Miller v. Celebrezze

• Decision Date: 12 October 1962
• Docket Number: No. 561.,561.
• Parties: Steve E. MILLER, Plaintiff, v. Anthony J. CELEBREZZE, Secretary of Health, Education and Welfare, Defendant.
• Court: U.S. District Court — Eastern District of Kentucky

209 F. Supp. 511

Steve E. MILLER, Plaintiff, v. Anthony J. CELEBREZZE, Secretary of Health, Education and Welfare, Defendant.

No. 561.

United States District Court E. D. Kentucky, Catlettsburg Division.

October 12, 1962.

Bernard T. Moynahan, Jr., U. S. Atty., William A. Watson Asst. U. S. Atty., Lexington, Ky., for plaintiff.

Jack R. Kibbey, Vanceburg, Ky., for defendant.

SWINFORD, District Judge.

This is an action under this court's jurisdiction by virtue of section 205(g) of the Social Security Act (42 U.S.C.A. § 405(g)) to review a determination of the Secretary of Health, Education and Welfare that the plaintiff is not eligible to draw disability benefits under section 223 of the Act (42 U.S.C.A. § 423). The only concern with this case is to see whether the findings of the Secretary are supported by substantial evidence.

Plaintiff was born in 1928 and has substantially an eighth grade education. He is married and has three small children. His job experience is confined entirely to hard manual labor, coal mining, moving bricks in a wheel barrow and shovel work at a gunpowder factory, to cite a few examples. One day in January 1960 plaintiff was at work in a coal mine when he and several of his coworkers were trapped and crushed in a slate fall. One of the men was killed and plaintiff was knocked unconscious and suffered injuries in his right leg and right arm. The upper arm bone was broken and it was eventually necessary to amputate the third, fourth and fifth fingers of the right hand. It appears that the right ankle was severely crushed.

The residual effects of these injuries are what make the present controversy. The right hand is practically useless, the thumb functions as before but the remaining finger, either due to the injury itself or to the removal of the other fingers cannot be fully extended or fully closed. Plaintiff testified that he cannot grip anything with this hand, the forearm has atrophied to the extent of three quarters of an inch and there is medical testimony that exercise therapy will not be effective because of the missing fingers. The joints in the hand from which the fingers were severed have become deformed and sensitive to touch. The elbow cannot be fully extended. The right leg has atrophied one inch both above and below the knee. There is stiffness and soreness on passive motion of the ankle, limitation of flexion, and tenderness on pressure at the ankle joint. The limitation in flexion causes what is known as a drop-toe or drag in walking. He cannot raise himself on his right toes making it awkward to walk on uneven surfaces.

The prospects for recovery are poor. As already noted, the arm cannot be exercised adequately because of the missing fingers and the atrophy is expected to progress upward into the shoulders. Surgery in the ankle has been suggested but with very little promise of achieving results in proportion to the cost.

Since the accident, plaintiff has done no work but he has looked for a job he could do in various garages in his locality, at a meat packing plant and on a farm operated by his wife's father. He has applied for vocational rehabilitation but was turned down because he did poorly on an aptitude test.

This court has many times deferred to the special competence of the Social Security Administration for deciding borderline disability cases. See e. g. Littleton v. Ribicoff, D.C.E.D.Ky., 210 F.Supp. 711. But the situation described here is not one which requires specialized knowledge to resolve for the impairments are all of a type that can be readily comprehended by the lay mind. Moreover common experience is as precise as any denominator in measuring the significance of these to what is...