Opinion
CIVIL ACTION NO. 16-11891-RGS
09-18-2017
JEROME P. JOYCE, Plaintiff v. NANCY A. BERRYHILL, Acting Commissioner of the Social Security Administration
ORDER ON REPORT AND RECOMMENDATION OF THE MAGISTRATE JUDGE
I agree with Magistrate Judge Cabell's thorough analysis of the record and his conclusion that the Commissioner correctly found that plaintiff was not disabled as of the date of last insured, as the Social Security Act requires. Like the Magistrate Judge, I find no reason to fault the assessment by the Administrative Law Judge (ALJ) of the evidence regarding plaintiff's psychological limitations or her determination as to the onset of any disability (as well as her decision to forego the "empty exercise" of consulting a medical expert on the issue, see R & R, at 33). Consequently, the Recommendation is ADOPTED, plaintiff's motion to reverse or remand the decision of the Commissioner is DENIED, and the Commissioner's motion to affirm is ALLOWED. The Clerk will enter judgment for the Commission and close the case.
I have carefully reviewed the Objections filed by plaintiff to the Report and Recommendation. The objections raise no new facts or arguments of significance that were not presented to Magistrate Judge Cabell and considered in his Report (and by the ALJ before him). As he noted, it is simply not the case that the ALJ did not consider Dr. Golub's opinion as to plaintiff's psychological state. See R & R, at 25-27. She simply did not find his opinion sufficiently credible to overcome other objective medical evidence in the record. Nor did she attempt to substitute her untrained medical judgment for those of the medical reviewers (Dr. Kasdan and Dr. Fieman), on whose opinions, apart from the record evidence, she appropriately relied. Id. at 27-28. --------
SO ORDERED.
/s/ Richard G. Stearns
UNITED STATES DISTRICT JUDGE