Flack v. Cohen, 13177.

• Decision Date: 14 July 1969
• Docket Number: No. 13177.,13177.
• Parties: Mary F. FLACK, Appellant, v. Wilbur J. COHEN, Secretary of Health, Education and Welfare, Appellee.
• Court: U.S. Court of Appeals — Fourth Circuit

413 F.2d 278 (1969)

Mary F. FLACK, Appellant, v. Wilbur J. COHEN, Secretary of Health, Education and Welfare, Appellee.

No. 13177.

United States Court of Appeals Fourth Circuit.

Argued May 9, 1969.

Decided July 14, 1969.

J. Nat Hamrick, Rutherfordton, N. C. (J. A. Benoy, Cary, N. C., and Hamrick & Hamrick, Rutherfordton, N. C., on the brief), for appellant.

Robert M. Heier, Atty., Department of Justice (William D. Ruckelshaus, Asst. Atty. Gen., and Morton Hollander, Atty., Department of Justice, and William Medford, U. S. Atty., on the brief), for appellee.

Before SOBELOFF, CRAVEN and BUTZNER, Circuit Judges.

SOBELOFF, Circuit Judge:

This is an action brought by Mary Flack to review the Secretary's decision denying her disability benefits under the Social Security Act, 42 U.S.C. §§ 416(i) and 423(a). Upon concluding that the administrative decision was supported by substantial evidence, the District Court granted the Secretary's motion for summary judgment. We affirm.

It is undisputed that since September 30, 1955 the claimant has not satisfied the special earnings requirement of the Act. Therefore she is not entitled to benefits unless she can establish that she was disabled on or before that date. James v. Gardner, 384 F.2d 784 (4 Cir. 1967). She spells out her claim by asserting that she became disabled in May, 1950 by reason of rheumatoid arthritis which rendered her unable to continue her vocation as a beautician or otherwise "engage in any substantial gainful activity."

It is elementary that the Secretary's findings must be accepted if they are supported by substantial evidence. Laws v. Celebrezze, 368 F.2d 640 (4 Cir. 1966). It is equally clear that the reviewing court may not try the case de novo and substitute its own findings for those of the Secretary. Hicks v. Gardner, 393 F.2d 299 (4 Cir. 1968). From this it does not follow, however, that the findings of the administrative agency are to be mechanically accepted. The statutorily granted right of review contemplates more than an uncritical rubber stamping of the administrative action. The guiding standard was well expressed in the landmark case of Universal Camera Corp. v. NLRB, 340 U.S. 474, 490, 71 S.Ct. 456, 95 L.Ed. 456, 466 (1951). There the Court was discussing the substantial evidence test as it applies to review of decisions of the NLRB. However, the applicable rule is the same in the present context. Justice Frankfurter declared:

"* * * Courts must now assume more responsibility for the reasonableness and fairness of administrative decisions than some courts have shown in the past. Reviewing courts must be influenced by a feeling that they are not to abdicate the conventional judicial function. Congress has imposed on them responsibility for assuring that the Board agency keeps within reasonable grounds. That responsibility is not less real because it is limited to enforcing the requirement that evidence appear substantial when viewed, on the record as a whole, by courts invested with the authority and enjoying the prestige of the Courts of Appeals. The Board\'s agency\'s findings are

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