Milliken v. Astrue

397 F. App'x 218
CourtCourt of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit
DecidedOctober 14, 2010
DocketNo. 10-1014
StatusPublished
Cited by48 cases

This text of 397 F. App'x 218 (Milliken v. Astrue) 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
Milliken v. Astrue, 397 F. App'x 218 (7th Cir. 2010).

Opinion

ORDER

Patricia Milliken applied for Disability Insurance Benefits alleging disability due to multiple sclerosis (“MS”), right shoulder pain, and a back injury. An Administrative Law Judge (“ALJ”) decided that Mil-liken was not disabled within the meaning of the Social Security Act through her date last insured. The district court upheld the denial of benefits. Milliken appeals, and we affirm.

I. Background

Milliken alleges disability from MS, right shoulder pain, and a back injury. She had worked in an assembly job, but quit in 1996 because of problems using her hands. Milliken’s disability application was denied initially and on reconsideration. She requested a hearing before an ALJ. ALJ Maren Dougherty held a hearing on August 13, 2007, at which Milliken, represented by counsel; her daughter; a medical expert; and a vocational expert testified. The ALJ issued a decision denying Milliken’s claim. Milliken appealed to the Appeals Council, which denied review. She then sought review in the district court, and the Commissioner’s decision was upheld. This appeal followed.

Milliken’s insured status expired on March 31, 2002. Thus, she bore the burden of proving disability as of that date; she was not eligible for social security disability benefits after that. See Parker v. Astrue, 597 F.3d 920, 924 (7th Cir.2010).

This appeal focuses on Milliken’s mental impairments and complaints of debilitating fatigue. At the hearing before the ALJ, Milliken testified that she suffers from MS and is tired all the time. She claimed that she has been tired for years and has slept most of the time in the last ten years. Milliken testified that she had exacer-bations of her MS in 1997, 1999, and 2005. She stated that during the 1997 exacerbation, she had stiffness and achiness and all she could do was sleep. She described the 1999 MS exacerbation as a very, very bad “knife pain” in her shoulder that lasted for about one year. She claimed that she couldn’t sleep. Milliken and her daughter both testified that around March 2002, when the daughter was on bed rest, Milliken wasn’t feeling well, could not do much to help the daughter, and slept much of the time.

Clinical psychologist Joseph Cools, Ph. D., testified as a medical expert at the hearing. He had reviewed Milliken’s medical records and was present during her testimony and her daughter’s testimony. Dr. Cools testified that some evidence in the record indicated that prior to March 31, 2002, Milliken suffered from depression, secondary to MS. He said that depression typically goes along with MS. He noted that Milliken had chronic pain and that she complained of fatigue. Dr. Cools opined that Milliken’s depression limited her functioning to some degree. He attributed to Milliken’s depression limitations in her ability to concentrate and maintain relationships with others without having an emotional reaction. He added that she had some limitations in her ability [220]*220to maintain concentration, attention, pace and persistence, and in her ability to engage in close relationships with others. Despite these limitations, Dr. Cools believed that Milliken probably would have been able to have limited, casual contact with the general public and would have been able to relate effectively to supervisors and coworkers on a very casual basis. He opined that from a psychological perspective, Milliken would have been able to sustain unskilled work tasks.

Susan Entenberg testified as a vocational expert (“VE”). The ALJ posed a hypothetical to her inquiring whether an individual of Milliken’s age, education, work experience (which the VE had described as unskilled), who was limited to lifting and carrying twenty pounds occasionally and ten pounds frequently, standing frequently, walking occasionally, sitting without limitation, with occasional postural activities, and no more than frequent use of the hands, could perform any work. The VE responded that such an individual could perform work at assembly jobs (10,000 jobs), packer jobs (5000 jobs), and some machine operator jobs (5000 jobs). She testified that the jobs she identified required the individual to maintain a certain rate of production. The VE added that the jobs required no contact with the general public and no more than occasional contact with coworkers and supervisors.

The ALJ found that Milliken suffered from severe impairments through her date last insured, March 31, 2002: MS, myofas-cial pain,

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397 F. App'x 218, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/milliken-v-astrue-ca7-2010.