Poppert v. Kijakazi

Filing 22

ORDER ADOPTING REPORT AND RECOMMENDATION: 17 Report and Recommendation is ADOPTED; 20 Plaintiff's Objections are OVERRULED; 14 Plaintiff's Request for Relief is DENIED; 16 Defendant's Request for Relief is GRANTED; Administration's Decision is AFFIRMED; and 1 Plaintiff's Complaint is DISMISSED with prejudice. (Written Opinion) Signed by Judge Laura M. Provinzino on 11/25/2024. (TJC)

UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT
DISTRICT OF MINNESOTA
JULIE P., 1

Case No. 23-cv-2980 (LMP/ECW)
Plaintiff,

v.

ORDER ADOPTING REPORT AND
RECOMMENDATION

MARTIN J. O’MALLEY,
Commissioner of Social Security
Administration,
Defendant.

Clifford Michael Farrell, Manring & Farrell, Dublin, OH, and Edward C. Olson, Reitan
Law Office, Minneapolis, MN, for Plaintiff.
Ana H. Voss, United States Attorney’s Office, Minneapolis, MN, and James D. Sides,
Molly Barry, Sophie Doroba, Social Security Administration, Baltimore, MD, for
Defendant.
Plaintiff Julie P. objects to United States Magistrate Judge Elizabeth Cowan
Wright’s Report and Recommendation (“R&R”) that this Court uphold the decision of an
Administrative Law Judge (“ALJ”) of the Social Security Administration (the
“Administration”) denying her application for supplemental security income. For the
reasons addressed below, the Court overrules Julie P.’s objections and adopts the R&R.
BACKGROUND
The facts of this case are described extensively in the R&R. ECF No. 17 at 2–14.
Julie P. does not specifically object to the R&R’s statement of facts, and the Court thus
This District has adopted the policy of using only the first name and last initial of any
nongovernmental parties in Social Security opinions.

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adopts those statements in full and will briefly summarize the relevant background
information here.
Julie P. applied for supplemental security income in October 2021, asserting that she
was disabled due to major depression and anxiety. ECF No. 13 at 291, 325. After her
application was initially denied, id. at 112, a hearing was held, and an ALJ issued a decision
concluding that Julie P. did not meet the definition of disabled under the Social Security
Act, 42 U.S.C. § 423(d)(2)(A), because Julie P. has the residual functional capacity
(“RFC”) “to perform light work,” under the following mental restrictions:
the individual can understand, carryout, and remember simple
instructions, and use judgment as necessary to complete simple, routine,
and repetitive tasks; the individual can adapt to and manage changes in a
routine work setting, such as changes in processes and products that can
be learned in a manner and time consistent with SVP [specific vocational
preparation] 1 or SVP 2 work; regarding social interactions, the individual
can respond appropriately to supervision, co-workers, and usual work
situations, but no complex team work or other social interaction requiring
a code lower than “8” on the people scale of the DOT, 1991 revised
edition. Also, pose a pace restriction, as follows, able to meet the
production standards of simple, routine, and repetitive work, but no
assembly line work or other work similarly requiring varying fast pace.
ECF No. 13 at 117. In reaching this conclusion, the ALJ considered and credited the
medical opinions of two psychological consultants which—as relevant here—both
recommended that Julie P. should be limited to “brief” and “superficial” interactions and
“infrequent” change. Id. at 123, 189, 200. The ALJ explained that although he credited
the psychological consultants’ opinions, he “used different vocational terminology than the
State Agency psychological consultants.” Id. at 123.

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After a vocational expert testified, the ALJ found that there are jobs in the national
workforce which Julie P. could perform even considering the limitations of her RFC.
Accordingly, the ALJ determined that Julie P. is not disabled for purposes of eligibility to
receive supplemental security income benefits. Id. at 123–24. After the Administration’s
Appeals Council denied her request for review, id. at 4–8, Julie P. sought review of the
ALJ’s decision in this Court, ECF No. 1. Magistrate Judge Wright issued an R&R
recommending that the Court deny Julie P.’s request and dismiss her complaint because the
ALJ’s decision is supported by substantial evidence. ECF No. 17 at 26–27. Julie P. now
objects to the R&R. ECF No. 20.
DISCUSSION
After an R&R is filed, any party may file “specific written objections to the
proposed findings and recommendations.” Fed. R. Civ. P. 72(b)(2). Those portions of the
R&R that are properly and specifically objected to are reviewed by the Court de novo. Fed.
R. Civ. P. 72(b)(3).
“A court reviewing a denial of benefits decides only whether the decision complied
with the law and whether the findings are supported by substantial evidence.” Jennifer L.
v. Kijakazi, No. 22-cv-3018 (JRT/DJF), 2024 WL 165249, at *2 (D. Minn. Jan. 16, 2024)
(citing 42 U.S.C. § 405(g)); accord McKinney v. Apfel, 228 F.3d 860, 863 (8th Cir. 2000)
(citation omitted). Substantial evidence is “more than a mere scintilla,” but the “threshold
for such evidentiary sufficiency is not high.” Biestek v. Berryhill, 587 U.S. 97, 103 (2019)
(citations omitted). Thus, if there is such “evidence as a reasonable mind might accept as
adequate to support a conclusion,” the ALJ’s decision must stand. Id. (citations omitted).
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Here, Julie P. asserts that the Magistrate Judge erred in finding that the ALJ’s determination
was supported by substantial evidence because the ALJ did not adequately account for the
psychological consultants’ recommendation that Julie P. be limited to “brief” and
“superficial” work and “infrequent” change. ECF No. 20 at 2–5. The Court disagrees.
An ALJ considering whether to deny or grant disability benefits is tasked, in part,
with determining a claimant’s RFC, which is what “‘[the claimant] can still do’ despite his
or her ‘limitations.’” Lauer v. Apfel, 245 F.3d 700, 703 (8th Cir. 2001) (quoting 20 C.F.R.
§ 404.1545(a)) (alteration in original). While an RFC is a medical determination, an ALJ
need not defer entirely to medical professionals but instead must consider “all of the
relevant evidence, including the medical records, observations of treating physicians and
others, and an individual’s own description of [her] limitations.” Bowers v. Kijakazi, 40
F.4th 872, 875 (8th Cir. 2022) (internal quotation marks and citation omitted). And,
notably, an ALJ is not required to formulate an RFC using the specific limitations or
wording suggested by medical experts, so long as the RFC appropriately accounts for those
limitations. See, e.g., Lane v. O'Malley, No. 23-1432, 2024 WL 302395, at *1 (8th Cir.
Jan. 26, 2024) (declining to discredit an RFC simply because the RFC adopted different
terminology than that used by the medical experts); Jennifer L., 2024 WL 165249, at *3
(“[T]he ALJ was not required to use [the psychological consultants’] exact language.”)
(citation omitted); Jordan v. O’Malley, No. 23-cv-1543 (JRT/JFD), 2024 WL 4199133, at
*3 (D. Minn. Sept. 16, 2024) (“But the ALJ was not required to frame [the plaintiff’s] social
impairments with the term ‘superficial’ in the RFC even if two of [the plaintiff’s]

