Johnson v. Chater

• Decision Date: 17 March 1997
• Docket Number: No. 96-2210MN,96-2210MN
• Citation: 108 F.3d 942
• Parties: , 46 Fed. R. Evid. Serv. 823, Unempl.Ins.Rep. (CCH) P 15691B Robert L. JOHNSON, Plaintiff-Appellant, v. Shirley S. CHATER, Commissioner of the Social Security Administration, Defendant-Appellee.
• Court: U.S. Court of Appeals — Eighth Circuit

Page 942

108 F.3d 942

52 Soc.Sec.Rep.Ser. 820, 46 Fed. R. Evid. Serv. 823,

Unempl.Ins.Rep. (CCH) P 15691B

Robert L. JOHNSON, Plaintiff-Appellant, v. Shirley S. CHATER, Commissioner of the Social Security Administration, Defendant-Appellee.

No. 96-2210MN.

United States Court of Appeals Eighth Circuit.

Submitted Dec. 13, 1996.

Decided March 17, 1997.

Todd W. Foss, Assistant Regional Counsel, argued, Moorhead, MN, for plaintiff-appellant.

Julie Anne Flanagan, Assistant Regional Counsel, argued, for defendant-appellee.

Before McMILLIAN and MAGILL, Circuit Judges, and WEBBER, ¹ District Judge.

WEBBER, District Judge.

Robert L. Johnson appeals from the district court's ² final judgment, affirming the Social Security Administration decision denying disability insurance benefits, and from the district court's order denying Johnson's motion to amend the final judgment. We affirm.

I.

Johnson applied for disability insurance benefits on March 4, 1992. His application was denied initially and upon reconsideration. He then requested a hearing before an administrative law judge (ALJ). At the time of his hearing on September 23, 1993, Robert L. Johnson was a 53-year old man with a 9th-grade education, no vocational training and an employment history reflecting only unskilled jobs. He had been employed as a truck driver and electrician's helper from 1967 to 1991. He had engaged in no income producing work activity since December, 1991. His marketable skills have been compromised by a series of disabling injuries. In 1962, he suffered a back injury when a boom, forty feet in length fell on his head and back, and thereafter his ability to lift was gradually restricted. He received a shoulder injury in a motorcycle accident in 1991, and lost an eye in an air compressor incident in 1992, which has impaired his depth perception. These separate injuries have cumulatively restricted his activities. Johnson has complained of repetitive severe back pain which radiates into his left leg and for which he takes Advil. After the hearing, the ALJ found that Johnson was not under a "disability," as defined in the Social Security Act, and was not entitled to disability insurance benefits.

After Johnson's request for review by the Appeals Council of the Social Security Administration was denied, Johnson brought this action in United States District Court for the District of Minnesota, seeking review of the ALJ's decision, which became the final decision of the Secretary of Health and Human Services (Secretary) pursuant to 42 U.S.C. § 405(g). See Browning v. Sullivan, 958 F.2d 817, 822 (8th Cir.1992). On December 8, 1995, the district court granted the Secretary's motion for summary judgment, affirming the Secretary's decision to deny benefits. On December 18, 1995, Johnson moved to alter or amend the judgment pursuant to Rule 59(e) of the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure. On April 10, 1996, the district court denied this motion, and Johnson timely appealed.

This Court's review is limited to whether the decision of the Secretary to deny disability benefits is supported by substantial evidence on the record as a whole. Lorenzen v. Chater, 71 F.3d 316, 318 (8th Cir.1995). Substantial evidence is less than a preponderance, but enough so that a reasonable mind might accept it as adequate to support a conclusion. Pickney v. Chater, 96 F.3d 294, 296 (8th Cir.1996). We must consider both evidence that supports and evidence that detracts from the Secretary's decision, but the denial of benefits shall not be overturned even if there is enough evidence in the record to support a contrary decision. Johnson v. Chater, 87 F.3d 1015, 1017 (8th Cir.1996) (citing Woolf v. Shalala, 3 F.3d 1210, 1213 (8th Cir.1993)). To determine whether the Secretary's final decision is supported by substantial evidence, the court is required to review the administrative record as a whole and to consider:

1. The credibility findings made by the ALJ.

2. The plaintiff's vocational factors.

3. The medical evidence from treating and consulting physicians.

4. The plaintiff's subjective complaints relating to exertional and non-exertional activities and impairments.

5. Any corroboration by third parties of the plaintiff's impairments.

6. The testimony of vocational experts when required which is based upon a proper hypothetical question which sets forth the claimant's impairment.

