Triplett v. Colvin, 12 C 4382
| Decision Date | 25 November 2013 |
| Docket Number | No. 12 C 4382,12 C 4382 |
| Parties | TONNETTE P. TRIPLETT, Plaintiff, v. CAROLYN W. COLVIN, Commissioner of Social Security, Defendant. |
| Court | U.S. District Court — Northern District of Illinois |
MEMORANDUM OPINION AND ORDER
Tonnette Triplett seeks review of the final decision of the Commissioner ("Commissioner") of the Social Security Administration ("Agency") denying her application for Supplemental Security Income ("SSI") under Title XVI of the Social Security Act ("Act"). 42 U.S.C. § 1382c(a)(3)(A). Ms. Triplett asks the court to reverse and remand the Commissioner's decision, while the Commissioner seeks an order affirming the decision.
Ms. Triplett applied for SSI on September 22, 2009, alleging that she had become disabled on September 8, 2008. . Her application was denied initially and upon reconsideration. (R. 69-75, 78-81). Ms. Triplett continued pursuit of her claim by filing a timely request for a hearing.
An administrative law judge ("ALJ") convened a hearing on May 13, 2011, at which Ms. Triplett, represented by counsel, appeared and testified. (R. 42-68). In addition, Cheryl Hoisethappeared and testified as a vocational expert. (R.42). On May 27, 2011, the ALJ issued a decision finding that Ms. Triplett was not disabled because she retained the capacity to perform work that did not involve complex instructions, concentration for extended periods, or frequent interaction with the public and co-workers, and allowed her to be off task five percent of the time. (R. 26-34). Ms. Triplett filed her request for review past the deadline (R. 6-7) - her excuse was that she was out of town (R. 198) - but the Appeals Council considered it anyway. The ALJ's decision then became the final decision of the Commissioner when the Appeals Council denied Ms. Triplett's request for review of on April 27, 2012. (R. 1-3). See 20 C.F.R. §§ 404.955; 404.981. Ms. Triplett has appealed that decision to the federal district court under 42 U.S.C. § 405(g), and the parties have consented to the jurisdiction of a Magistrate Judge pursuant to 28 U.S.C. § 636(c).
Ms. Triplett was born on October 25, 1970, making her forty years old at the time of the ALJ's decision. (R. 121). She quit school after just the tenth grade. (R. 47). Ms. Triplett has a rather limited experience with the working world, having held jobs for just a little over three years of her life. (R. 144). All of her work was part-time. (R. 48). The longest job she held was as a homemaker for a home health care service. (R. 144). She is not married, and claims to have two children, but she may actually have four. (R. 208-09). She is a heroin addict, but is currently on methadone. (R. 202-03). She has also been incarcerated for a drug offense. (R. 202-03).
Ms. Triplett receives regular, free mental health treatment from the Human Resources Development Institute (HRDI). In her initial psychiatric evaluation there on May 12, 2009, Ms. Triplett reported that she heard voices, felt depressed, thought about suicide, and had difficulty sleeping. (R 202). She had spent nine months in jail on drug charges and had a substance abuse problem in the past. (R. 202-03). She said she was in a methadone program and last used heroine three years earlier, in 2006, as well as cocaine, marijuana, and PCP. (R. 202-03). Her mother had been a drug addict as well. (R. 203). She appeared moderately restless, severely depressed, and her range of mood was restricted. (R. 203). She exhibited thought disorder, paranoia, and auditory hallucinations. (R. 204). Her memory was intact but she had impaired attention and concentration; decreased energy and interest in activities; only fair insight, judgement, and reliability; depressed mood; an inability to perform serial sevens; and distractability. (AR 205). Her Global Assessment of Functioning (GAF) score was just 30-40 (R. 205), denoting some impairment in reality testing or communication ( e .g., speech is at times illogical, obscure, or irrelevant) or a major impairment in several areas, such as work or school, family relations, judgment, thinking, or mood ( e.g., avoids friends, neglects family, and is unable to work). http://www.gafscore.com/. Ms. Triplett was diagnosed with "schizoaffective disorder, depressed [and] heroin addiction."2 (R. 205).
Psychiatric notes from July 1, 2009, show Ms. Triplett was "taking [illegible] Seroquel on her own." (R. 207). She was very tense, depressed, and not sleeping well. Her medication was adjusted and she was educated on prescription medication abuse. (R. 201). Two months later, she was said to be stable. (R. 207). She remained stable without complaints through October 8, 2009. (R. 244).
