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Willie O. PENDLEY, Plaintiff-Appellant, v. Margaret M. HECKLER, Secretary of Health and Human Services, Defendant-Appellee

United States Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit1985-08-12No. No. 85-7099
767 F.2d 1561

Summary

Holding. The Administrative Law Judge's decision denying disability benefits was not supported by substantial evidence because the vocational expert's testimony relied upon to satisfy the Secretary's burden was based on a hypothetical question that did not include all of the claimant's severe impairments, particularly his anxiety and depression. The judgment of the district court is reversed and remanded to the district court for remand to the Secretary for further proceedings.

Willie Pendley sought disability insurance benefits and supplemental security income, which the Secretary of Health and Human Services denied. An Administrative Law Judge found Pendley unable to perform his past work, shifting to the Secretary the burden to demonstrate he could perform other available work. The Secretary relied on vocational expert testimony to establish that Pendley could work as a packager, sorter, handler, or machine operator. However, the hypothetical question posed to the expert omitted Pendley's anxiety and depression, which the judge had independently found to be severe work-limiting impairments. The court concluded that without the expert considering all of Pendley's conditions, there was no reliable basis to conclude he could perform gainful employment.

The appellate court emphasized that an administrative decision cannot rest on vocational expert testimony when the hypothetical question fails to account for all documented severe impairments. Because the expert was asked only about physical limitations and work history, the court could not assume the expert would have reached the same conclusion had anxiety and depression been included. This omission rendered the Secretary's decision unsupported by substantial evidence.

Summary generated by law.co from the public-domain opinion. The opinion text itself is public domain.

Key issues

  • Whether vocational expert testimony supports an administrative decision when the hypothetical question omits documented severe mental health impairments
  • Whether an administrative law judge must instruct a vocational expert to consider all of a claimant's severe impairments when posing hypothetical questions
  • Whether the Secretary met its burden of proving the claimant could perform other gainful employment without complete vocational expert testimony

Procedural posture

Pendley appealed a district court judgment affirming the Secretary's denial of his disability benefits applications, challenging the sufficiency of evidence supporting the administrative decision.

Authorities cited

No cited authorities resolved to law.co cases yet.

Opinion

majority opinion

PER CURIAM:

The appellant, Willie 0. Pendley, appeals a final decision of the Secretary of Health and Human Services denying his applications for disability insurance benefits and supplemental security income. The district court affirmed the Secretary’s decision. Because the Administrative Law Judge’s (AU’s) decision is not supported by substantial evidence, we reverse the judgment of the district court.

The appellant is a 32 year old man who has an eighth grade education and previously worked as a security guard, truck driver, and draw frame operator in a cotton mill. The AU found that the appellant was unable to perform his past relevant work. Thus, the burden shifted to the Secretary “to show that he [could] perform other gainful employment available in the economy.” Brenem v. Harris, 621 F.2d 688, 689 (5th Cir.1980).

The appellant was not represented by counsel at the hearing before the AU. At the hearing, the AU elicited testimony from Dr. William A. Crunk, Jr., a vocational expert. Dr. Crunk was present during the hearing. The AU asked Dr. Crunk a hypothetical question in which he requested the expert to assume several factors. Dr. Crunk responded that the appellant could perform work as a packager, sorter, handler and automatic machine operator. See Record Vol. II at 45-46.

The appellant claims that the testimony of the vocational expert was crucial to the AU’s decision. In its brief, the Secretary concedes this point by observing that “[t]o satisfy the Secretary’s burden of demonstrating the existence of jobs within this restricted range, the AU relied upon the testimony of a vocational expert ... who testified that such jobs did exist based upon the hypothetical question.” Brief of Appellee at 33 (emphasis added).

The appellant contends that the hypothetical question posed by the AU did not comprehensively describe the appellant’s impairments. We agree. The AU requested the expert to assume: (1) the appellant’s education and work experience; (2) sedentary work; no vehicles; (3) no hazardous machinery; (4) restricted leg controls; (5) range of motion of neck, approximately half the normal; and (6) a full scale I.Q. of 77. Record, Vol. II at 45. The AU, however, did not request the expert to assume the claimant’s anxiety or depression, both of which the AU found to be “severe impairments limiting the claimant’s ability to work.” Record, Vol. II at 11.

Referring to Johnson v. Harris, 612 F.2d 993 (5th Cir.1980), our court in a similar ease to this one has said: “[w]e held that unless there was vocational expert testimony concerning the availability of jobs for a person with the claimant’s educational level, work skills and experience and physical limitations, the decision of the AU, based significantly on the expert testimony, would be unsupported by substantial evidence.” Brenem v. Harris, 621 F.2d 688, 690 (5th Cir.1980). See also Cowart v. Schweiker, 662 F.2d 731, 736 (11th Cir. 1981) (“Although there is no per se rule that a vocational expert be called to testify ... the AU must articulate specific jobs that the claimant is able to perform, and this finding must be supported by substantial evidence, not ‘mere intuition or conjee-, ture by the administrative law judge.’ ”).

In Brenem, supra, we observed that it is not proper for us “to assume that because the vocational expert was aware of [a claimant’s] psychological problems, that he took them into consideration in answering hypothetical questions which referred only to physical impairments. Or at least, we have no basis for assuming that had these factors been included in the hypothetical questions his answer would have been the same.” Id. at 690 (emphasis in original).

In this case, we cannot assume that the vocational expert would have answered in a similar manner had the AU instructed him to consider all of the appellant’s severe impairments. Thus, we must conclude that the Secretary failed to meet its burden of showing that the appellant could perform other gainful employment in the economy. We hold that the Secretary’s decision was not supported by substantial evidence.

Because the “misuse of the expert’s testimony alone warrants reversal,” we do not consider the appellant’s other claims. Western v. Harris, 633 F.2d 1204, 1207 (5th Cir. Unit A 1981). Accordingly, we reverse the judgment of the district court, remand the case to that court, and direct the district court to remand the case to the Secretary for further proceedings in accordance with this opinion.

REVERSED and REMANDED.

. The appellant claims he was not informed of the availability of free legal services, therefore, he did not waive his statutory right to representation.