Adams v. Commissioner of Social Security
Filing
23
ORDER signed by Magistrate Judge Allison Claire on 12/4/15 ORDERING that the Commissioner's 21 Motion to Amend the Judgment is DENIED. (Mena-Sanchez, L)
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT
9
FOR THE EASTERN DISTRICT OF CALIFORNIA
10
11
SUSAN ADAMS,
12
13
14
15
16
No. 2:14-cv-0704 AC
Plaintiff,
v.
ORDER
CAROLYN W. COLVIN, Acting
Commissioner of Social Security of the
United States of America,
Defendant.
17
18
This case was referred to the undersigned by E.D. Cal. R. 302(c)(15). Before the court is
19
defendant Colvin’s (“the Commissioner”) motion (ECF No. 21) to reconsider the court’s order
20
granting plaintiff’s motion for summary judgment and remanding for the immediate calculation
21
and award of benefits (ECF No. 19). For the reasons discussed below, the court will deny the
22
Commissioner’s motion.
23
I. LEGAL STANDARD
24
In general, there are four basic grounds upon which a Rule 59(e)
motion may be granted: (1) if such motion is necessary to correct
manifest errors of law or fact upon which the judgment rests; (2) if
such motion is necessary to present newly discovered or previously
unavailable evidence; (3) if such motion is necessary to prevent
manifest injustice; or (4) if the amendment is justified by an
intervening change in controlling law.
25
26
27
28
Allstate Ins. Co. v. Herron, 634 F.3d 1101, 1111 (9th Cir. 2011) (citing McDowell v. Calderon,
1
1
197 F.3d 1253, 1255 n.1 (9th Cir. 1999) (en banc), cert. denied, 529 U.S. 1082 (2000)).
2
However, “amending a judgment after its entry remains an extraordinary remedy which should be
3
used sparingly.” Allstate, 634 F.3d at 1111 (internal quotation marks omitted). Amendment of
4
judgment is sparingly used to serve the dual “interests of finality and conservation of judicial
5
resources.” See Kona Enterprises, Inc. v. Estate of Bishop, 229 F.3d 877, 890 (9th Cir. 2000).
6
II. PROCEDURAL BACKGROUND
7
On March 17, 2014, plaintiff filed this action seeking reversal of the Commissioner’s
8
decision to deny her benefits under Title II and Title XVI of the Social Security Act, 42 U.S.C.
9
§§ 401-34, 1381-1383f. ECF No. 1.1 On September 2, 2015, the court granted plaintiff’s
10
subsequent motion for summary judgment, denied the Commissioner’s cross-motion for summary
11
judgment, and remanded the matter to the Commissioner for the immediate calculation and award
12
of benefits. ECF No. 19.
13
The court found that the Administrative Law Judge (“ALJ”) improperly rejected the
14
opinion of plaintiff’s treating physician (Dr. Ann Murphy). ECF No. 19 at 11-15. The court also
15
found that the ALJ improperly rejected two separate opinions of the examining clinical
16
psychologist (Dr. Sydney Cormier), as well as the opinions of two treating psychotherapists (Billy
17
Lee Wilson, Jr., LMFT and Toni L. Childs, LMFT), all of which supported the treating
18
physician’s opinion. ECF No. 19 at 15-21. The court further concluded that, crediting the
19
treating physician’s opinion as true, plaintiff was disabled. ECF No. 19 at 21. The court
20
therefore remanded for payment of benefits, specifically finding that no purpose would be served
21
by remanding for further proceedings, principally under the authority of Benecke v. Barnhart, 379
22
F.3d 587 (9th Cir. 2004) and Lester v. Chater, 81 F.3d 821, 830-31 (9th Cir. 1995).
23
On September 24, 2015, the Commissioner moved to alter or amend the court’s judgment.
24
ECF No. 21. The motion argues only the first Allstate ground, and is based upon the
25
Commissioner’s view that it was legal error to remand for payment of benefits rather than for
26
27
28
1
Plaintiff initially sought benefits on September 20, 2007, over eight years ago. See ECF No. 19
at 3. This court reversed the Commissioner’s initial denial of benefits on July 31, 2012, and
remanded for further development of the record. Id. at 3-4.
2
1
further proceedings. Plaintiff opposes the motion for reconsideration. ECF No. 22.
2
III. ANALYSIS
3
The court will deny the Commissioner’s motion because its order remanding for the
4
payment of benefits is not based on a manifest error of law. As the Commissioner correctly
5
argues, the Ninth Circuit law governing remand for payment of benefits has been further
6
developed after Benecke and Lester. However, that further development does not counsel a
7
different result in this case. The Ninth Circuit has devised a three-part credit-as-true standard,
8
each part of which must be satisfied in order for a court to remand to the Commissioner with
9
instructions to calculate and award benefits:
10
11
12
13
(1) the record has been fully developed and further administrative
proceedings would serve no useful purpose; (2) the ALJ has
failed to provide legally sufficient reasons for rejecting
evidence, whether claimant testimony or medical opinion; and
(3) if the improperly discredited evidence were credited as true,
the ALJ would be required to find the claimant disabled on
remand.
