Talbot v. Heckler

• Decision Date: 16 March 1987
• Docket Number: No. 85-1977,85-1977
• Citation: 814 F.2d 1456
• Parties: , Unempl.Ins.Rep. CCH 17,537 Harley T. TALBOT, Plaintiff-Appellant, v. Margaret M. HECKLER, Secretary of Health and Human Services, Defendant-Appellee.
• Court: U.S. Court of Appeals — Tenth Circuit

Page 1456

814 F.2d 1456

17 Soc.Sec.Rep.Ser. 129, Unempl.Ins.Rep. CCH 17,537

Harley T. TALBOT, Plaintiff-Appellant, v. Margaret M. HECKLER, Secretary of Health and Human Services Defendant-Appellee.

No. 85-1977.

United States Court of Appeals Tenth Circuit.

March 16, 1987.

Paul F. McTighe, Jr., Tulsa, Okl. for plaintiff-appellant.

Thomas Stanton, Asst. Regional Atty., U.S. Dept. of Health and Human Services, Dallas Tex. (Edwin L. Meese, U.S. Atty. Gen., Washington, D.C., Donn F. Baker, U.S. Atty., E.D. Okl., Gayla Fuller, Regional Atty., and Gabriel L. Imperato, Deputy Regional Atty., U.S. Dept. of Health and Human Services, Dallas, Tex., with him on the brief), for defendant-appellee.

Before McKAY and ANDERSON, Circuit Judges, and JOHNSON, District Judge ^*.

STEPHEN H. ANDERSON, Circuit Judge.

Harley Talbot applied twice for Social Security disability insurance benefits, first on June 9, 1982, and again a year later on June 13, 1983. Both applications were denied by the Social Security Administration ("SSA"), and Talbot ("claimant") appealed the second denial to an administrative law judge ("ALJ"). His appeal was denied by the ALJ, and the Appeals Council of the Secretary of Health and Human Services affirmed the denial. The claimant then sought review in federal district court, where the administrative actions were upheld. The claimant now appeals from the district court's adverse ruling. We reverse, on the basis that substantial evidence does not support the ALJ's decision that the claimant could engage in a full range of light work.

BACKGROUND

The claimant is a fifty-six-year-old man who has not been gainfully employed since October 10, 1981. He has a recent history of heart disease, lung disease, and liver disease. He attended public schools through the eighth grade and received the equivalent of a twelfth grade education via correspondence courses. For over thirty years, he worked on a variety of jobs in highway, bridge, dam, and pipeline surveying and construction, work requiring medium to heavy exertion. Among other jobs, he held the position of "public works inspector," "construction superviser," and "field engineer."

Over the past several years, Mr. Talbot has experienced an increasing number of health problems, including blackouts and dizzy spells. He complains of chest pain, back pain, and shortness of breath upon exertion. His treating physicians have found objective evidence of atrial fibrillation (irregular contractions of the atrium of the heart) and atherosclerotic heart disease (heart disease involving degeneration of the arteries). During the claimant's initial application process for Social Security insurance benefits in mid 1982, treating physician Dr. Beryl R. McCann reported that the claimant was suffering from atrial fibrillation and congestive heart failure subsequent to pneumonia, for which he was hospitalized in late 1980. Dr. Alice D. Cox, who examined the claimant in mid-1982 at the request of the SSA, did not find congestive heart failure but did confirm atrial fibrillation probably secondary to atherosclerotic heart disease. After ordering tests of pulmonary function, she also concluded that the claimant suffered from chronic obstructive pulmonary disease. A few months later, during the reconsideration of the claimant's first application, Dr. McCann reported that the claimant was basically physically incapacitated, citing his heart problems, hypertension, intermittent chest pain, and blackout episodes.

By the time of the claimant's second application for benefits, a report was available from treating physician, Dr. Billy Joe Matter, who had examined the claimant in January of 1983 and diagnosed both lung and heart disease. In addition, Dr. Matter reported signs of liver disease, concluding that the claimant could not perform ordinary manual labor and could work only in a "limited sedentary situation." Another treating physician, Dr. Wallace Byrd, reported in June 1983 that the claimant was permanently disabled as a result of his heart disease, hypertension, liver disease, unstable angina, and intercurrent infection. Dr. Byrd continued to see the claimant over a period of ten months from June 1983 to April 1984. In a hospital discharge summary, filed in April 1984, three months after the ALJ's decision, Dr. Byrd reported that the claimant had suffered another blackout spell and had been admitted to the hospital for unstable angina.

