Thomas v. Barnhart

54 F. App'x 873
CourtCourt of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit
DecidedJanuary 7, 2003
DocketNo. 02-1817
StatusPublished
Cited by3 cases

This text of 54 F. App'x 873 (Thomas v. Barnhart) 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
Thomas v. Barnhart, 54 F. App'x 873 (7th Cir. 2003).

Opinion

ORDER

In October 1999 Russell Thomas applied for Disability Insurance Benefits and Supplemental Security Income, claiming that chronic headaches, numbness in his extremities, and pain in his neck and back prevented him from performing his work as a delivery driver. After the denial of his application for benefits, Thomas requested a hearing before an Administrative Law Judge, who found Thomas not disabled. The Social Security Administration Appeals Council denied Thomas’s request for review, and the ALJ’s decision became the final decision of the SSA Commissioner. Thomas then sought judicial review of the Commissioner’s decision in the district court. He now appeals from the district court’s entry of judgment in favor of the Commissioner. Because the ALJ’s decision was supported by substantial evidence, we affirm.

I. Background

A. Thomas’s Impairments

In February 1994 Thomas was in a car accident and suffered a fracture and dislo[875]*875cation of the C6-7 vertebrae in his neck. He claims that the resulting damage to his spinal cord caused numerous neurological symptoms, including migraine headaches, sleep apnea, muscle weakness, numbness, loss of sensation, chronic neck and back pain, abnormal reflexes, and inability to coordinate voluntary muscle movement in his extremities. According to Thomas, the symptoms have worsened to such an extent that he has difficulty walking, sitting or standing still for more than a few minutes, grasping objects, lifting more than ten pounds, staying awake, and concentrating on tasks.

Following his accident, Thomas was treated by Dr. Thomas Keucher, a neurosurgeon, and Dr. John Jacobs, his primary physician. Dr. Keucher performed a laminectomy1 and fused and plated the fractured vertebrae. Several months after his surgery, Thomas complained of pain and decreased range of motion in his neck, and Dr. Keucher recommended neck exercises. In June 1995, and again in July 1996, Thomas consulted Dr. Jacobs about chronic headaches that he had been suffering since the car accident. Thomas claimed to suffer mild headaches on a daily basis and frequent migraines that could last three or four days.

According to the record, Thomas did not seek medical attention again until after he quit his job as a delivery driver on September 14, 1999. He left this position after he found himself almost falling asleep at the wheel on two separate occasions. In November 1999 Thomas was examined by both Dr. David Brockman and Dr. Jacobs. Dr. Brockman diagnosed Thomas with chronic pain due to central cord syndrome.2 Dr. Jacobs noted that Thomas had weakness on his right side, clonus3 of the feet, and hyperreflexia4 of the patellar, Achilles, brachial radialis, and biceps reflexes.

Throughout the fall of 1999 into the winter and spring of 2000, Thomas visited several health professionals. Dr. Jacobs referred Thomas to Dr. Jan Warner, a psychologist, and ordered a sleep study which revealed that Thomas was suffering from sleep apnea. He also referred Thomas to Dr. Keucher for a neurological evaluation. Dr. Keucher reported that Thomas had made an “essentially complete recovery” of the strength in his hands but still suffered from some loss of sensation in his legs. An MRI of Thomas’s neck revealed a post-traumatic syrinx, a cavity in the spine filled with leaked cerebrospinal fluid. But, in Dr. Keucher’s opinion, the syrinx was not severe enough to cause the symptoms that Thomas described.

Dr. Jacobs’s treatment notes suggest that he was optimistic that Thomas would be able to work again. In April 2000, Dr. Jacobs opined, “I am not certain there is any reason why he could not work in a sedentary job,” and in May, in a report to Vocational Rehabilitation, he wrote, “At this time I think it is possible for the patient to return to work in some setting which is yet to be determined.”

[876]*876Shortly after Dr. Jacobs wrote to Vocational Rehabilitation, he and Dr. Warner referred Thomas to Dr. Stephen Ribaudo, a specialist in Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation. Dr. Ribaudo diagnosed Thomas with multiple physical and mental impairments. In his report to Dr. Jacobs, Dr. Ribaudo opined that these impairments would severely limit Thomas’s physical activity: “I find all of the patient’s symptoms understandable and substantiated by objective findings. They cause significant impairment and resultant disability. I believe he can no longer engage in any form of full time gainful employment, even sedentary in nature on a permanent basis.”

B. Thomas’s Claim for Disability Benefits

In October 1999 Thomas filed applications for Disability Insurance Benefits (DIB) and Supplemental Security Income (SSI), claiming that he was disabled as of September 14, 1999, the day he quit his job. Thomas’s claim was denied initially and on reconsideration, and he requested a hearing before an ALJ. The hearing took place on September 22, 2000; Thomas appeared without an attorney or other representative.

At the hearing, Thomas narrated his work history. In addition to his most recent job as a delivery driver, Thomas had worked as a film inspector from 1977 to 1988. This job was primarily sedentary and required Thomas to splice film together and clean it. He testified that his hands were constantly numb, that he had pain if he stood or sat in one position for more than a few minutes, that his back, neck, and side hurt all the time, that he had difficulty walking, lifting, and grasping, and that he suffered from migraine headaches. He also told the ALJ about the two incidents when he almost fell asleep while driving for his delivery job. Thomas’s mother Annie testified that her son was withdrawn and unproductive, that he couldn’t mow the lawn or do any lifting, and that he had moved in with his parents the previous year because he could no longer “function.”

After hearing from Thomas and his mother, the ALJ constructed for the vocational expert a hypothetical question that assumed that Thomas could work at the light exertional level:

Assume if you will, an individual 42 years of age, with a high school education and the past work history that you’ve summarized for us. Assume that individual is limited to work at the light exertional level or below. He’s limited to occupations which require only occasional bending, crouching, crawling, kneeling, stooping and all those postural limitations. Assume further the individual had to avoid moderate exposure to unprotected heights or operating hazardous moving machinery. Assume the individual could not work in occupations which required verbal communication skills, would those limitations, would the individual be capable of any of Mr. Thomas’s past employment, either as he performed it or as it is usually performed in the national economy?

The vocational expert responded that such a hypothetical individual could perform Thomas’s former job as a film inspector “which is at the light level of physical tolerance” and “which would allow for sit/ stand option.”

The ALJ performed the required five-step evaluation of Thomas’s condition in order to determine whether he was eligible for benefits. 20 C.F.R. §§ 404.1572, 416.972. At Step 1, the ALJ found that Thomas had not engaged in substantial gainful activity since his onset date of September 14, 1999.

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54 F. App'x 873, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/thomas-v-barnhart-ca7-2003.