Mack v. Astrue

918 F. Supp. 2d 975, 2013 WL 163535, 2013 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 6692
CourtDistrict Court, N.D. California
DecidedJanuary 15, 2013
DocketCase No. 12-cv-01221 NC
StatusPublished
Cited by2 cases

This text of 918 F. Supp. 2d 975 (Mack v. Astrue) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court, N.D. California primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Mack v. Astrue, 918 F. Supp. 2d 975, 2013 WL 163535, 2013 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 6692 (N.D. Cal. 2013).

Opinion

ORDER RE: CROSS-MOTIONS FOR SUMMARY JUDGMENT

NATHANAEL M. COUSINS, United States Magistrate Judge.

Plaintiff Steven Mack seeks judicial review of the Commissioner of Social Security’s final decision denying Mack’s claim for Supplemental Security Income (“SSI”) as a person disabled and unable to engage in substantial gainful activity. Both parties move for summary judgment. The issues are (1) whether the ALJ properly weighed the medical opinions, and (2) whether substantial evidence supports the ALJ’s decision. The Court finds that the ALJ did not err in weighing the medical opinions and that substantial evidence supports his finding that Mack is not disabled. Accordingly, the Court DENIES Mack’s motion for summary judgment and GRANTS the Commissioner’s cross-motion for summary judgment.

I. BACKGROUND

A. Agency Review

On December 16, 2008, Mack applied for SSI benefits on the basis that he was disabled since March 1, 2008 because he heard voices and had difficulty focusing and controlling his anger. (AR 139, 59.) The Social Security Administration (“SSA”) denied Mack’s request for SSI benefits on June 9, 2009. (AR 74-77.) Based on reports from Sausal Creek Outpatient, MDSI Physician Group, and Health Analysis, the SSA found Mack’s condition was not severe enough to be considered disabling. (AR 74.) It noted specifically that Mack was able “to think, communicate and act in [his] own interest ... adjust to ordinary emotional stresses, and to get along with others, as well as to do [his] usual activities and to remember and follow basic instructions.” (AR 74.) The SSA concluded that “the evidence does not show any other impairment which would significantly restrict you from performing work related functions.” (AR 74.) Mack requested that his claim be reconsidered. (AR 78.) The SSA denied this request because Mack had not indicated any new sources of impairment. (AR 79.)

B. Administrative Review

Mack sought administrate review of the SSA’s decision. (AR 85-87.) At a hearing before Administrate Law Judge Alan K. Goldhammer on April 12, 2011, Mack testi[979]*979fied about his mental health and how that affected his ability to interact with others. (AR 29-49.) Medical expert Robert McDevitt, M.D., also testified. (AR 49-56.)

1. Mack’s Testimony at the April 12, 2011 Hearing

Mack is forty-two years old, obtained his GED in prison, and, at the time of the hearing, had been homeless for three years, although he had previously lived with a cousin. (AR 29-30.) Mack testified that he is depressed, hears voices, and is generally uncomfortable around people. He feels hopeless most of the time and often cries. (AR 37, 38.) Interacting with people makes him tense. (AR 36.) For example, he does not like to have people standing close to him and will leave soup kitchen lines, even when he is hungry, to avoid a crowd. (AR 35.) He refuses to go to a shelter because he does not trust the people there and worries about the germs and diseases he could contract. (AR 36.) The voices Mack hears vary from cynical, to angry, to philosophical. (AR 43.) Mack stated that as he has gotten older, he has learned not to follow the directions of the voices. (AR 43, 45.) He stated that the medication he was prescribed helps with the voices, but that he cannot shut them off and still hears them. (AR 42, 43.)

Mack testified that he had a history of marijuana use, but that he had stopped smoking because it interfered with his medications, and at the time of the hearing, he had not smoked in three months. (AR 41.) Mack was in jail several weeks before the hearing for cashing a forged check. (AR 40, 44-45.) He also admitted to having a physical altercation in People’s Park in or around March 2011, (AR 42), and, in 2008, he held a knife to his ex-fiancée’s throat and cut her stomach, (AR 31, 200). Mack spent time in a juvenile detention facility, jail, and prison, but was always in the general population and was never treated for mental illness while incarcerated. (AR 47-48.)

Mack gets his meals from soup kitchens at Trinity Church or People’s Park. (AR 30.) He received general assistance at one point but failed to turn in necessary paperwork and, at the time of the hearing, had been cut off. (AR 37.) He has never been employed for more than a few weeks, and at the time of the hearing, had not worked since 2007. (AR 200.) He has intermittently worked as a painter, a host, a cashier, a roofer, a forklift driver, and in sales. (AR 32, 200.) In 2007, he worked for RediTemp to clean out a warehouse, but he left the job because his coworkers agitated him. (AR 33.)

2. The ALJ’s Findings

On April 22, 2011, the ALJ issued his decision, finding that Mack was not disabled by his mental illness and that he retained sufficient residual functional capacity for medium work. (AR 16, 18-19.) The ALJ analyzed Mack’s claims under the five-step evaluation process for determining disability. (AR 12-13); see 20 C.F.R. § 416.920(a).

At step three, the ALJ considered the evidence in the record of Mack’s mental illness and found that it did not satisfy or medically equal the severity of impairments listed in 20 C.F.R. Part 404, Sub-part P, Appendix 1 required for a finding of disability. (AR 14.) Specifically, the ALJ found that Mack suffered from mental health issues, but that the medical evidence did not support the severity of Mack’s alleged symptoms. (AR 15.) In support of the conclusion, the ALJ relied on Mack’s testimony of being independent in his daily living activities, and observations of treatment providers that Mack dresses and grooms himself appropriately. (AR 15.) The ALJ compared Mack’s testimony that he prefers to be alone, with the [980]*980consistent description by treatment providers of Mack as cooperative, forthcoming, and polite, and the fact that Mack maintains contact with some of his cousins. (AR 15.) The ALJ also found no evidence that psychotic symptoms interfere with Mack’s ability to concentrate. (AR 15.) He relied on the opinion of consultative examiner Dr. Ede Thomsen, Mack’s inclusion in the general prison population and ability to get his GED, and Mack’s two week stay at Villa Fairmont, during which no provider observed him with psychotic symptoms, to reach this conclusion. (AR 15.)

At step four, the ALJ considered the extent to which Mack’s impairments, both severe and non-severe, limited his ability to do basic work activities. (AR 17.) In this analysis, the ALJ considered the opinions of various experts and treatment providers. (AR 18.) The ALJ found unpersuasive the reports of Dr. Thomsen, and treatment provider Joan Klein, MSW, of LifeLong Medical Care, both of whom found Mack to suffer from psychosis. (AR 18.) The ALJ found that Dr. Thomsen’s conclusions were based on Mack’s childhood symptoms and the results of a screening test, and had no factual basis to support them. (AR 18.) The ALJ found Klein’s opinion was based only on one twenty-minute interview and thus also lacked objective support. (AR 18.)

C. The Appeals Council’s Denial of Review

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918 F. Supp. 2d 975, 2013 WL 163535, 2013 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 6692, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/mack-v-astrue-cand-2013.