Court Opinion

ID: 9780976
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-30 15:01:19.873127+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T12:09:23.251793
License: Public Domain

USCA11 Case: 22-13102    Document: 24-1     Date Filed: 08/30/2023   Page: 1 of 9

                                                  [DO NOT PUBLISH]
                                   In the
                United States Court of Appeals
                        For the Eleventh Circuit

                          ____________________

                                No. 22-13102
                          Non-Argument Calendar
                          ____________________

       CATHERINE M. HUNTER,
                                                     Plaintiﬀ-Appellant,
       versus
       COMMISSIONER OF SOCIAL SECURITY,

                                                   Defendant-Appellee.

                          ____________________

                 Appeal from the United States District Court
                      for the Middle District of Florida
                   D.C. Docket No. 5:21-cv-00406-TJC-LLL
                          ____________________
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       2                       Opinion of the Court                  22-13102

       Before ROSENBAUM, NEWSOM, and GRANT, Circuit Judges.
       PER CURIAM:
              Catherine Hunter appeals the district court’s dismissal of her
       complaint against the Commissioner of Social Security. See 42
       U.S.C. 405(g). After the agency denied Hunter’s claim for disability
       benefits, she discovered that certain medical records from her pri-
       mary-care physician had not been included in the administrative
       record, and she asked the agency to make a new determination on
       her claim in light of the new evidence. In response, an administra-
       tive law judge (“ALJ”) issued a new partially favorable decision
       finding that Hunter had established a closed period of disability.
       But the Appeals Council sua sponte vacated the ALJ’s decision and
       denied Hunter relief, stating that the original adverse decision was
       “administratively final” and could not be reopened.
               Hunter requested judicial review of these decisions in the
       district court, which dismissed the complaint with prejudice as
       barred by claim preclusion. We don’t reach that conclusion be-
       cause the agency’s refusal to reopen Hunter’s disability claim is not
       subject to judicial review under 42 U.S.C. § 405(g). Accordingly,
       we must vacate and remand with instructions to dismiss Hunter’s
       complaint for lack of subject-matter jurisdiction.
                                          I.
              In April 2010, Hunter applied for a period of disability and
       disability-insurance benefits, alleging a disability onset date of April
       21, 2007. An ALJ held a hearing and then issued an adverse decision
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       22-13102                   Opinion of the Court                                  3

       in 2012, finding that Hunter was not under a disability from her
       alleged onset date through December 31, 2007, the date Hunter
       was last insured under the Social Security Act. The Appeals Coun-
       cil denied review.
               Hunter sought judicial review, and, ultimately, we affirmed
       the agency’s decision in June 2016. After rejecting Hunter’s various
       arguments on appeal, we concluded that the “decision finding that
       Hunter was not under a disability from the disability onset date
       through the date last insured was supported by substantial evi-
       dence and was based on proper legal standards.” Hunter v. Comm’r
       of Soc. Sec., 651 F. App’x 958, 962 (11th Cir. 2016).
              In late 2015, while the appeal was pending, Hunter filed a
       motion to supplement the record on appeal with additional medi-
       cal records from her primary-care physician, Dr. Robert Corbett,
       dated between 2005 and 2008. Hunter said she had recently discov-
       ered that these records, which were material to her disability claim,
       had not been included in the administrative record or previously
       considered by the agency. The motion was denied. 1
               In 2017, after our decision on appeal, Hunter filed a new dis-
       ability application and asked the agency to reopen her prior disabil-
       ity claim because of “new and material evidence,” namely, Dr. Cor-
       bett’s medical records. In January 2020, an ALJ found that the 2012
       ALJ decision was “res judicata with respect to the most current

