Ronning v. Colvin

555 F. App'x 619
CourtCourt of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit
DecidedFebruary 18, 2014
DocketNo. 13-2074
StatusPublished
Cited by5 cases

This text of 555 F. App'x 619 (Ronning v. Colvin) 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
Ronning v. Colvin, 555 F. App'x 619 (7th Cir. 2014).

Opinion

ORDER

Daphne Ronning, a 46-year-old former restaurant cook who suffers from a chronic pain condition, appeals the district court’s judgment upholding the denial of her application for disability insurance benefits and supplemental security income. She argues that the administrative law judge did not properly follow the directives set forth in Social Security Ruling 03-2p, which explains how claims involving her reflex sympathetic dystrophy syndrome (RSDS) should be evaluated. She also argues that the ALJ -wrongly discredited her testimony. We affirm.

Ronning hurt her left hand in August 2003, when she slipped and fell in the Hardee’s restaurant she was managing. She sought treatment at an emergency room, where she was diagnosed with a sprain in her left index, middle, ring, and small fingers. Less than a month later, an orthopedic surgeon examined Ronning, found “marked limitation” in the range of motion in her left hand’s fingers, and opined that she likely had RSDS (also known as complex regional pain disorder) in that hand as a result of her injury. RSDS is a condition that involves “diffuse persistent pain” and “frequently follows some local injury”; it “is often associated with vasomotor disturbances, trophic changes, and limitation or immobility of joints.” Stedman’s Medioal Dictionary 1895 (28th ed.2006). Over the next four months, two other treating orthopedists concurred that Ronning had RSDS.

The month after she was injured, Ron-ning returned to her job with the restriction that she not use her left hand. Some unspecified time later, she was fired (for [621]*621being tardy and forgetful, she says — side effects that she attributes to medications she was taking to treat her injury). In spring 2004 she found work as a prep cook at another restaurant, the Longbranch, but was let go because she could not do her work without the use of her left hand. She applied for Social Security benefits, alleging an onset disability date of December 26, 2004 — the day she lost her job at the Longbranch — and that she was disabled because of depression and her inability to use her left hand.

Ronning underwent more intensive treatment for her RSDS in early 2005. Her treating orthopedist examined her in March, opined that she could work as long as she did not use her left hand, and referred her to a pain clinic and an occupational therapist. She received a left stel-late ganglion block (an injection of local anesthetic) at a pain clinic in May, after which she reported a 25% reduction in pain intensity in her left arm. Soon after, she returned to her orthopedist who noted that the stellate block, combined with occupational therapy, had improved her RSDS. She attended several occupational therapy sessions, which helped increase the range of motion in her left hand, but insurance problems (as reported by her orthopedist) prevented her from receiving additional treatment, including a second stellate block.

In connection with her application for benefits, Ronning underwent various physical evaluations in late 2006. One state-examining internist found that her left hand had severely decreased grip, mild swelling, and loss of motion and that RSDS was an appropriate diagnosis. He noted, however, that her left wrist, elbow, and shoulder were unaffected by her hand condition. A consulting physician assessed Ronning’s Physical Residual Functional Capacity and opined that she could lift and carry 20 pounds occasionally and 10 pounds frequently, stand and sit for 6 hours in an 8-hour workday, and push and pull without limitation; she could not, however, use her left hand for “handling” or “fingering” (since her RSDS left her without functional use of the hand), and she had no postural, visual, communicative, or environmental limitations. In a form labeled “Psychiatric Review Technique,” a consulting psychologist concluded based on the Affective-Disorders category that Ronning did not have any medically determinable impairment.

The Social Security Administration denied Ronning’s application for benefits in November 2006 and in May 2007 upheld the decision on reconsideration.

Since Ronning was also trying to obtain worker’s compensation benefits, two orthopedic surgeons consulting for the state worker’s compensation board examined her in February and May 2008 and opined that she could work with limitations. One of the surgeons believed that she no longer needed further treatment and could work — with permanent restrictions (lifting no more than five pounds with her left hand and refraining from repetitive motions with that hand). The other believed that her RSDS had been “incompletely treated” but that the optimum period for a good result “had long passed”; he believed that she could return to work with the permanent limitation that she perform only light duty without using her left hand.

At her hearing in July 2008 before an ALJ, Ronning testified about her physical limitations. According to Ronning, her medications affected her memory and made her dizzy, requiring her to sit down. She said that muscle spasms made her left hand “constantly sore,” and that having to hold the hand in a protective mode left her left shoulder “really sore.”

[622]*622A vocational expert testified that a hypothetical claimant of Ronning’s age with a limited education and left-hand RSDS who was limited to light work with no use of her left hand or upper extremity would not be able to perform her past work as a cook, but that she could work as a hostess, furniture-rental consultant, or surveillance-system monitor. The VE opined further that such a claimant who needed to miss more than three days of work per month and who could not concentrate or work persistently throughout a two-hour period — thus requiring extra work breaks— would not be competitively employable in those jobs.

The ALJ applied the five-step evaluation process and denied Ronning’s application for benefits. See 20 C.F.R. §§ 404.1520, 416.920. The ALJ concluded that Ronning had not worked since her alleged onset date (step 1); her RSDS was a severe impairment (but she did not have a mental impairment) (step 2); her impairment did not meet or equal a listed impairment (step 3); she was unable to perform her past relevant work as a cook, but had the residual functional capacity to perform light work without the use of her left hand or left upper extremity (step 4); and suitable jobs were available, including work as a hostess and furniture-rental consultant (step 5). In addressing step 4, the ALJ discredited Ronning’s statements about her physical symptoms, pointing out that her treating physicians had released her to work and that no physician had opined that she could not work. The ALJ further questioned her credibility by noting that no medical evidence corroborated her complaints that her shoulder was sore or that she suffered side effects from her medications;

After the Appeals Council denied her request for review, Ronning sued in federal court. She argued that the ALJ should have considered at step 3 whether her condition met or equaled other listings, noting that Social Security Ruling 03-2p requires the ALJ to consider “psychological manifestations” of RSDS under the mental disorders listings. In particular she argued that the ALJ should have considered whether her condition met or equaled Listing 12.07 for somatoform disorders, “[pjhysical symptoms for which there are no demonstrable organic findings or known physiological mechanisms.” 20 C.F.R. Pt. 404, Subpt. P, App. 1 § 12.07.

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Bluebook (online)
555 F. App'x 619, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/ronning-v-colvin-ca7-2014.