Court Opinion

ID: 9471124
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-05 03:25:23.988851+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:42:16.733819
License: Public Domain

ARNOLD, Circuit Judge,
dissenting.
This is a close case, and there is much to be said for the result reached by the Court. In my view, however, today’s decision cannot be squared with this Court’s precedents, and I therefore respectfully dissent.
1. The record contains substantial evidence of pain, both from the claimant and from his wife. Pain can be disabling, either in and of itself or in combination with other medical conditions. When pain is substantial, it amounts to a nonexertional impairment that cannot be disposed of by a simple mechanical application of the Medical-Vocational Guidelines. See McCoy v. Schweiker, 683 F.2d 1138, 1148 (8th Cir.1982) (en banc). Whether pain is sufficiently substantial to avoid the application of the Guidelines is, of course, still a question of fact to be decided by the ALJ in the first instance, and she is empowered to disbelieve the claimant’s testimony of pain. In the present case, however, the ALJ remarked only that she did not find claimant’s testimony “wholly credible,’’ R. 7. Apparently his testimony was not wholly incredible, either, and we are left to guess at the extent to which the ALJ believed plaintiff was telling the truth. On this state of the record, I am not persuaded that the Medical-Vocational Guidelines were properly applied.
2. In addition, as the Court notes, ante, p. 531 & n. 1, the burden was on the Board to show that Mr. Abernathy could perform any substantial gainful activity. Everyone concedes that he suffers from a severe physical impairment that prevents him from returning to his former work as a railroad machinist. In fact, he has tried on several occasions to go back to work for the railroad, without success. In this situation, the burden of proof becomes important. Its placement on the Board directly affects the margin of error in fact-finding. Yet, as the Court concedes, the ALJ showed no awareness that the burden had shifted. She did not find that the Board had proved that Mr. Abernathy could do any work. We do not know what finding would have been made if the correct burden of proof had been applied.
For these reasons, I would reverse the order of the Board and remand this case for further proceedings.