Christopher A. Obrien v. Frank Bisignano

Summary

The Ninth Circuit reversed the district court’s judgment upholding the denial of Christopher A. Obrien’s applications for disability insurance benefits and supplemental security income. The court held that Obrien had not forfeited his challenges to the determination that his prior telemarketing work constituted past relevant work and that substantial evidence did not support that determination, requiring remand for further proceedings.

Holdings

1. Obrien did not forfeit his objections to the Commissioner's administrative-forfeiture arguments by failing to expressly address those arguments in his optional district-court reply.
2. No judicially imposed administrative issue-exhaustion requirement barred Obrien from raising in federal court his challenge to the ALJ's finding that his telemarketing work qualified as past relevant work.
3. Substantial evidence did not support treating Obrien's 2003 telemarketing work as past relevant work because it fell outside the applicable 15-year regulatory period.
4. Substantial evidence did not support treating Obrien's 2009 telemarketing work as substantial gainful activity because critical ambiguities in the evidence required the ALJ to develop the record further.

Questions Presented

1. Whether Obrien forfeited in the district court his objections to the Commissioner's administrative-forfeiture arguments by failing to address them in his optional reply.
2. Whether a judicially created issue-exhaustion requirement barred Obrien from challenging in federal court the ALJ's finding that his telemarketing work constituted past relevant work when he had not specifically raised that challenge before the ALJ.
3. Whether substantial evidence supported the ALJ's determination that Obrien's 2003 telemarketing work was past relevant work under the applicable 15-year regulatory period.
4. Whether substantial evidence supported the ALJ's determination that Obrien's 2009 telemarketing work constituted substantial gainful activity, or whether ambiguities required further development of the record.

Disposition

reversed_and_remanded