Court Opinion

ID: 9494114
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-05 15:29:47.110209+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:56:13.761943
License: Public Domain

HEANEY, Circuit Judge,
dissenting.
Victoria Howard, a black female, was born on December 23, 1947. She has fifteen children and fifty-four grandchildren. Her husband and a son are in prison. Five of her children lived with her at the time of the hearing; two were teenagers and three were younger. All five have been diagnosed with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder.
Howard dropped out of school at age fourteen due to her first pregnancy. She has, at most, a ninth-grade education, but tested at only the second-grade level. Howard testified that she was unable to read. Her criminal history includes six to seven assaults, the last of which occurred in the summer of 1996.
Howard was referred to Dr. Juan Aquino for a psychological evaluation. On December 10,1996, he reported:
The client was administered the Wecsh-ler [sic] Adult Intelligence Scale-Revised. She obtained a verbal IQ score of 71, a performance IQ score of 79, and a full scale IQ score of 74 on the WAIS-R. These scores place her abilities in the borderline range of intellectual functioning. General fund of knowledge, attention/concentration, visual perception, planning/sequential ability following social cues, visual-spatial abilities, and psy-chomotor speed/sustained attention were all borderline. Mental calculations, common sense reasoning, and abstract/associative thinking were deficient.
(Admin. Tr. at 308.) His findings included the following:
Attention/concentration is borderline to deficient, as evidenced by relevant sub-tests from the WAIS-R. Given her borderline IQ, pace will be somewhat slow. Although she may not have difficulties with simple instructions and procedures, difficulties may increase as these procedures and instructions become more abstract or detailed. However, by history, we know that she certainly is capable cognitively of performing CNA duties. Her judgment and ability to interact appropriately may be a source of concern given her history of assaultive behaviors.
(Id. at 309.) The ALJ found that Howard has the following severe impairments: “status post aorta femoral bypass surgery, degenerative joint disease of both thumbs, status post carpal tunnel release, borderline intellectual functioning, and dysthy-mia.” (Id. at 19.) It is conceded that Howard is not able to return to her past work as a certified nurses’ assistant.
There are several reasons why I believe that we have no alternative but to reverse and remand this matter to the Commissioner:
1. The hypotheticals posed by the ALJ to the vocational expert did not include a complete and accurate statement as to Howard’s dysthymia and borderline intellectual functioning, and the fact she would often experience deficiencies of concentra*586tion, persistence of pace resulting in the failure to complete tasks in a timely manner in a work setting or elsewhere, nor did it include any reference to her assaultive conduct. The hypotheticals read as follows:
Q [A]ssume that ... the claimant is able to lift up to 20 pounds maximum, 10 pounds frequently, that she was able to do simple, routine, repetitive work. That following her leg surgery she was prevented from doing any prolonged walking. That means more than two hours on her feet without a break. She should also be limited as 'to operation of foot controls and also limited in the amount of climbing needed.
....
Q ... With these limitations would the claimant have been able to return to the past job as nursing assistant?
A No, she would not be able to perform her past work.
Q ... Would that job have given her any skills as she performed it that could be used in other work activity under the hypothetical question?
A No, those lower level skills do not transfer.
Q And taking into consideration that the claimant was a — is still actually a younger individual who is functionally illiterate,4 having a less than ninth grade education, but has the training and certification as a CNA that she utilized in her work activity. Would there be unskilled work that she could perform?
A Yes, according to this hypothetical she would be able to perform work as a dining room attendant. Food service of course, and that would be 311.69 — excuse me, 311.677-018. There’s estimated to be 1,200 in Iowa and 90,000 in the United States. There would also be work in housekeeping as a cleaner. DOT code 323.687-014. There’s estimated to be 2,000 in Iowa and 200,000 in the United States. These jobs are all by the way, light and unskilled. There would also be work in the laundry. DOT code 361.685-014. There’s estimated to be 700 in Iowa and 45,000 in the United States. There would be jobs as a hand packager. The DOT code is 929.587-010. The majority of these jobs are, are in the medium capacity. However, these — this number that I give you are those that are found to be in the light capacity. There would be 3,000 in Iowa and 180,-000 In the United States.
