Court Opinion

ID: 9472920
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-05 04:14:46.538608+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:43:13.694109
License: Public Domain

GARTH, Circuit Judge,
concurring:
I share the concern of the majority when an Administrative Law Judge, in determining whether a claimant is entitled to Social Security disability benefits, ignores physicians’ findings which may help establish that claimant’s disability. In this case the Administrative Law Judge stated that he “accorded little weight” to the medical reports from Doctors Pollock, Ahmad, Grander, Klein, Friedman and Latimer.
In my opinion, given the nature of these reports, it was entirely appropriate for the Administrative Law Judge to discount the reliability of the physicians’ conclusions. However, as Judge Sloviter points out, the Administrative Law Judge under law cannot disregard medical findings which are relevant to the claimant’s condition no matter how little substance may be attributed to them in the final analysis.
A number of the doctors’ reports in question reveal virtually no findings of consequence submitted on Coria’s behalf. In his hearing before an Administrative Law Judge, Coria alleged that he was totally disabled due to internal, neurological, orthopedic, and neuropsychiatric ailments. However, two of the medical reports that were submitted in support of Coria’s claim, those of Doctors Klein and Ghander, appear in no way relevant to Coria’s alleged medical problems.
Ophthalmologist Klein submitted a report (signed by Dr. Scannapiego) based on an eye examination performed on Coria in May, 1978. In that report Coria was diagnosed as suffering from chronic conjunctivitis and in the doctor’s opinion, Coria was 8 percent totally disabled as a result of exposure to dust, gases and fumes at work. Dr. Klein also found that Coria’s vision was 20/20, and that his eyes were normal in every other respect. Apart from the fact that Dr. Klein’s findings bear little relation to Coria’s claim for disability benefits (which recites internal, neurological, orthopedic, and neuropsychiatric problems), the report apparently was also inaccurate. In *249reviewing Coria’s medical and work-related history, Dr. Klein stated that Coria was a “59 year old male,” when, in fact, Coria was 47 years old at the time of the examination. In addition, although the record indicates that Coria worked for two years as a chemical operator at U.S. Pipe Foundry, Dr. Klein recounted in his report that the job lasted for “approximately one year.”
Coria also submitted the medical findings of Dr. Ghander, an otolaryngologist. Dr. Ghander concluded that Coria suffered from a 40 percent hearing loss in both ears, and diagnosed bilateral hearing impairment and rhinosinusitis. Dr. Ghander estimated that Coria suffered permanent disability of seven and one-half percent of partial total. However, like the report of Dr. Klein, Dr. Ghander’s findings with regard to Coria’s hearing are unrelated to Coria’s claim for disability, and thus could have been properly ignored by the reviewing Administrative Law Judge.
As far as the reports of the other physicians are concerned, had the Administrative Law Judge stated in his opinion that he had read and evaluated the doctors’ findings, but recognized their lack of substance and thus placed little weight on their reports, I doubt that we would now be remanding for further proceedings.1 In this regard, I do not believe that we should blind ourselves to the fact that some of the doctors who examined Coria filed reports that bear a striking resemblance to reports which they have filed for other examinees. This regrettable circumstance has been recognized not only by Administrative Law Judges, see, e.g., Glover v. Heckler, No. 84-5337 (App. at 11) (Barlow, ALJ), but by at least one judge in the District of New Jersey. See Morrison v. Schweiker, Nos. 79-1962 & 81-1526 (D.N.J. April 5, 1982) (Debevoise, J.). It is difficult to determine how many Social Security claimants have been the subject of medical examinations and reports of this quality and character since every panel of judges does not sit on every social security disability case. What is apparent to me, however, from even my limited experience with these types of reports, is that Coria’s counsel uses the same doctors to support each of their client’s claims.
In many instances, the doctors’ reports have little relevance to the claimant’s alleged disability, and often look as if they are carbon copies of other examinations which are unrelated to the particular claimant seeking disability status. For example, after Dr. Pollock’s neuropsychiatric examination of Coria, he concluded that Coria suffered from “[njeurological residuals of exposure to noxious fumes, dust and loud noise and traumatic anxiety psychoneurosis, also right sciatic neuritis, attributable to accident at work and attributable to exposure at work.” Dr. Pollock submitted the identical diagnosis with regard to another disability claimant whose appeal is also before this court, but who, unlike Coria, did not suffer an accident at work. See Glover v. Heckler, No. 84-5337 (App. at 111).
I do not say that these similarities may not be coincidental, or may not arise from factually similar circumstances of the various claimants. Nevertheless, the proliferation of such reports can give rise to a suspicion on the part of the court and Administrative Law Judges that the findings (to the extent they are findings) and conclusions reported, are entitled to little, if any, weight.
Accordingly, by joining in the present remand, I do not mean to convey the impression that I am attributing weight or credence to the reports which Coria has submitted. I join in this remand because, as the court holds, an Administrative Law Judge must consider all the evidence and evaluate the medical findings. In this ease, the Administrative Law Judge’s opinion fails to disclose that this was done.

. X note from the evidence that Coria sees no doctor regularly, takes only aspirin as medication, and is capable of climbing a flight of 15-18 stairs each day.