       1 See Wilson v. Apfel, 179 F.3d 1276, 1278 (11th Cir. 1999) (stating that reviewing

       courts are limited to the record considered by the agency).
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       4                      Opinion of the Court                 22-13102

       claim” and that he had “no jurisdiction” to reopen the prior deci-
       sion. The Appeals Council granted Hunter’s request for review
       and sent the case back to the ALJ for further proceedings on
       Hunter’s claim, stating that res judicata did not apply because
       Hunter alleged new mental impairments.
               In January 2021, following a hearing, the ALJ issued a par-
       tially favorable decision finding that Hunter was entitled to a closed
       period of disability from April 21, 2007, through January 11, 2010.
       Two months later, though, the Appeals Council notified Hunter
       that it would be exercising its sua sponte authority to correct legal
       errors in the ALJ’s decision and entering its own decision that she
       was not entitled to disability benefits.
              Then, in June 2021, the Appeals Council vacated the 2021
       ALJ decision and issued its own adverse decision finding that
       Hunter was not disabled. In the view of the Appeals Council, the
       2021 ALJ decision erroneously “found the claimant disabled during
       a period when the [agency] had already found the claimant not dis-
       abled”—from April 2007 to December 2007. That prior “unfavor-
       able determination[]” was binding, the Appeals Council stated, be-
       cause Hunter failed to seek reopening of the original decision
       within the time limits provided in agency regulations, and she did
       not allege fraud or similar fault. See 20 C.F.R. § 404.988 (“Condi-
       tions for reopening.”). Accordingly, the Appeals Council con-
       cluded that “the prior unfavorable decision from May 10, 2012, was
       administratively final for the applicable time period and requires an
       unfavorable decision.”
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       22-13102               Opinion of the Court                          5

              Hunter again turned to the federal courts for review. Based
       on the recommendation of a magistrate judge, the district court
       dismissed Hunter’s complaint as barred by “federal res judicata prin-
       ciples” in light of our affirmance of the 2012 ALJ decision denying
       her disability claim. The court declined to consider “the issue of
       administrative finality.” Hunter now appeals.
                                         II.
               After briefing concluded, we asked the parties to address the
       district court’s subject-matter jurisdiction. See Univ. of S. Alabama
       v. Am. Tobacco Co., 168 F.3d 405, 409 (11th Cir. 1999) (“[I]t is well
       settled that a federal court is obligated to inquire into subject mat-
       ter jurisdiction sua sponte whenever it may be lacking.”). In partic-
       ular, we requested and received briefing on whether the “refusal to
       reopen [Hunter’s] prior application for benefits is subject to judicial
       review under 42 U.S.C. § 405(g).” We review that issue de novo.
       Sherrod v. Chater, 74 F.3d 243, 245 (11th Cir. 1996).
              Judicial review of disability claims is “limited by the Social
       Security Act,” which provides jurisdiction “only over the ‘final de-
       cision of the Commissioner of Social Security.’” Cash v. Barnhart,
       327 F.3d 1252, 1256 (11th Cir. 2003) (quoting 42 U.S.C. § 405(g)).
       In general, “district courts do not have jurisdiction over the Com-
       missioner’s refusal to reopen a claim,” since a refusal to reopen is
       not considered to be “a ‘final decision’ within the meaning of §
       405(g).” Id.; see Califano v. Sanders, 430 U.S. 99, 107–09 (1977).
              Nevertheless, the Commissioner’s denial of a motion to re-
       open is subject to judicial review” in two narrow circumstances: (1)
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       6                       Opinion of the Court                  22-13102

       “the merits of the closed disability application are actually reex-
       amined”; or (2) “the claimant presents a colorable constitutional
       claim.” Hall v. Bowen, 840 F.2d 777, 778 (11th Cir. 1987); see also
       Wolfe v. Chater, 86 F.3d 1072, 1078 (11th Cir. 1996).
              In applying the first exception, “our aim [has been] to de-
       mand compliance with the Secretary’s regulations on reopening.”
       Passopulos v. Sullivan, 976 F.2d 642, 647 (11th Cir. 1992). Thus, we
       have exercised jurisdiction where ALJs “disregard[ed] the regula-
       tions and declare[d] that a reopening ha[d] not occurred when a
       reopening ha[d], in fact, occurred.” Id. To determine if a reopen-
       ing occurred, “we must look to what the ALJ and the Appeals
       Council did,” since jurisdiction exists “to review only the Commis-
       sioner’s final decision.” Cash, 327 F.3d at 1257. If a decision is reo-
       pened, “we have jurisdiction to review the prior decision to the ex-
       tent that it has been reopened.” Wolfe, 86 F.3d at 1079.
               As to the second exception, we have stated that, ordinarily,
       “[a] constitutional claim relating to the first [disability] application
       is insufficient to confer subject matter jurisdiction.” Cherry v. Heck-
       ler, 760 F.2d 1186, 1190 n.4 (11th Cir. 1985). Rather, “the constitu-
       tional issue must concern the proceeding at which the decision not
       to reopen was made.” Id. Nevertheless, we have recognized a col-
       orable constitutional claim where a claimant alleged that his men-
       tal impairments, “coupled with his pro se status, prevented him
       from proceeding from one administrative level to another in a
       timely fashion” on the original claim. Sherrod, 74 F.3d at 246
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       22-13102               Opinion of the Court                         7

