Lewis v. Weinberger, 75-1451

• Decision Date: 07 July 1975
• Docket Number: No. 75-1451,75-1451
• Citation: 515 F.2d 584
• Parties: Howell G. LEWIS, Plaintiff-Appellant, v. Caspar W. WEINBERGER, as Secretary of Health, Education and Welfare, Defendant-Appellee. Summary Calendar. *
• Court: U.S. Court of Appeals — Fifth Circuit

Page 584

515 F.2d 584

Howell G. LEWIS, Plaintiff-Appellant, v. Caspar W. WEINBERGER, as Secretary of Health, Education and Welfare, Defendant-Appellee.

No. 75-1451

Summary Calendar. ^*

United States Court of Appeals Fifth Circuit.

July 7, 1975.

W. Dexter Douglass, Tallahassee, Fla., for plaintiff-appellant.

Clinton Ashmore, William Stafford, Asst. U. S. Attys., Pensacola, Fla., for defendant-appellee.

Appeal from the United States District Court for the Northern District of Florida.

Before THORNBERRY, MORGAN and RONEY, Circuit Judges.

THORNBERRY, Circuit Judge:

Howell G. Lewis filed suit in district court under § 205(g) of the Social Security Act, 42 U.S.C. § 405(g) to obtain review of the Secretary's decision denying him disability benefits for any period after March 1973. Lewis's only contention was that the administrative determination lacked substantial support in the evidence. Both parties moved for summary judgment based upon the record developed before the Administrative Law Judge and the Appeals Council. The district judge granted the Secretary's motion because he found "sufficient substantial evidence" supporting the decision to deny benefits. We are unable to agree with this finding and therefore vacate and remand.

On September 9, 1971 appellant sustained a right frontal depressed skull fracture when accidentally struck on the head by a metal pipe protruding from a moving vehicle. At the time of his injury Lewis was employed at Florida State University (FSU) as superintendent of maintenance and repair, which required him to assign and inspect the work of approximately seventy-five employees. Appellant was hospitalized for nearly two weeks after the accident, and during that time his doctor performed a right frontotemporal craniectomy. Following that surgery and appropriate treatment and medication, he was deemed ready for discharge from the hospital. Nevertheless, his post-hospitalization recovery did not go well, and he has never returned to work. Since his injury he has reported seizures, severe headaches, dizziness, slurred speech and an inability to concentrate. During 1972 he was rehospitalized twice because of conditions related to his injury, and during that year the various doctors who examined him agreed that despite their inability to point to a specific physical cause for his malaise appellant's capacity for work had been considerably reduced by a "definite post injury syndrome pattern." By early 1973, however, Lewis's main complaint seemed to be recurrent headaches, and his doctors began recommending that he attempt to do some light work or other physical activity. In May 1973 a consulting psychiatrist diagnosed appellant's condition as post-traumatic neurosis manifested by depression, headaches, weakness, easy fatigueability, impotence, poor sleep, and increased dependency on his wife. The psychiatrist also recommended that Lewis engage in more physical activity and gradually return to light work. A medical examination in June 1973 summed up appellant's ailments as: "1. Status post brain injury with some residual. 2. Hypertension probably essential. 3. Gout exacerbated by Hygroten. 4. Asthma." By August 1973 two doctors expressed the opinion in a report to the Florida Retirement System that appellant was totally and permanently incapacitated for further employment. ¹ The Secretary's final decision allowed Lewis disability benefits only for the period beginning on September 9, 1971 and continuing through March 1973 because the Administrative Law Judge found that "by January 1973 the claimant was fit to perform some light work duty of a type consistent with his age, educational level, and background . . . In effect, the claimant's 'disability' is found to have ended with the month of January 1973."

"Disability" is defined in the Act as the

inability to engage in any substantial gainful activity by reason of any medically determinable physical or mental impairment which can be expected to result in death or which has lasted or can be expected to last for a continuous period of not less than 12 months . . . .

§ 223(d)(1)(A), 42 U.S.C. § 423(d)(1)(A). The Act further provides that:

an individual . . . shall be determined to be under a disability only if his physical or mental impairment or impairments are of such severity that he is not only unable to do his previous work but cannot, considering his age, education, and work experience, engage in any other kind of substantial gainful work which exists in the national economy, regardless of whether such work exists in the immediate area in which he lives, or whether a specific job vacancy exists for him, or whether he would be hired if he applied for work.

§ 223(d)(2)(A), 42 U.S.C. § 423(d)(2)(A). Finally, the burden rests on the claimant to produce sufficient evidence, medical and otherwise, to establish his disability. § 223(d)(5), 42 U.S.C. § 423(d)(5). As a matter of course the Secretary's disposition of disability claims is final. The Act does provide for a limited measure of judicial review, § 205(g), 42 U.S.C. § 405(g), but the role of the courts in this quintessentially administrative process is extremely narrow:

We do not re-weigh the evidence; we simply determine whether there is "such relevant evidence as a reasonable mind might accept as adequate to support a conclusion." Richardson v. Perales, 1970, 402 U.S. 389, 401, 91 S.Ct. 1420, 1427, 28 L.Ed.2d 842. . . . (D)eterminations which are not supported by substantial evidence are unusual, even rare.

Gaultney v. Weinberger, 5 Cir. 1974, 505 F.2d 943, 945. Nonetheless, this does not mean that "we have abdicated our traditional judicial function of scrutinizing the record as a whole to determine the reasonableness of the decision reached." Williams v. Finch, 5 Cir. 1971, 440 F.2d 613, 615.

The evidence presented to the Secretary was overwhelming and undisputed that appellant's impairments prevented his return to his former job. ² The Administrative Law Judge plainly recognized the force of the evidence and thus found only that Lewis was "fit to perform some light work duty of a type consistent with his age, educational level, and background." Appellant's inability to perform his usual job injects a significant new element into the proceedings, however, for once a claimant succeeds in establishing that fact the burden shifts to the Secretary to show that there is some other kind of "substantial gainful work" that the claimant is able to perform. DePaepe v. Richardson, 5 Cir. 1972, 464 F.2d 92, 100-01; Jackson v. Richardson, 5 Cir. 1971, 449 F.2d 1326, 1330; Stark v. Weinberger, 7...