June he said that he could sit, stand, and walk for about an hour. Dr. Miz referred him to a physical therapist later that summer for a functional capacity evaluation, and a therapist administered a battery of tests before finding that Hall could return to work at the "light" level (meaning that he could lift 20 pounds infrequently, 10 pounds frequently, and carry 10 pounds or more). The tests also showed that Hall could sit for 15-20 minutes and stand for 30 minutes. The following month, Dr. Miz said that Hall could work within the parameters of the functional capacity *642evaluation, though Hall did not return to work.

In September 2010, Dr. Hutchinson, an orthopedist at the University of Illinois at Chicago Medical Center, reviewed Hall's records and examined him in connection with his worker's compensation case. Dr. Hutchinson agreed with Dr. Miz that Hall could work at the "light" level, consistent with the results of the 2008 functional capacity evaluation. Dr. Hutchinson opined that Hall had a protruding disc, but that Hall could continue to work.

One month later, in October 2010, a CT scan confirmed Dr. Hutchinson's opinion that Hall's disc was still protruding. Shortly thereafter, Dr. Miz performed a lumbar discography, a diagnostic procedure to determine if one or more discs was the cause of Hall's back pain. Based on the results of the discography, Dr. Miz concluded that the L5-S1 area was causing Hall's pain. In February 2011, Dr. Miz recommended that Hall undergo a "transforaminal interbody fusion" to stabilize his spine.

Put off by the prospect of another surgery, Hall heeded the recommendation of his internist and turned for a second opinion to a neurosurgeon, Dr. Martin Luken. In June 2011, Dr. Luken recommended that Hall undergo a foraminotomy, a minimally invasive surgery to remove whatever was compressing his nerve root. Meanwhile, Dr. Luken proposed (without elaboration) that Hall be "off work."

A few months later a state-agency physiatrist consultant, Dr. Barbara Heller, examined Hall and opined that he had persistent L5-S1 discogenic disease with persistent right L5-S1 radiculopathy. But because Hall's pain medications were working well, she determined that he could return to light work consistent with the functional capacity evaluation from 2008.

In 2012, Hall applied for disability insurance benefits based on his continued back pain. He alleged an onset date of March 7, 2007-the day of his surgery-and a date last insured of December 31, 2012.

In September 2013, almost a year after Hall's date last insured, Dr. Luken performed the foraminotomy, and within days Hall reported "substantial relief." According to Dr. Luken, Hall's progress over the next few months was "generally very encouraging." In November, Hall told Dr. Luken that his pain had "slowly but steadily improved," and that he was confident that it was less severe than before the surgery. The next month, Hall reported being "steadily more comfortable," so Dr. Luken released him back to work at the "strictly sedentary" level. In February 2014, Hall told Dr. Luken that he was still getting "slowly better," so Dr. Luken released him to work at "light or medium duty."

In 2014, Hall appeared at a hearing before an administrative law judge. He testified that before his date last insured he could not bend or lift anything, but that he could exercise for an hour on the bike or treadmill, do laundry, mow grass, and take short walks. Hall also testified that to manage his pain, he had recently started taking Norco, a narcotic that affected his concentration.

Applying the familiar five-step analysis, see 20 C.F.R. § 404.1520(a), the ALJ denied disability insurance benefits. The ALJ determined that Hall had not been engaged in substantial gainful activity since his alleged onset date (step one); that his degenerative disc disease with radiculopathy was severe (step two); and that his impairment did not meet or medically equal a listing (step three).

The ALJ then considered Hall's residual functional capacity and decided that Hall could perform light work, with caveats not *643relevant here except that Hall could alternate between sitting and standing as needed. In evaluating Hall's RFC, the ALJ concluded that Hall's statements concerning the intensity, persistence, and limiting effects of his symptoms were "not fully credible" because there was evidence that Hall exaggerated his symptoms. The ALJ gave Dr. Luken's opinions "little weight" because they were generally inconsistent with the other doctors' opinions and appeared to rely too heavily on Hall's self-reported symptoms. After finding that Hall could not perform any past relevant work (step four), the ALJ credited the vocational expert's testimony that Hall could work as an assembler, screener, or an information clerk (step five). The Appeals Council denied Hall's request for review.

Hall sought judicial review of the Commissioner's decision, and the district court granted the Commissioner's motion for summary judgment. The court agreed with the ALJ's decision not to give controlling weight to Dr. Luken's opinion primarily because his opinion was inconsistent with the weight of other medical evidence in the record.

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Bluebook (online)
906 F.3d 640, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/hall-v-berryhill-ca7-2018.