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psychologists used that term to describe his limitations in their opinions.”) (citation
omitted).
It is true, as Julie P. argues, that the ALJ here did not adopt the precise terminology
used by the psychological consultants.

But the ALJ adequately incorporated the

consultants’ proposed limitations and was not required to adopt the consultants’ exact
terminology. See, e.g., Jennifer L., 2024 WL 165249, at *3. For example, the consultants’
recommendation that Julie P. be limited to “infrequent” change is explicitly found in the
RFC, which concludes that Julie P. be limited to unskilled jobs requiring “simple, routine,
and repetitive tasks” and not jobs requiring “varying fast pace.” ECF No. 13 at 117. And
the consultants’ recommendation that Julie P. be limited to “brief” and “superficial” social
interactions is incorporated into the RFC’s conclusion that she not be required to do
“complex team work” that requires anything lower than an “8” on the DOT’s people scale.
Id. As many courts have explained, an “8” references the lowest level of social interaction
on the DOT scale and is consistent with brief and superficial social interactions. See ECF
No. 17 at 23–24 (collecting cases). Thus, instead of parroting the consultants’ language,
the ALJ merely “expounded on the definition of ‘superficial’ in the context of [Julie P.’s]
RFC . . . describing how a vocational expert might incorporate the limitation into the
expert’s evaluation of whether jobs exist in the national economy that are consistent with
[Julie P.’s] functional limitations.” Jamie E. v. Kijakazi, No. 22-cv-2393 (ECT/JFD), 2023
WL 5021807, at *2 (D. Minn. Aug. 7, 2023).
Notably, Julie P.’s precise argument has been consistently rejected by district courts,
including this Court. See, e.g., id. at *2 (finding that “brief” and “superficial” limitations
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were incorporated into RFC that limited claimant to jobs under DOT Code “8”); Jennifer
L., 2024 WL 165249, at *3 (finding that ALJ’s language adequately incorporated
“superficial” limitation”); Jennifer O. v. O’Malley, No. 22-cv-2273 (KMM/ECW), 2024
WL 86277, at *4 (D. Minn. Jan. 8, 2024) (noting that “limitations regarding social
interactions in the workplace are commonplace in unskilled work that involves dealing
primarily with objects, rather than with data or people, which is the type of work that the
ALJ recommended”) (internal quotation marks and citation omitted); Katie R. v. O’Malley,
No. 23-cv-1139 (PAM/DLM), 2024 WL 1050822, at *3 (D. Minn. Mar. 11, 2024) (“The
ALJ did not err in defining what he meant by ‘superficial’ with reference to the DOT
code.”); see also ECF No. 17 at 22–23 (collecting cases). Like those cases, the Court fails
to see a material distinction between the consultants’ recommendations and the RFC’s
ultimate limitations and rejects Julie P.’s attempt to create a “manufactured inconsistency”
between the two. Lane, 2024 WL 302395, at *1.
Because the ALJ’s decision to deny Julie P.’s application for benefits was supported
by substantial evidence, the ALJ did not err. Accordingly, the Court adopts the R&R,
overrules Julie P.’s objections, and affirms the Defendant’s final decision.
ORDER
Based on the foregoing, and all the files, records, and proceedings herein, IT IS
HEREBY ORDERED that:
1. The Report and Recommendation (ECF No. 17) is ADOPTED;
2. Plaintiff’s Objections (ECF No. 20) are OVERRULED;
3. Plaintiff’s Request for Relief (ECF No. 14) is DENIED;
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4. Defendant’s Request for Relief (ECF No. 16) is GRANTED;
5. The Administration’s Decision is AFFIRMED; and
6. Plaintiff’s Complaint (ECF No. 1) is DISMISSED with prejudice.
LET JUDGMENT BE ENTERED ACCORDINGLY.

Dated: November 25, 2024

s/Laura M. Provinzino
Laura M. Provinzino
United States District Judge

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