Opinion ID: 6968466
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: Rejection of the Lay Testimony.

Text: Anna Sousa testified that she was “unable to cope with everyday living” in 1987 and that she had “difficulty taking care of her personal needs.” Her husband testified that she plugged electrical outlets up with paper, boiled her clothes, and often could not sleep for days at a time. The Commissioner can only reject lay testimony as incredible under certain conditions. “The ALJ is responsible for determining credibility, resolving conflicts in medical testimony, and for resolving ambiguities.” Andrews v. Shalala, 53 F.3d 1035, 1039 (9th Cir.1995). However, “once the claimant produces objective medical evidence of an underlying impairment, an adjudicator may not reject a claimant’s subjective complaints based solely on a lack of objective medical evidence to fully corroborate the alleged severity of pain.” Bunnell v. Sullivan, 947 F.2d 341, 345 (9th Cir.1991). The adjudicator may, however, disregard self-serving statements made by claimants if it finds them to be incredible on other grounds. Rashad v. Sullivan, 903 F.2d 1229, 1231 (9th Cir.1990). Relevant factors can include the claimant’s engagement in activities inconsistent with a claim of disability, an unexplained or inadequately explained failure to seek treatment, or other ordinary methods of credibility determination. Bunnell, 947 F.2d at 346. Here, the lay testimony at issue was given at a 1994 hearing in front of an ALJ who concluded that the principles of res judicata and administrative finality prohibited him from reopening the case to reconsider the merits. The Appeals Council disagreed and found good cause to reopen the matter. The Council then proceeded on the merits without conducting a new hearing' or remanding the case to the presiding ALJ. The Appeals Council found the Sousas’ testimony not credible. In support of this conclusion, it cited “the length of time between the actual events and the testimony”; the lack of corroborating objective evidence of “paranoid behavior on or before December 31, 1987, as reported in the testimony,” even though evidence existed concerning a similar incident in 1991; and the fact that plaintiff had obtained “other nonmental medical treatment during 1987 for short term physical problems, but not related to the mental problems,” which did not result in a “mention of a mental problem in the other treatment notes.” The Appeals Council concluded its adverse credibility finding by saying: The claimant was able to function well enough to leave her home to obtain treatment for physical problems and it seems reasonable to assume if the claimant had the marked restrictions alleged for that period, they would have been noticed and remarked upon by nonmental health sources. Therefore the Council cannot find the testimony of the claimant and her husband concerning her functional restrictions on or before December 31, 1987, credible. These justifications for the rejection of the lay testimony are not sufficient. The substantial amount of time between the events at issue and the testimony given is an inevitable by-product of the procedural posture of this case. The existence of objective evidence of a paranoid incident in 1991 is not determinative of whether those events also took place in 1987, but is at least some evideneé of the existence of the condition. Finally, the Appeals Council’s belief that Sousa had occasionally consulted doctors for short-term physical problems during the relevant time period without incident is apparently mistaken, as those visits did not take place until 1988. Additionally, the significance of these visits is unclear, as those doctors had no duty to inquire about, consider, or document anything other than the injury for which plaintiff sought treatment. Thus, the absence of notes relating to mental problems is not probative of anything except the fact that these physicians were consulted for other matters. Even if these reasons were offered by an ALJ who was present at the hearing and observed the demeanor of the witnesses, they would be suspect. Here, the Appeals Council based its decision on its own independent review of the transcript testimony more than one year after it was taken. This fact further supports our conclusion. Because the Appeals Council’s justifications are not supported by specific, cogent reasoning, we cannot uphold them. Lewin v. Schweiker, 654 F.2d 631, 635 (9th Cir.1981).