Woods v. Berryhill

CourtDistrict Court, D. Nevada
DecidedSeptember 28, 2019
Docket2:18-cv-00154
StatusUnknown

This text of Woods v. Berryhill (Woods v. Berryhill) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court, D. Nevada primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Woods v. Berryhill, (D. Nev. 2019).

Opinion

1 2

4 UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT 5 DISTRICT OF NEVADA 6 * * *

7 BOBBIE JO WOODS, Case No. 2:18-cv-00154-RFB-VCF 8 Plaintiff, ORDER 9 v. 10

11 NANCY A. BERRYHILL, Acting Commissioner of Social Security 12 Administration,

13 Defendant. 14

15 I. INTRODUCTION 16 Before the Court are Plaintiff Bobbie Jo Wood’s (“Woods”) Motion to Remand to Social 17 Security Administration, ECF No. 10 and Defendant Nancy A. Berryhill’s (the “Commissioner”) 18 Countermotion to Affirm the Agency Decision, ECF No. 11. Magistrate Judge Cam Ferenbach 19 20 issued a Report and Recommendation (“R&R”) that Defendant’s Countermotion be granted and 21 Plaintiff’s Motion to Remand be denied. ECF No. 14. 22 For the reasons discussed below, the Court finds that the ALJ’s opinion contains legal error 23 that is not harmless. Therefore, the Court rejects the recommendations of the R&R, grants 24 Plaintiff’s motion and remands to Defendant for further proceedings. 25 26 / / / 27 / / / 28 / / / 1 II. BACKGROUND 2 Neither party objected to the Magistrate Ferenbach’s summary of the background facts, 3 and so the Court incorporates and adopts, without restating, that “background” section here. ECF 4 No. 14 The Court adds the following procedural history. 5 6 Plaintiff Bobbie Jo Woods filed her complaint on January 28, 2018, seeking review of a 7 decision to deny her application for disability insurance benefits. ECF No. 1. On May 2, 2018 8 Plaintiff filed a Motion to Remand, arguing that the Administrative Law Judge (“ALJ”) improperly 9 found that Plaintiff’s heart conditions were not medically determinable prior to the date last 10 insured, improperly addressed Plaintiff’s medical evidence, insufficiently credited Plaintiff’s 11 12 testimony, and improperly conducted its step five analysis by not hearing from a vocational expert. 13 III. LEGAL STANDARD 14 A district court “may accept, reject, or modify, in whole or in part, the findings or 15 recommendations made by the magistrate judge.” 28 U.S.C. § 636(b)(1). A party may file specific 16 written objections to the findings and recommendations of a magistrate judge. Id. § 636(b)(1); 17 18 Local Rule IB 3-2(a). When written objections have been filed, the district court is required to 19 “make a de novo determination of those portions of the report or specified proposed findings or 20 recommendations to which objection is made.” 28 U.S.C. § 636(b)(1). 21 42 U.S.C. § 405(g) provides for judicial review of the Commissioner’s disability 22 determinations and authorizes district courts to enter “a judgment affirming, modifying, or 23 24 reversing the decision of the Commissioner of Social Security, with or without remanding the 25 cause for a rehearing.” In undertaking that review, an ALJ’s “disability determination should be 26 upheld unless it contains legal error or is not supported by substantial evidence.” Garrison v. 27 Colvin, 759 F.3d 995, 1009 (9th Cir. 2014) (citation omitted). “Substantial evidence means more 28 1 than a mere scintilla, but less than a preponderance; it is such relevant evidence as a reasonable 2 person might accept as adequate to support a conclusion.” Id. (quoting Lingenfelter v. Astrue, 504 3 F.3d 1028, 1035 (9th Cir. 2007)) (quotation marks omitted). 4 “If the evidence can reasonably support either affirming or reversing a decision, [a 5 6 reviewing court] may not substitute [its] judgment for that of the Commissioner.” Lingenfelter, 7 504 F.3d at 1035. Nevertheless, the Court may not simply affirm by selecting a subset of the 8 evidence supporting the ALJ’s conclusion, nor can the Court affirm on a ground on which the ALJ 9 did not rely. Garrison, 759 F.3d at 1009–10. Rather, the Court must “review the administrative 10 record as a whole, weighing both the evidence that supports and that which detracts from the ALJ's 11 12 conclusion,” to determine whether that conclusion is supported by substantial evidence. Andrews 13 v. Shalala, 53 F.3d 1035, 1039 (9th Cir. 1995). 14 “The ALJ is responsible for determining credibility, resolving conflicts in medical 15 testimony, and for resolving ambiguities.” Id. When reviewing the assignment of weight and 16 resolution conflicts in medical testimony, the 9th Circuit distinguishes the opinions of three types 17 18 of physicians: (1) treating physicians; (2) examining physicians; (3) neither treating nor examining 19 physicians. Lester v. Chater, 81 F.3d 821, 830 (9th Cir. 1995).1 The treating physician’s opinion 20 is generally entitled to more weight. Id. If a treating physician’s opinion or ultimate conclusion 21 is not contradicted by another physician, “it may be rejected only for ‘clear and convincing’ 22 reasons.” Id. However, when the treating physician’s opinion is contradicted by another 23 24 physician, the Commissioner may reject it by “providing ‘specific and legitimate reasons’ 25 supported by substantial evidence in the record for so doing.” Id. A treating physician’s opinion 26 27 1 This reflects the Ninth Circuit’s adoption of SSR (“Social Security Ruling”) 16-3p, which the Social 28 Security Administration rescinded as of March 27, 2017. However because the ALJ’s decision in this case came down on February 23, 2017, the new regime will not apply unless the matter is remanded for further proceedings. 1 is still owed deference if contradicted and is often “entitled to the greatest weight . . . even when 2 it does not meet the test for controlling weight.” Orn v. Astrue, 495 F.3d 625, 633 (9th Cir. 2007). 3 Because a treating physician has the greatest opportunity to observe and know the claimant as an 4 individual, the ALJ should rely on the treating physician’s opinion. Murray v. Heckler, 722 F.2d 5 6 499, 502 (9th Cir. 1983). However, the ALJ may reject conclusory opinions in the form of a 7 checklist containing no explanations for the conclusions. Molina v. Astrue, 674 F.3d 1104, 1111 8 (9th Cir. 2012). 9 When a treating physician’s opinion is not assigned controlling weight, the ALJ considers 10 specific factors in determining the appropriate weight to assign the opinion. Orn, 495 F.3d at 631. 11 12 The factors include the length of the treatment relationship and frequency of examination; the 13 nature and extent of the treatment relationship; the amount and quality of evidence supporting the 14 medical opinion; the medical opinion's consistency with the record as a whole; the specialty of the 15 physician providing the opinion; and, other factors which support or contradict the opinion. Id.; 16 10 C.F.R § 404.1527(c). The ALJ must provide a “detailed and thorough summary of the facts 17 18 and conflicting clinical evidence, stating his interpretation thereof, and [make] findings” rather 19 than state mere conclusions for dismissing the opinion of a treating physician. Reddick, 157 F.3d 20 715, 725 (9th Cir. 1998).

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Woods v. Berryhill, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/woods-v-berryhill-nvd-2019.