Court Opinion

ID: 9492645
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-05 14:45:55.295817+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:55:24.297516
License: Public Domain

LOKEN, Circuit Judge,
dissenting.
In my view, timing is the critical issue in this case. Darrell Jenkins filed his application for disability benefits in March 1995, alleging a disability onset date of January 1, 1995. The hearing was held in August 1996, and the ALJ issued his adverse decision in late September. Mr. Jenkins first saw Dr. Janet Schwartzen-berg in November 1996. Thus, she was not his treating physician during the time in question. Her reports, which weré submitted to the Commissioner’s Appeals Council in March, April, and May of 1997, did not state whether, in her opinion, the physical impairments, complaints of pain, and work limitations that she observed existed at their current level of severity at the alleged onset date, or on the date of Mr. Jenkins’s hearing. Thus, I agree with the district court that Dr. Schwart-zenberg’s reports did not undermine the substantial evidence in the administrative record supporting the ALJ’s adverse determination. It may well be that Mr. Jenkins was disabled when Dr. Schwartzen-berg treated him. But that is grounds for a new disability application, not for reversing a decision by the Commissioner that is supported by substantial evidence on the administrative record as a whole. For these reasons, I respectfully dissent.