Dana Renae Myers v. Frank Bisignano

Summary

The United States District Court for the Eastern District of Missouri reviewed the denial of Dana Renae Myers’s application for Social Security Disability Insurance benefits. The court held that substantial evidence supported the Administrative Law Judge’s residual functional capacity determination and evaluation of Myers’s impairments and subjective complaints, and affirmed the Commissioner’s final decision.

Holdings

1. The ALJ's RFC determination was supported by substantial evidence because the ALJ considered Myers's shoulder impairment and reasonably relied on mild imaging findings, generally normal examinations, treatment history, daily activities, and work activity.
2. The ALJ did not err by accepting some, but not all, of the state-agency consultants' findings.
3. The ALJ properly evaluated Myers's subjective complaints and reasonably found that the alleged intensity, persistence, and limiting effects of her symptoms were not entirely consistent with the medical and other evidence.

Questions Presented

1. Whether the ALJ's residual functional capacity determination failed to account for Myers's joint and shoulder impairments.
2. Whether the ALJ adequately explained the treatment of medical evidence, including the decision to adopt some but not all limitations identified by state-agency medical consultants.
3. Whether the ALJ properly evaluated Myers's subjective complaints under Polaski and Social Security Ruling 16-3p.

Disposition

affirmed