Court Opinion

ID: 9489943
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-05 13:28:43.636277+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:53:49.130480
License: Public Domain

BOWMAN, Circuit Judge.,
dissenting.
I respectfully dissent.
The regulations promulgated under Title XVI of the Social Security Act set out a sequential analysis for evaluating a claimant’s alleged disability for the purposes of awarding Supplemental Security Income (SSI) benefits. The administrative law judge (ALJ) follows this analysis when reviewing the Commissioner of Social Security’s decision to grant or deny benefits. First, the ALJ determines whether the claimant is engaged in “substantial gainful activity.” 20 C.F.R. § 416.920(b) (1996). If so, the claimant is not disabled. If not, and it is undisputed here that Sird is not working, then the ALJ advances to the next step and decides if the impairment alleged by the claimant is severe, that is, whether it “significantly limits [his] physical or mental ability to do basic work activities.” Id. § 416.920(c). If it is not severe (or does not meet the durational requirements), the applicant is not disabled. See id. An impairment is disabling within the meaning of the regulations if it meets or equals an impairment “listed in appendix 1.” Id. § 416.920(d).
The ALJ held that Sird does not have a listed impairment, but the Court rejects that conclusion and holds that Sird has the impairment described in § 12.05 C of 20 C.F.R., Part 404, Subpart P, Appendix 1 (1996). Under § 12.05 C, a claimant’s disability is sufficiently severe to warrant the award of benefits if- (1) his IQ score is in the range of 60 through 70 and (2) he has “a physical or other mental impairment imposing additional and significant work-related limitation of function.” The Commissioner has conceded that Sird’s IQ falls within the applicable range, and the Court now concludes that Sird has the requisite additional limitation. I disagree.
Because the ALJ found in his review that Sird has no listed impairment, he completed the sequential analysis for SSI disability. The ALJ determined that Sird did not have a listed impairment but that he nevertheless could not do his past relevant work. See 20 C.F.R. § 416.920(e) (1996). That did not end the inquiry, however. The ALJ went on to conclude that Sird retained “residual functional capacity” and, considering all pertinent factors (including a vocational expert’s opinion), the ALJ determined that Sird was able to “do other work” despite his impairment, and thus was not disabled. Id. § 416.920(f)(1). It is upon this finding that the Court seizes to reverse the decision not to award SSI benefits to Sird.
Relying on the Fourth Circuit’s opinion in Branham v. Heckler, 775 F.2d 1271 (4th Cir.1985), the Court uses the ALJ’s finding that Sird retained some ability to work (which in fact led to a conclusion of no disability) in order to bootstrap an “additional and significant work-related limitation of function” within the meaning of § 12.05 C. This seems to me counterintuitive — to rely on the evidence supporting a decision that Sird is not disabled to support the Court’s holding that he is. I reject' the per se effect the Court wishes to give a conclusion by the ALJ — which will be reached only if the ALJ decides the claimant has no listed impairment in the first place — that the claimant’s inability to perform his past relevant work but his retention of the capacity to perform other work (together with the necessary mental impairment) will qualify him to receive SSI benefits.
. “The law defines disability as the inability to do any substantial gainful activity by reason of any medically determinable physical or mental impairment_” 20 C.F.R. § 416.905(a) (1996). “To meet this definition, [a claimant] must have a severe impairment, which makes [him] unable to do [his] previ*405ous work or any other substantial gainful activity which exists in the national economy.” Id. (emphasis added). This provision closely tracks the language of the governing statute. See 42 U.S.C. § 1382c(a)(3)(A)-(B) (1994). It is my position, and the statute and the regulations in plain language so state, that a person who can perform substantial gainful activity, regardless of a mental impairment that does not by itself qualify the claimant for SSI benefits, is not disabled within the meaning of the Social Security Act and its regulations.
I do not believe my view is at odds with the law of this Circuit. We have defined an impairment that imposes a “significant limitation” within the meaning of § 12.05 C as one whose “effect on a claimant’s ability to perform basic work is more than slight or minimal.” Cook v. Bowen, 797 F.2d 687, 690 (8th Cir.1986). Of course, a wide range of limitations are covered between “slight and minimal,” a finding of which would result in a conclusion that the claimant is not disabled, and “severe,” a finding of which would lead to further review for a listed impairment. I think in order to be “significant” as the regulation demands, the limitation required, while something less than severe, nevertheless must be substantially more than “slight or minimal.” See Keller v. Shalala, 26 F.3d 856, 859-60 (8th Cir.1994) (Loken, J., dissenting). In any case, Sird’s ability to perform light or sedentary work, albeit not his past relevant work, can only be viewed logically as having a positive effect on his “ability to perform basic work.”
The Commissioner’s decision that Sird is not entitled to SSI benefits “is supported by substantial evidence on the entire record.” Box v. Shalala, 52 F.3d 168, 170 (8th Cir.1995). I would affirm the decision of the District Court affirming the decision of the ALJ that the Commissioner properly denied SSI benefits to Sird.