In addition to the four physicians who examined the claimant, two SSA consulting physicians reviewed the claimant's medical records during the initial application process. On August 3, 1982, Dr. Thurma Jo Fiegel reviewed the records, concluding that the history of congestive heart failure was questionable, the chest pain was not of cardiac origin, and the results of the pulmonary function tests did not meet the levels required by Appendix 1 of the Social Security regulations for disabling chronic pulmonary disease.

Another consulting physician, Dr. Patrick Barnes, reviewed the medical records on November 10, 1982--while claimant's request for reconsideration of the initial denial was under review--and agreed with Dr. Fiegel's report with respect to congestive heart failure, chest pain, and lung disease. However, he found the claimant to be moderately impaired and to have a number of job restrictions, including restrictions against working at unprotected heights and driving automotive equipment.

During the claimant's second application process, the SSA consulted another physician, Dr. John R. Adair. Like Dr. Cox before him, Dr. Adair actually examined the claimant. In a report dated July 23, 1983, Dr. Adair confirmed the atrial fibrillation but found the claimant to be "quite suggestible and vague." R. Vol. II at 163. At the request of Dr. Adair, a medical technician conducted a new set of pulmonary function tests. The technician, while noting the claimant's complaint that his chest pain was limiting his efforts, concluded that the claimant's performance represented less than maximum effort. Dr. Adair concluded that he could not detect adequate organic pathology to verify the extent of the claimant's subjective physical complaints, citing the "uncertainty of the data base." R. Vol. II at 165. Finally, another review of the medical records by Dr. Fiegel, in September 1983, produced a cursory and unexplained conclusion that the claimant was slightly impaired.

Basically, what we have is two sets of somewhat conflicting medical reports. The treating physicians and Dr. Cox, the first SSA consulting physician, conclude that the claimant has atrial fibrillation and heart disease, accompanied by a number of credited physical symptoms, including dizziness, blackouts, chest pain, shortness of breath and substernal pressure upon exertion. Some of these same physicians also note lung disease, hypertension, and evidence of liver disease. Dr. Byrd characterizes the chest pain and substernal pressure as unstable angina. On the other hand, the remaining three consulting physicians, while noting the evidence of heart and lung problems, do not comment on the liver disease and do not interpret the objective medical evidence as sufficiently supporting the claimant's extensive physical symptoms.

The claimant appeared before the ALJ without the benefit of counsel. After hearing his testimony and allowing him an opportunity to comment on any perceived errors in the documentary evidence, the ALJ concluded that the claimant was not disabled as that term is defined by the Social Security Act. The ALJ first found that the claimant had not been substantially gainfully employed since October 10, 1981, and that he had an impairment. However, he found that the impairment did not meet or equal one of the impairments in Appendix 1 of the Social Security Act regulations, by which the claimant would have automatically qualified as disabled. He therefore went on to explore the claimant's ability to either return to his past work or to engage in other work, as required by the regulations. The ALJ found that the claimant could not return to his past work requiring medium to heavy exertion because his residual functional capacity ("RFC") would not allow it. However, he also found that the claimant's testimony as to the extent of his impairments was "not wholly credible and ... somewhat probably exaggerated." R. Vol. II at 17. He found that the claimant retained the RFC for a wide range of light work, restricted only "by inability to work in environments with excessive dust, fumes, or gases." R.Vol. II at 18. Such a finding recognized no substantial exertional limitations on the claimant's ability to perform the full range of light work but did explicitly recognize environmental restrictions that are considered nonexertional limitations on the ability to perform that work. The ALJ, however, went on to conclude that the "claimant's capacity for the wide range of light [work] has not been significantly compromised by his additional nonexertional limitations." R. Vol. II at 19. He concluded that Rule 202.14 ¹ of the Medical-Vocational Guidelines promulgated by the SSA provided the framework for his determination that given the claimant's residual strength, age, work experience, and education, he was not disabled.

I.

Under the Social Security disability insurance provisions, a claimant is disabled "if he is unable 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 twelve months." 42 U.S.C. Sec. 1382c(a)(3)(A) (1982). ²

The Social Security regulations implementing the statutory definition of disability invoke a five-step process for evaluation of a disability claim. If a determination can be made at any of the steps that an individual is or is not disabled, evaluation under a...