14
Garrison v. Colvin, 759 F.3d 995, 1020 (9th Cir. 2014). There is “flexibility” built into the rule,
15
however. Specifically, even if all three above factors are satisfied, the court should still remand
16
for further proceedings, rather than for an award of benefits “when, even though all conditions of
17
the credit-as-true rule are satisfied, an evaluation of the record as a whole creates serious doubt
18
that a claimant is, in fact, disabled.” Id. at 1021.
19
However, “where the record has been fully developed and where further administrative
20
proceedings would serve no useful purpose,” remand for the payment of benefits is warranted.
21
Brewes v. Comm'r of Soc. Sec. Admin., 682 F.3d 1157, 1164 (9th Cir. 2012) (remanding for
22
immediate payment of benefits where, as here, “there are no outstanding issues to be resolved,”
23
the complete record shows that plaintiff “is likely to miss multiple days of work per month,” and
24
“[t]he vocational expert testified that a person with Brewes’ characteristics who would miss that
25
much work was not employable.”)
26
The court acknowledges the Commissioner’s often-stated and vehement disagreement
27
with the Ninth’s Circuit’s “credit-as-true jurisprudence,” and her apparent view that recent Ninth
28
Circuit authority undermines earlier Ninth Circuit authority on the propriety of remanding for
3
1
payment of benefits. See ECF No. 21 at 2-4 & 3 n.2. However, this court is bound by all Ninth
2
Circuit decisions where there is no intervening legislation, Supreme Court decision or en banc
3
Ninth Circuit decision irreconcilably to the contrary. See Ferguson v. Corinthian Colleges, Inc.,
4
733 F.3d 928, 933 (9th Cir. 2013) (prior circuit authority “is controlling absent any clearly
5
irreconcilable intervening higher authority”) (citing Miller v. Gammie, 335 F.3d 889, 893 (9th
6
Cir.2003) (en banc)); Baker v. Delta Air Lines, Inc., 6 F.3d 632, 637 (9th Cir. 1993) (Ninth
7
Circuit decisions are binding “unless an en banc decision, Supreme Court decision, or subsequent
8
legislation undermines those decisions”) (internal quotation marks omitted). Accordingly, the
9
court will continue to apply all authoritative Ninth Circuit decisions, even if they were handed
10
down before the year 2014 or 2015, and even if the Commissioner believes that they were
11
wrongly decided.
12
Although the court’s decision did not specifically list the Garrison factors, the court
13
considered those factors in determining that the matter should be remanded for the immediate
14
calculation and payment of benefits. See ECF No. 19 at 14-15 (finding the ALJ rejected treating
15
physician’s medical opinion without providing adequate reasons as required by Harman v. Apfel,
16
211 F.3d 1172 (9th Cir.), cert. denied, 531 U.S. 1038 (2000)), 11-22 (after reviewing the entire
17
record, finding that if the opinion is credited as true, plaintiff is disabled). The record as a whole
18
does not create “serious doubt” that plaintiff is, in fact, disabled.
19
The Commissioner’s motion offers no reason for the court to change its determination,
20
other than mere disagreement with the court’s decision. This court has already rejected the
21
Commissioner’s argument, offered in her cross-motion for summary judgment, that “should the
22
Court find the ALJ erred in rejecting Dr. Murphy’s opinion, it should remand for further
23
administrative proceedings” to resolve what she describes as “this conflict.” See ECF No. 18
24
at 14. The motion for reconsideration will be denied where, as here, the Commissioner offers
25
mere disagreement with the court’s decision, and recapitulates the arguments it made before the
26
court in its cross-motion for summary judgment. See Arteaga v. Asset Acceptance, LLC, 733 F.
27
Supp. 2d 1218, 1237 (E.D. Cal. 2010) (rejecting Rule 59(e) motion where plaintiff’s “arguments
28
on reconsideration simply recapitulate her original argument”).
4
1
IV. CONCLUSION
2
For the reasons stated above, IT IS HEREBY ORDERED that the Commissioner’s
3
Motion to Alter or Amend Judgment (ECF No. 21), is DENIED.
4
DATED: December 4, 2015
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
26
27
28
5
Disclaimer: Justia Dockets & Filings provides public litigation records from the federal appellate and district courts. These filings and docket sheets should not be considered findings of fact or liability, nor do they necessarily reflect the view of Justia.
Why Is My Information Online?