On December 9, 2009, Jeffrey Karr, Ph.D., examined Ms. Triplett for the Agency in connection with her disability application. (R. 208-11). Ms. Triplett was accompanied by her uncle. (R. 208). She claimed that she heard a voice alternating between comforting and warning her. (R. 209). She live in her aunt and uncle's basement, but couldn't say for how long. She said she had two children but didn't know how old they were. She didn't know when she woke up or went to bed. (R. 208). She was completely dependent on others for meals, shopping, laundry, and travel. (R. 208). Contrary to what she had told the people at HRDI a few months earlier, Ms. Triplett denied any history of drug abuse or treatment. (R. 208). She said that the police had tried to get her but would not elaborate. (R. 209).
Contrary to what Ms. Triplett had just told Dr. Karr, her uncle said she lived with her grandmother and had four children. (R. 209). He added that she had no friends, did not currently use alcohol or drugs but had received past treatment for substance use, and would stare at television. (R. 209). He noted that his niece regularly attended a mental health program several times a week where she also received medications. (R. 209). He described Ms. Triplett as mumbling to herself, rocking, smiling for no reason, needing repeated instructions, and "in a world of her own." (R. 209).
On examination, Ms. Triplett appeared preoccupied and required frequent repeated instructions with answers often preceded by long pauses. (R. 210). She was distracted, mumbledto herself, several times suddenly burst out in a loud laughter, and exhibited periodic noticeable rocking. Her speech was blunt and sparse with poor eye contact. Mood and affect were grossly intact. Although she gave her birth date correctly, she gave the current date incorrectly and did not know the who current president, Michael Jordan, or Michael Jackson were. She used her fingers when calculating and could perform simple addition but not subtraction. She could not perform serial sevens, could not respond to proverbs, and repeated two digits forward but zero digits backwards. If she were in a movie theater and there was a fire, she said she would hide. (R. 210).
Dr. Karr diagnosed psychotic disorder not otherwise specified with the need to rule out polysubstance use. (R. 211). He felt that both Ms. Triplett and her uncle were "limited informants of questionable reliability." He also felt Ms. Triplett presented quite idiosyncratically. (R. 211).
On January 9, 2010, Russell Taylor, Ph.D., reviewed the file for the state agency and concluded that Ms. Triplett had affective and substance disorders. (AR 212, 215, 220). He felt that, as a result, she had moderate limitations with activities of daily living; moderate difficulties in maintaining social functioning; and moderate difficulties in maintaining concentration, persistence, or pace. (R. 222). Dr. Taylor thought that Ms. Triplett had experienced one or two episodes of decompensation, each of extended duration. (R. 222). Dr. Taylor opined that Ms. Triplett had moderate limitations in her ability to: maintain attention and concentration for extended periods; sustain an ordinary routine without special supervision; complete a normal workday and workweek without interruptions from psychologically based symptoms and to perform at a consistent pace without an unreasonable number and length of rest periods; interact appropriately with the general public; get along with co-workers or peers without distracting them or exhibiting behavioral extremes; respond appropriately to work setting changes; and set realistic goals or make plans. (R.226-27).
He concluded that she retained the mental capacity to understand, remember, and concentrate well enough to perform simple tasks; she could tolerate a work setting with reduced social demands; and she could handle simple, routine change and work pressures. (R. 226).
The rest of the record consists of a series of brief notes - fifty pages or so - from Mr. Triplett's weekly visits with HRDI mental health professional Kate Aguar from January 2010 through March 2011. On January 13, 2010, Ms. Triplett displayed no signs of mental illness- her mood and affect were normal. (R. 318). She had no complaints the following week and was doing fine. (R. 317). On January 26th, Ms. Triplett said "she [was] doing very well . . . [was] not depressed and life [was] good." (R. 316). She was observed to be "mentally, emotionally, and physically stable." (R. 316).
On February 1, 2010, Ms. Triplett met with a different mental health professional at HRDI and the picture was drastically different. She had not taken her medication for two months. She complained of insomnia and forgetfulness, but no other symptoms. It was thought that her insomnia might have been due to her taking her Seroquel with Benadryl for two weeks. (R. 244). But, a couple of days later, meeting with Jerry Crockrell, Ms. Triplett said on a scale of 1 to 10, her mood was an 8, only because she had been up late the night before and was tired. (R. 315). Ms. Triplett remained stable and...
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