Sunday 27 March 2011

United States Court of Appeals

 Argued and Submitted March 9, 2011 — Seattle, Washington.
Cynthia Coleman seeks disability insurance benefits from the Commissioner of Social Security ("Commissioner"). The administrative law judge ("ALJ") determined that Coleman has the residual functional capacity to perform sedentary or light work, so long as she can switch between sitting, standing, and walking at least briefly every hour. Based on testimony provided by a vocational expert ("VE") that Coleman could perform three specified occupations, the ALJ then held that Coleman could perform work that exists in significant numbers in the economy. He therefore denied benefits.
Coleman filed suit in district court, contending that the ALJ erred in two ways. First, Coleman faulted the ALJ for disbelieving her testimony of severe pain on the grounds that her fibromyalgia did not result in certain physical symptoms and that Coleman failed to lose weight as treatment for her obesity.
1. The ALJ relied on the absence of objective physical symptoms of severe pain as a basis for disbelieving Coleman's testimony regarding her symptoms. He erred insofar as Coleman's pain is related to her fibromyalgia, which is a "disease that eludes [objective] measurement."  He also erred by holding, in the middle of a discussion of Coleman's obesity, that her "failure to lose weight reflects on her credibility."
Although we find these errors troubling, we conclude that they were harmless. "[T]here remains substantial evidence supporting the ALJ's conclusions on credibility,"  including Coleman's failure to follow repeated medical recommendations that she treat her pain with exercise and increased activity levels. The ALJ's errors therefore "do not negate the validity of [his] ultimate credibility conclusion" or his resulting determination of Coleman's residual functional capacity.

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