Opinion
CA 18-0434-MU
05-29-2019
IRIS TOURRANCE DURGIN, Plaintiff, v. NANCY A. BERRYHILL, Acting Commissioner of Social Security, Defendant.
MEMORANDUM OPINION AND ORDER
This matter is before the Court on the Acting Commissioner of Social Security's unopposed motion to reverse and remand this action pursuant to sentence four of 42 U.S.C. § 405(g) (see Doc. 19), filed May 24, 2019. In her motion, the Acting Commissioner of Social Security represents that it is her belief that this case should be remanded to the Commissioner of Social Security for further administrative proceedings but does not state the specific grounds upon which the request for remand is based (see Doc. 19, at 1 (noting only this Court's power to enter a judgment remanding this action to the Commissioner of Social Security)); therefore, the Court simply ORDERS that the Acting Commissioner of Social Security, on remand, direct the Administrative Law Judge (ALJ) assigned to this case to address all issues identified by Plaintiff in her brief (see Doc. 16), as well as any other issues raised by Plaintiff on remand.
The parties have consented to the exercise of jurisdiction by the Magistrate Judge, pursuant to 28 U.S.C. § 636(c), for all proceedings in this Court. (Docs. 20 & 21 ("In accordance with provisions of 28 U.S.C. §636(c) and Fed.R.Civ.P. 73, the parties in this case consent to have a United States magistrate judge conduct any and all proceedings in this case, . . . order the entry of a final judgment, and conduct all post-judgment proceedings.")).
The Commissioner represents that counsel for the Plaintiff has no opposition to this motion. (See id. at 1.) --------
In light of the foregoing, and the plain language of sentence four of 42 U.S.C. § 405(g) empowering this Court "to enter, upon the pleadings and transcript of the record, a judgment affirming, modifying, or reversing the decision of the Commissioner of Social Security, with or without remanding the cause for a rehearing[,]" the Defendant's unopposed motion (Doc. 19) is GRANTED and the decision of the Commissioner of Social Security denying Plaintiff benefits is reversed and remanded pursuant to sentence four of 42 U.S.C. § 405(g), see Melkonyan v. Sullivan, 501 U.S. 89, 111 S.Ct. 2157, 115 L.Ed.2d 78 (1991), for further proceedings not inconsistent with this decision. The remand pursuant to sentence four of § 405(g) makes Plaintiff a prevailing party for purposes of the Equal Access to Justice Act, 28 U.S.C. § 2412, see Shalala v. Schaefer, 509 U.S. 292, 112 S.Ct. 2625, 125 L.Ed.2d 239 (1993), and terminates this Court's jurisdiction over this matter.
DONE and ORDERED this the 29th day of May, 2019.
s/ P. Bradley Murray
UNITED STATES MAGISTRATE JUDGE