Opinion ID: 168407
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 6

Heading: Chenery.

Text: 48 In SEC v. Chenery Corp., 332 U.S. 194, 196, 67 S.Ct. 1575, 91 L.Ed. 1995 (1947), the Supreme Court emphasized a simple but fundamental rule of administrative law. 49 That rule is to the effect that a reviewing court, in dealing with a determination or judgment which an administrative agency alone is authorized to make, must judge the propriety of such action solely by the grounds invoked by the agency. If those grounds are inadequate or improper, the court is powerless to affirm the administrative action by substituting what it considers to be a more adequate or proper basis. To do so would propel the court into the domain which Congress has set aside exclusively for the administrative agency. 50 Id. 51 This Court has characterized Chenery as establishing a general rule that we may not properly affirm an administrative action on grounds different from those considered by the agency. Ecology Ctr., Inc. v. United States Forest Serv., 451 F.3d 1183, 1195 (10th Cir.2006) (quotation omitted); see also Mickeviciute v. INS, 327 F.3d 1159, 1165 (10th Cir.2003) (citing Chenery for proposition that we intrude on the agency's authority . . . by supporting a result reached by the agency with reasoning not explicitly relied on by the agency). This court has also recognized, however, that 52 it nevertheless may be appropriate to supply a missing dispositive finding under the rubric of harmless error in the right exceptional circumstance, i.e., where, based on material the ALJ did at least consider (just not properly), we could confidently say that no reasonable administrative factfinder, following the correct analysis, could have resolved the factual matter in any other way. 53 Allen v. Barnhart, 357 F.3d 1140, 1145 (10th Cir.2004). 54 Here, we are not dealing with a factual matter that could not have been resolved in any other way, and this is not a situation where the Commissioner simply suppl[ied] a missing dispositive finding. Id. Instead, in the merits proceedings before the district court, the Commissioner came up with entirely new legal theories in an attempt to reconcile the VE's hearing testimony with the pertinent job descriptions in the Dictionary of Occupational Titles, see Aplt.App., Vol. 1 at 87-89, and the Commissioner's theories were based on reasoning not explicitly relied on by the [ALJ], Mickeviciute, 327 F.3d at 1165. Thus, we conclude that the Commissioner was acting in violation of Chenery, and that it would therefore be improper to rely on the Commissioner's litigation position to deny plaintiff's EAJA application. 55 We also conclude that the ALJ's attempt to satisfy his step-five duties under Haddock was not substantially justified. As set forth above, in his decision, the ALJ mischaracterized the hearing testimony of the VE. Specifically, as plaintiff has pointed out: 56 the ALJ state[d] that the vocational expert testified that his opinion did not correspond directly with the information in the Dictionary of Occupational Titles but that he relied on his education, experience, and observation of the jobs as actually performed in the national economy. In fact, the vocational expert was never asked any questions on this point and did not make these statements in his testimony. 57 Aplt.App., Vol. 1 at 35. This error does not meet the reasonableness test for substantial justification. See Gilbert, 45 F.3d at 1394. It would therefore be an abuse of discretion for the district court to deny plaintiff's EAJA application, and a remand on the substantial justification issue is not necessary. 58