(Admin. Tr. at 80-82 (emphasis added).)
Howard testified she is unable to read. The ALJ rejects this testimony for the reason that she was able to take and pass a CNA examination and a written examination to obtain a driver’s license. He rejects without any supporting evidence her testimony that she was able to pass the CNA examination because it was read to her. As to the driver’s license examination, he is obviously unfamiliar with the Iowa practice which provides a computer at each testing station that reads the test out loud to any person who requests it. If the ALJ were fulfilling his responsibility, he would have questioned Howard as to how she was able to pass the driver’s license examination if she could not read instead of assuming she was not telling the truth about her reading ability.
2. Even if one assumes that the hypo-theticals were complete and that a functional illiterate can be found capable of performing light work, it is clear that Howard is not able to perform the duties of house cleaner, 323.687-014; laundry *587worker, 361.685-014; and hand packager, 929.587-010, each of which were classified as light work. A person employed in these positions is expected to carry out detailed written instructions; add and subtract two-digit numbers; multiply and divide tens and hundreds by two, three, four, and five; perform operations with units such as a cup, pint, and quart; inch, foot, and yard; and ounce and pound; read at the rate of 95-120 words per minute; and print simple sentences containing a subject, verb, and object and a series of numbers, names, and addresses. See Dictionary of Occupational Titles, 1011 (4th ed.1991). There is absolutely no evidence in the record that she meets any of these requirements. Nor is there evidence to indicate that a functional illiterate could meet these requirements.
3. The position of dining room attendant that the vocational expert indicated Howard could perform requires medium strength, which the record clearly indicates Howard does not possess.
4. The ALJ found that Howard was not credible with respect to her subjective complaints of pain and resulting functional limitations because her daily activities indicated she was able to work. The testimony indicates that Howard only does light cleaning, such as dusting, she watches television, and is driven to where she needs to go by her two oldest daughters, her children help her fold and put away laundry, cook for her, do outdoor chores, and run errands. (Admin. Tr. at 25.)
These activities certainly do not indicate an ability to work “in the sometimes competitive and stressful conditions in which real people work in the real world.” McCoy v. Schweiker, 683 F.2d 1138, 1147 (8th Cir.1982) (en banc). In Baumgarten v. Chater, 75 F.3d 366, 369 (8th Cir.1996), we reiterated that “the ability to do activities such as light housework and visiting with friends provides little or no support for the finding that a claimant can perform full-time competitive work,” (quoting Hogg v. Shalala, 45 F.3d 276, 278 (8th Cir.1995)). This standard has correctly been applied by this court in numerous other cases. See Rainey v. Department of Health & Human Servs., 48 F.3d 292, 293 (8th Cir. 1995) (holding that heating food, visiting relatives, and watching television were “activities we have held are not substantial evidence of the ability to do full-time work.”); Kowril v. Bowen, 912 F.2d 971, 976 (8th Cir.1990) (stating that “[disability does not require total incapacity. It requires that an individual be unable to engage in substantial gainful activity.”); Cline v. Sullivan, 939 F.2d 560, 565 (8th Cir.1991) (holding that claimant’s “ability merely to perform the limited service of pouring coffee or removing the excess plates from a table on an occasional basis does not compel a conclusion that a claimant is capable of performing the full range of sedentary work on a sustained basis”); Thomas v. Sullivan, 876 F.2d 666, 669 (8th Cir.1989) (stating that claimant’s “ability to do light housework with assistance, attend church, or visit with friends on the phone does not qualify as the ability to do substantial gainful activity”); Easter v. Bowen, 867 F.2d 1128, 1130 (8th Cir.1989) (holding that “[a]n applicant need not be completely bedridden or unable to perform any household chores to be considered disabled”).
In summary, there clearly is not substantial evidence in the record to support the ALJ’s conclusion that Howard is capable of light work. In my view, the record rather supports Howard’s claim that she is entitled to disability benefits. At the very least, Howard is entitled to a remand and an additional evidentiary hearing at which a proper hypothetical would be posed to the vocational expert, and any doubt as to *588Howard’s literacy would be eliminated. It is wrong to deny a person benefits if a short additional hearing would more than likely establish her eligibility.

. A "functional illiterate” is defined as "[o]ne with some education but below a minimum literacy standard.” Webster’s II New Riverside University Dictionary (1984).