Court Opinion

ID: 9472387
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-05 03:58:39.439356+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:42:54.392550
License: Public Domain

HARRISON L. WINTER, Chief Judge,
dissenting:
The majority concludes that even under the most deferential standard of appellate review, the district court’s determination that the government’s position in the proceedings before it had a reasonable basis in law and fact cannot be sustained. I believe that in reaching this conclusion, the majority misanalyzes the present record, and, accordingly, I dissent.1
There certainly is substantial evidence in the record that supports the determination made by the district court that the claimant is disabled. Among this evidence is the evaluation of her treating physicians, the claimant’s history of recurrent hospitalization for treatment of hiatal hernia and related conditions, and clinical evidence documenting the recurrent nature of her impairment. That this is so certainly does not end the inquiry regarding an attorney’s fee award, however. As we noted in Tyler Business Services, Inc. v. N.L.R.B., 695 F.2d 73, 75 (4 Cir.1982), entry of summary judgment for the claimant raises no presumption that the government’s position was not substantially justified.
I, unlike the majority, believed that there at least arguably is substantial evidence that would support the Secretary’s finding that the claimant was not disabled. The Secretary’s decision to deny benefits rested on a determination that Smith’s impairment was not “severe” for purposes of 20 C.F.R. § 416.920(c) for periods meeting the durational requirement of twelve months imposed by Section 1614(a)(3)(A) of the Social Security Act, 42 U.S.C. § 1382c(a)(3)(A). *149This, in turn, rested on an evaluation of the severity of Smith’s symptoms and their susceptibility to correction by surgical procedures. The majority apparently believes that indications in the record that continuing medical supervision and quite probably additional surgical procedures would be necessary to control Smith’s condition conclusively established the disabling effect of Smith’s impairment. I cannot agree.
The issue in determining whether an impairment is indeed severe must be two-fold. First, the symptoms of the impairment when it occurs must be such as to prevent relevant occupational activities. This also means that the symptoms must occur with sufficient frequency as to interfere with relevant work activities. Second, it must be established that medical efforts to control the symptoms either must be ineffective or themselves of such a nature as to prevent relevant work.
The Secretary in the present case concluded that Smith’s symptoms responded to medical treatment and could be adequately controlled thereby. It seems to me that there certainly is an arguable case to be made for this position. Though Smith had, by the time the Appeals Council reviewed the case the second time, four times undergone a surgical procedure known as esophagoscopy and dilatation, the record shows that the procedure could be rapidly performed, allowing claimant to be discharged within a few hours of when she entered hospital for treatment. The record shows that Smith’s need for the procedure never exceeded a frequency of once every three months. This means that the need to repeat the procedure in order to control Smith’s condition would not ipso facto prevent her from holding employment. It is a brief procedure and in Smith’s case was not required with debilitating frequency. It thus need not have interfered unduly with an occupational schedule. The record in addition offers support for the conclusion that the procedure was effective in controlling Smith’s condition; both Smith’s treating physicians and the Secretary’s consulting physician indicated that results of the esophagoscopy and dilatation seemed to be excellent, if not enduring.
Since the record offers far more than trivial support for the Secretary’s determination, it follows that it also offers support for the district court’s determination that the Secretary’s position before him had substantial justification. I would affirm the district court’s determination to deny attorney’s fees.

. I do not here attempt to grapple with the question left unresolved by the majority opinion — the standard by which a court of appeals should review the district court’s determination as to whether the position of the government in the district court proceedings was substantially justified. I note that if we were called upon to review the district judge’s conclusions on questions of law relevant to determining whether to award attorney’s fees or his conclusions as to whether certain legal positions advanced in the proceedings by the government were colorable or plausible, a stricter standard of appellate review might be appropriate. See Spencer v. N.L.R.B., 712 F.2d 539, 561-565 (D.C.Cir.1983). The proceedings before the district court in the present case, however, did not involve a dispute between the parties as to governing legal standards: rather, they arose from competing evaluations on the part of the Secretary and the claimant of evidence presented to determine entitlement to benefits. The administrative law judge’s denial of benefits was based primarily ■ on the determination that claimant’s impairment was not of sufficient severity to establish entitlement to benefits. The district court’s decision to deny attorney’s fees thus was essentially a determination that the government’s position, that the state of the evidence could support a decision to deny benefits, had some substantial justification. Since the district court's decision is a determination of issues of fact, or at most of the probative force of evidence submitted by the parties in administrative proceedings, a deferential standard of appellate review is almost certainly appropriate in this case. See also id., 712 F.2d at 563-565.
However, I need not reach the question of precisely what standard of review should be applied to the district court’s decision to deny attorney’s fees. Even were we to undertake de novo review of the matter, I would conclude that attorney’s fees are inappropriate under the facts of this case. It follows that, whatever standard of review we might apply to the district court’s decision, I would conclude that the district court acted correctly.