Indoranto v. Barnhart

• Decision Date: 29 June 2004
• Docket Number: No. 03-3309.,03-3309.
• Citation: Indoranto v. Barnhart, 374 F.3d 470 (7th Cir. 2004)
• Parties: Kim M. INDORANTO, Plaintiff-Appellant, v. Jo Anne B. BARNHART, Commissioner of Social Security, Defendant-Appellee.
• Court: U.S. Court of Appeals — Seventh Circuit

374 F.3d 470

Kim M. INDORANTO, Plaintiff-Appellant, v. Jo Anne B. BARNHART, Commissioner of Social Security, Defendant-Appellee.

No. 03-3309.

United States Court of Appeals, Seventh Circuit.

Argued February 19, 2004.

Decided June 29, 2004.

COPYRIGHT MATERIAL OMITTED

Frederick J. Daley, Stephen A. Jackson (argued), Daley, Debofsky & Bryant, Chicago, IL, for Plaintiff-Appellant.

Mona Ahmed (argued), Social Security Administration, Office of the General Counsel, Chicago, IL, for Defendant-Appellee.

Before CUDAHY, POSNER and ROVNER, Circuit Judges.

ILANA DIAMOND ROVNER, Circuit Judge.

Kim Indoranto, a former home care nurse, injured her back and neck in an automobile accident. She applied for disability insurance benefits. An administrative law judge ("ALJ") denied her application, determining that although she had a severe impairment, she retained the residual functional capacity to do sedentary work. The district court affirmed the agency's determination, and Indoranto appeals. We reverse and remand for further proceedings.

In October 1998, Indoranto, then 32 years old, was driving to a patient's home when another motorist struck her car from behind. A few days after the accident she visited her physician, complaining of constant headaches, dull pain in both ears and at the top and back of her head, pain in her back and down her shoulders, and a warm sensation in her leg and foot. The doctor diagnosed her with cervical strain and a cerebral concussion. Over the course of several months she saw other doctors who diagnosed her with a variety of ailments, including herniated discs; straightening of the cervical spine; a bone spur; a disease of the spinal cord and nerve roots; and a previously undetected congenital brain stem abnormality called Arnold-Chiari malformation, in which the cerebellum protrudes into the spinal canal. She continued to experience severe pain in her neck and back, muscle spasms, headaches, and blurred vision. She received a variety of treatments including pain medications, massages, physical therapy, steroid injections, and ultimately surgery. At the advice of her doctors she stopped working and was also prescribed a handicap sticker for her car. She was later evaluated by a psychologist, who diagnosed her with depression. Doctors also became concerned about her heavy use of pain medication.

Indoranto applied for disability insurance benefits, alleging that she became disabled in January 1999, the date doctors advised her to stop working. At a hearing before an ALJ, Indoranto testified that she had experienced only minimal improvement as a result of her surgery, and that she continued to suffer from muscle spasms, pain in her neck and back, difficulties in concentrating, severe headaches, and blurred vision. She also testified that her daily activities had been dramatically curtailed because of her impairments: her pain required her to change positions from sitting to standing or lying down every 15 to 30 minutes; she could no longer do household chores except for occasional cooking; she rarely left the house or drove; she could walk a block or two at the most before losing her balance and falling; and she could stand for only 10-15 minutes, sit for half an hour, and lift up to 10-15 pounds before feeling discomfort.

The ALJ called on a vocational expert ("VE") to testify about the work abilities of a hypothetical person of Indoranto's age, education-level, work experience, and physical condition. Specifically, the ALJ asked the VE a series of five questions about a person who was limited in lifting, twisting, bending, and also required a position with low levels of concentration due to the effects of pain and medication. The VE testified that for someone with these work restrictions, there were 3,500 cashier jobs, 3,500 handpacker jobs, and 3,000 mechanical assembler jobs available in the region.

The ALJ subsequently issued a written decision denying Indoranto's claim for benefits. Based on the VE's testimony, the ALJ concluded that although Indoranto could not perform her past relevant work, she retained the ability to perform certain sedentary jobs, including approximately 10,000 jobs that existed in the Chicago metropolitan area. He did not find her complaints of pain fully credible, disbelieving in particular Indoranto's testimony that her pain required her to lie down and take up to three hot baths during the day. The Appeals Council denied Indoranto's appeal. The district court concluded that the ALJ's decision was supported by substantial evidence and affirmed the agency's determination in all respects. This appeal followed.

Where, as here, the Appeals Council denies review, the ALJ's determination becomes the agency's final decision. 20 C.F.R. § 404.981. We will affirm the agency's decision if it is supported by substantial evidence. 42 U.S.C. § 405(g); Kasarsky v. Barnhart, 335 F.3d 539, 543 (7th Cir.2003). Evidence is considered substantial if a reasonable person would accept it as adequate to support a conclusion. Young v. Barnhart, 362 F.3d 995, 1001 (7th Cir.2004).

We turn first to Indoranto's strongest argument — that the ALJ failed to consider all her impairments in concluding that she could still perform sedentary work. Indoranto asserts that the ALJ's questions to the VE did not incorporate the limitations imposed by her daily headaches and blurred vision, and that, contrary to the ALJ's conclusion, her combined impairments prevent her from performing the jobs suggested by the expert. The Commissioner counters that Indoranto improperly relies on medical evidence submitted for the first time to the Appeals Council. Although the...