Opinion ID: 558450
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 4

Heading: Significance of Floyd's Death

Text: 30 The district court denied Floyd's motion to amend the Secretary's decision based on the death of her husband due to heart failure during the pendency of the suit. 31 Judicial review of administrative decisions is limited to the administrative record. Parks v. Harris, 614 F.2d 83, 84 (5th Cir.1980). A court may, however, remand the case to the Secretary to consider material new evidence. 42 U.S.C. Sec. 405(g). A subsequent death does not constitute material new evidence. As the court explained in another case where a social security claimant, with a history of a heart condition, died after the final decision denying benefits and long after the last date of insured benefits, the plaintiff's death 32 does not warrant a remand. The Secretary has already considered plaintiff's arteriosclerotic heart condition, and the fact that plaintiff died of a second heart attack almost ten years after his first one and more than one year after he last met the earnings requirements of the Act is not probative of disability in this case. 33 Schad v. Finch, 303 F.Supp. 595, 598-99 (W.D.Penn.1969). The only issue in this case was whether Floyd's heart condition, in combination with other impairments, prevented him from performing work which existed in the national economy. His death in 1989, a year after the ALJ's decision, does not show that Floyd could not have worked at the time of the hearing. The district judge, then, did not abuse his discretion in refusing to remand to consider this additional evidence.