ALJ Error – Expert Testimony

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7^th Circuit Court of Appeals

Case Name: Allen L. Surprise v. Andrew M. Saul

Case No.: 19-3233

Officials: SYKES, Chief Judge, and BAUER and ST. EVE, Circuit Judges.

Focus: ALJ Error – Expert Testimony

Allen Surprise appeals the denial of his claim for disability insurance benefits and supplemental social security income. The initial ALJ assigned to his case determined that Surprise’s residual functional capacity (“RFC”) included a limitation regarding fine manipulation, but nevertheless concluded that Surprise was not entitled to benefits. Surprise challenged this decision in the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Wisconsin, which twice remanded the matter: once because the transcript of the vocational expert’s testimony was incomplete and once in response to a stipulation from the parties. Surprise contests two aspects of the decision the second ALJ made upon remand: (1) that she failed to adequately account for a portion of the medical expert’s opinion in the hypothetical question posed to the vocational expert, and (2) that her decision violated the law of the case doctrine by failing to adopt the fine manipulation limitation the initial ALJ found in the course of his RFC assessment. Surprise, however, has not identified any obvious conflict between the hypothetical question and the Dictionary of Occupational Titles (“DOT”), nor did the district court make any factual findings that became the law of the case when it entered its remand orders. We therefore affirm.

Affirmed

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Derek A Hawkins is trademark corporate counsel for Harley-Davidson. Hawkins oversees the prosecution and maintenance of the Harley-Davidson’s international trademark portfolio in emerging markets.