Sarchet v. Chater
| Citation | 78 F.3d 305 |
| Decision Date | 05 March 1996 |
| Docket Number | No. 95-3283,95-3283 |
| Parties | , Unempl.Ins.Rep. (CCH) P 15128B Marlin SARCHET, Plaintiff-Appellant, v. Shirley S. CHATER, Commissioner of Social Security, Defendant-Appellee. |
| Court | United States Courts of Appeals. United States Court of Appeals (7th Circuit) |
Appeal from the United States District Court for the Southern District of Illinois, East St. Louis Division, No. 94 C 440; William D. Stiehl, Judge.
David W. Sutterfield (argued), Sutterfield & Johnson, P.C., Effingham, IL, for Plaintiff-Appellant.
W. Charles Grace, Office of the United States Attorney, Criminal Division, Fairview Heights, IL, Myriah Miller (argued), Department of Health and Human Services, Region V, Social Security Administration, Chicago, IL, for Defendant-Appellee.
Before POSNER, Chief Judge, and BAUER and EVANS, Circuit Judges.
Marlin Sarchet was denied social security disability benefits, challenged the denial in the district court, lost, appeals. She is 42 years old, with a graduate equivalency degree, but she has not worked since 1978. She claims that in 1990 she became totally disabled as a consequence of fibromyalgia, also known as fibrositis--a common, but elusive and mysterious, disease, much like chronic fatigue syndrome, with which it shares a number of features. See Frederick Wolfe et al., "The American College of Rheumatology 1990 Criteria for the Classification of Fibromyalgia: Report of the Multicenter Criteria Committee," 33 Arthritis & Rheumatism 160 (1990); Lawrence M. Tierney, Jr., Stephen J. McPhee & Maxine A. Papadakis, Current Medical Diagnosis & Treatment 1995 708-09 (1995). Its cause or causes are unknown, there is no cure, and, of greatest importance to disability law, its symptoms are entirely subjective. There are no laboratory tests for the presence or severity of fibromyalgia. The principal symptoms are "pain all over," fatigue, disturbed sleep, stiffness, and--the only symptom that discriminates between it and other diseases of a rheumatic character--multiple tender spots, more precisely 18 fixed locations on the body (and the rule of thumb is that the patient must have at least 11 of them to be diagnosed as having fibromyalgia) that when pressed firmly cause the patient to flinch. All these symptoms are easy to fake, although few applicants for disability benefits may yet be aware of the specific locations that if palpated will cause the patient who really has fibromyalgia to flinch. There is no serious doubt that Sarchet is afflicted with the disease but it is difficult to determine the severity of her condition because of the unavailability of objective clinical tests. Some people may have such a severe case of fibromyalgia as to be totally disabled from working, Michael Doherty & Adrian Jones, "Fibromyalgia Syndrome (ABC of Rheumatology)," 310 British Med.J. 386 (1995); Preston v. Secretary of Health & Human Services, 854 F.2d 815, 818 (6th Cir.1988) (per curiam), but most do not and the question is whether Sarchet is one of the minority.
The record before the administrative law judge consisted of Sarchet's testimony plus the reports of several doctors who had examined her. The doctors agreed that she has a "frozen" left shoulder, which limits her ability to move her left arm. But they disagreed about the extent to which her ability to move around is limited by the effect of movement on her "pain all over" or by muscular weakness resulting from tenderness, fatigue, and limited mobility. Sarchet testified that her pain has virtually immobilized her but of course the administrative law judge did not have to believe her. If the administrative law judge believed the medical reports that found that Sarchet has enough strength to work and disbelieved Sarchet's own testimony, this would compel the denial of the application for benefits. We cannot say that this combination of belief and disbelief would be unreasonable but we cannot uphold a decision by an administrative agency, any more than we can uphold a decision by a district court, if, while there is enough evidence in the record to support the decision, the reasons given by the trier of fact do not build an accurate and logical bridge between the evidence and the result. Green v. Shalala, 51 F.3d 96, 100-01 (7th Cir.1995); Herron v. Shalala, 19 F.3d 329, 333 (7th Cir.1994); Zblewski v. Schweiker, 732 F.2d 75, 78-79 (7th Cir.1984); Cline v. Sullivan, 939 F.2d 560, 563-69 (8th Cir.1991).
The administrative law judge's opinion contains a substantial number of illogical or erroneous statements that bear materially on her conclusion that Sarchet is not totally disabled. There is first of all a pervasive misunderstanding of the disease. The administrative law judge criticized Sarchet for having consulted a rheumatologist rather than an orthopedist, neurologist, or psychiatrist. Fibromyalgia is a rheumatic disease and the relevant specialist is a rheumatologist. The administrative law judge also depreciated the gravity of Sarchet's fibromyalgia because of the lack of any evidence of objectively discernible symptoms, such as a swelling of the joints. Since swelling of the joints is not a symptom of fibromyalgia, its absence is no more indicative that the patient's fibromyalgia is not disabling than the absence of headache is an indication that a patient's prostate cancer is not advanced. The administrative law judge also misunderstood the medical term "nonspecific" to mean unbelievable rather than not clearly related to a particular disease. Sarchet's puffy legs, for example, could have been the result of any one of several different conditions. That doesn't mean she doesn't have puffy legs.
Apart from a shaky understanding of the medical facts, the administrative law judge made errors in describing Sarchet's testimony. Sarchet did not testify that the severity of her pain was constant rather than aggravated by movement, but rather that she had some pain even when she did not move and worse pain when she did move. She also did not testify inconsistently (as the administrative law judge thought) with her testimony that she has to lie down frequently when she said that she has to sleep sitting up; she explained that she meant lying with her head at a 45 degree angle to the mattress. There was anyway no necessary inconsistency, since some people rest and sleep in different positions.
Also misunderstood was the testimony of the vocational expert, who testified that if one of the doctors was believed Sarchet...
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