Public Health — disability benefits

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U.S. Court of Appeals for the 7th Circuit

Civil

Public Health — disability benefits

Where the record does not support the ALJ’s conclusion that a claimant can perform heavy manual labor, the denial of disability benefits is reversed.

“The plaintiff’s residual functional capacity as determined by the administrative law judge included the ability to do jobs that involve lifting 50-pound objects for a third of an eight-hour workday and 25-pound objects for the other two-thirds, implying capacity to hold a job in which the worker is standing throughout the entire workday. Inconsistently, the administrative law judge also determined that the plaintiff’s residual functional capacity is limited to standing or walking for six hours in an eight-hour workday. How she could be thought capable of either standing or walking for six out of eight hours eludes us. Given her obesity and the serious spinal problems revealed by the 2010 MRI, we can’t understand how the administrative law judge could have concluded that the plaintiff has a capacity for such hard physical labor.”

Reversed and Remanded.

13-3729 Goins v. Colvin

Appeal from the United States District Court for the Northern District of Illinois, Cole, Mag. J., Posner, J.