Cruse v. Bowen, 867 F.2d 1183, 1184-85 (8th Cir.1989) (quoting Brand v. Secretary of HEW, 623 F.2d 523, 527 (8th Cir.1980)).

The ALJ conducted the five-step sequential evaluation process outlined in the regulations of the Social Security Administration at 20 C.F.R. § 404.1520 and 20 C.F.R. § 416.920 for the evaluation of Johnson's disability. The ALJ found that Johnson had not engaged in substantial gainful activity since the alleged onset of his disability on September 2, 1991; that Johnson suffered from severe impairments in the form of a disc herniation at the L4-5 vertebrae, a distal supraspinatus tendon tear at his left shoulder, and a prosthetic implant right eye; that his impairments, while severe, did not, either individually or in combination, meet or medically equal the level of severity of any impairment listed in 20 C.F.R. Pt. 404, Subpt. P, App. 1; and that Johnson was unable to perform his past relevant work as a truck driver or electrician's helper. In evaluating the fifth step, the ALJ found that there were a significant number of jobs in the category of sedentary or light work in the national and regional economies which Johnson could perform, and therefore, he was not disabled under the Social Security Act.

II.

Johnson first challenges the ALJ's findings as to the fifth step, asserting that there is no substantial evidence to support the ALJ's finding that Johnson was capable of performing light work. Johnson asserts he is limited to only sedentary work, cannot perform light work, and therefore, under the Social Security guidelines, is disabled and entitled to disability benefits.

Under the relevant guidelines, a finding that Johnson can only perform sedentary work means that he is disabled. 20 C.F.R. Pt. 404, Subpt. P, App. 2, Rule 201.10. If Johnson can perform light work, he is not disabled. Id. at Rule 202.10. Under the guidelines, the functional capacity to perform a full range of light work includes the functional capacity to perform sedentary as well as light work. Light work is defined as

lifting no more than 20 pounds at a time with frequent lifting or carrying of objects weighing up to 10 pounds. Even though the weight lifted may be very little, a job is in this category when it requires a good deal of walking or standing, or when it involves sitting most of the time with some pushing and pulling of arm or leg controls. To be considered capable of performing a full or wide range of light work, you must have the ability to do substantially all of these activities. If someone can do light work, we determine that he or she can also do sedentary work, unless there are additional limiting factors such as loss of fine dexterity or inability to sit for long periods of time.

20 C.F.R. § 404.1567(b). At the administrative hearing, the vocational expert testified that the hypothetical claimant with Johnson's limitations, including the capacity to lift fifteen to twenty pounds, could perform a range of jobs from sedentary to light work, but that if the hypothetical claimant could lift only ten to fifteen pounds, he could perform only sedentary work.

After reviewing the medical evidence and Johnson's testimony, and making certain credibility findings, the ALJ concluded that Johnson possessed the overall physical functional capacity for sedentary to light exertional work. The ALJ found that Johnson could sit for forty-five minutes at a time and for four to five hours in an eight-hour workday, could stand for forty-five minutes at a time and for four hours in an eight-hour workday, and could walk for thirty minutes at one time or for two hours in an eight-hour workday. The ALJ found Johnson could occasionally bend and stoop for daily activities, squat, crawl, climb heights, crouch, kneel and balance, and frequently reach above shoulder level with his right arm. The ALJ found that Johnson could not use his left arm for any activities requiring reaching at or above shoulder level. The ALJ further found that Johnson could perform repetitive movement with his right but not his left leg, could use his hands for repetitive action such as simple grasping, firm grasping, and fine manipulating, but could not engage in push/pull activities with his upper extremities. The ALJ found that, although Johnson's residual functional capacity assessment indicated that Johnson could only lift or carry up to ten pounds on an occasional basis, Johnson in fact had the capacity to lift up to fifteen to twenty pounds, based on Johnson's own admissions at the administrative hearing. The ALJ further found that Johnson's vision impairment limited his ability to perform those sedentary or light exertional jobs which required depth perception and binocularity, but that Johnson's pain and other subjective complaints did not limit his capacity for sedentary or light exertional work.

On appeal, Johnson challenges the ALJ's finding that he could lift up to fifteen to twenty pounds on the ground that this conclusion is not supported by substantial evidence in the record as a whole. At the hearing, in response to questioning from the ALJ, Johnson testified that the heaviest amount of weight he could lift occasionally during the day was a two-gallon gas can that he used for filling his lawn mower. Johnson and the ALJ agreed that, assuming a gallon of liquid weighed eight pounds, Johnson lifted in the area of fifteen to twenty pounds. Johnson argues that the ALJ's conclusion was in error. He now asserts that a gallon of gasoline, according to the Minnesota Department of Public Service Weights and...