       (describing the holding of Elchediak v. Heckler, 750 F.2d 892, 895
       (11th Cir. 1985)).
              Here, the Commissioner’s June 2021 decision denying
       Hunter’s request to reopen or revive her disability claim is not sub-
       ject to judicial review under § 405(g). We ordinarily lack jurisdic-
       tion over such a refusal to reopen. See Cash, 327 F.3d at 1256. And
       our review of the record in this case does not support the applica-
       tion of either exception to that general rule.
              First, the record does not show that the Commissioner “ac-
       tually reexamined” the merits of the closed disability application in
       a way that matters for our jurisdiction. See Hall, 840 F.2d at 778.
       The agency, to be sure, did more than simply deny reopening. Af-
       ter an ALJ in 2020 determined that the original denial of Hunter’s
       claim was final and could not be reopened, the Appeals Council
       stepped in and ordered further proceedings on Hunter’s mental im-
       pairments, resulting in an ALJ’s partially favorable decision in 2021.
       But then the Appeals Council seemingly reversed itself several
       months later, vacating the 2021 ALJ decision and echoing the rea-
       soning and conclusions of the 2020 ALJ decision.
              Although Hunter may have reason to feel disappointed, we
       cannot say that these events affect the jurisdictional issue. For
       starters, this is not a case where a claimant was adversely affected
       by reopening in “disregard [of] the regulations.” Passopulos, 976
       F.2d at 647. Any reopening that occurred here was in Hunter’s fa-
       vor. And neither the Appeals Council nor an ALJ ever found that
       Hunter met the ordinary conditions for reopening, as specified in
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       8                      Opinion of the Court                  22-13102

       the regulations. See id. (describing the “aim” as “demand[ing] com-
       pliance with the . . . regulations on reopening”); 20 C.F.R. § 404.988
       (“Conditions for reopening.”).
              More importantly, despite the misfires along the way, the
       agency’s final decision on reopening, by the Appeals Council in
       June 2021, was a square and straightforward denial that reaffirmed
       the finality of the original 2012 ALJ decision. So while we “must
       look to what the ALJ[s] and the Appeals Council did” with respect
       to Hunter’s request to reopen, Cash, 327 F.3d at 1257, ultimately
       nothing has changed about the agency’s adjudication of Hunter’s
       disability claim. Accordingly, the exception for de facto reopening
       does not apply.
              Second, Hunter has not raised a colorable constitutional
       claim. Hunter asserts that she was denied due process during the
       original proceeding on her disability claim because of her counsel’s
       alleged ineffectiveness and the agency’s failure to compile her com-
       plete medical history for the relevant period.
               But“[a] constitutional claim relating to the first [disability]
       application is insufficient to confer subject matter jurisdiction.”
       Cherry, 760 F.2d at 1190 n.4. And Hunter does not identify any spe-
       cific issue “concern[ing] the proceeding at which the decision not
       to reopen was made,” which we would have jurisdiction to review.
       Id. Nor does Hunter present a colorable claim based on Elchediak,
       since she was represented by counsel during the administrative and
       district-court proceedings on her original application. See Sherrod,
       74 F.3d at 246 (concluding a constitutional claim based on Elchediak
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       22-13102              Opinion of the Court                      9

       failed where the claimant was “assisted by legal counsel who un-
       derstands the administrative process”).
              For these reasons, we must conclude that the federal courts
       lack jurisdiction under § 405(g) to review the Commissioner’s de-
       nial of reopening in this case. We therefore vacate the district
       court’s order dismissing Hunter’s complaint with prejudice as
       barred by claim preclusion, and we remand with instructions to
       dismiss the case for lack of subject-matter jurisdiction.
             VACATED and REMANDED, with instructions.