Filed: Oct. 19, 2020
Latest Update: Oct. 19, 2020
Summary: FILED NOT FOR PUBLICATION OCT 19 2020 UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS MOLLY C. DWYER, CLERK U.S. COURT OF APPEALS FOR THE NINTH CIRCUIT BRYANNA K. ALFANO, No. 18-35699 Plaintiff-Appellant, D.C. No. 3:17-cv-05776-MAT v. MEMORANDUM* ANDREW M. SAUL, Commissioner of Social Security, Defendant-Appellee. Appeal from the United States District Court for the Western District of Washington Mary Alice Theiler, Magistrate Judge, Presiding Submitted September 1, 2020** Seattle, Washington Before: BYBEE and C
Summary: FILED NOT FOR PUBLICATION OCT 19 2020 UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS MOLLY C. DWYER, CLERK U.S. COURT OF APPEALS FOR THE NINTH CIRCUIT BRYANNA K. ALFANO, No. 18-35699 Plaintiff-Appellant, D.C. No. 3:17-cv-05776-MAT v. MEMORANDUM* ANDREW M. SAUL, Commissioner of Social Security, Defendant-Appellee. Appeal from the United States District Court for the Western District of Washington Mary Alice Theiler, Magistrate Judge, Presiding Submitted September 1, 2020** Seattle, Washington Before: BYBEE and CO..
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FILED
NOT FOR PUBLICATION
OCT 19 2020
UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS MOLLY C. DWYER, CLERK
U.S. COURT OF APPEALS
FOR THE NINTH CIRCUIT
BRYANNA K. ALFANO, No. 18-35699
Plaintiff-Appellant, D.C. No. 3:17-cv-05776-MAT
v.
MEMORANDUM*
ANDREW M. SAUL, Commissioner of
Social Security,
Defendant-Appellee.
Appeal from the United States District Court
for the Western District of Washington
Mary Alice Theiler, Magistrate Judge, Presiding
Submitted September 1, 2020**
Seattle, Washington
Before: BYBEE and COLLINS, Circuit Judges, and STEARNS,*** District Judge.
Petitioner Bryanna Alfano appeals the denial of her application for disability
*
This disposition is not appropriate for publication and is not precedent
except as provided by Ninth Circuit Rule 36-3.
**
The panel unanimously concludes this case is suitable for decision
without oral argument. See Fed. R. App. P. 34(a)(2).
***
The Honorable Richard G. Stearns, United States District Judge for
the District of Massachusetts, sitting by designation.
benefits and Supplemental Security Income. The district court had jurisdiction
under 42 U.S.C. §§ 405(g) and 1383(c)(3). We have jurisdiction under 28 U.S.C.
§ 1291. We review the district court’s decision de novo and the final decision of
the Office of Disability Adjudication and Review for substantial evidence. Dale v.
Colvin,
823 F.3d 941, 943 (9th Cir. 2016). We affirm.
1. Substantial evidence supports the decision of the Administrative Law
Judge (ALJ) to give little weight to the opinion of Alfano’s treating physician. An
ALJ may discount the opinion of a claimant’s treating physician if there is
substantial record evidence contradicting that opinion. Orn v. Astrue,
495 F.3d
625, 632 (9th Cir. 2007). The ALJ must provide clear and convincing reasons for
rejecting a treating physician’s conclusions. Lester v. Chater,
81 F.3d 821, 830
(9th Cir. 1995). The ALJ meets this burden by thoroughly summarizing the facts
and conflicting medical evidence, expressly interpreting that evidence, and making
findings. Magallanes v. Bowen,
881 F.2d 747, 751 (9th Cir. 1989). Here, the ALJ
thoroughly detailed the conflicts between the treating physician’s opinion and both
Alfano’s testimony and other record evidence, and he provided cogent justification
for declining to defer to that opinion. The Commissioner acknowledges that the
ALJ’s comment that the treating physician exhibited a “willingness to overstate the
severity of the claimant’s conditions” lacks support in the record, and we note that
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the ALJ’s comment that the treating physician’s records “do not mention a ‘cycling
mood or explosiveness’” appears to be contradicted by the physician’s May 17,
2016 treatment notes. We conclude that these errors are inconsequential to the
ultimate determination that the treating physician’s opinions were not consistent
with the record as a whole. Molina v. Astrue,
674 F.3d 1104, 1111 (9th Cir. 2012).
We conclude that the ALJ’s overall resolution of conflicting record evidence was
not unreasonable.
2. Substantial evidence supports the ALJ’s evaluation of the reports of
Alfano’s other examining physicians. The ALJ made specific findings regarding
the conflict between these reports and both Alfano’s testimony and her treating
physician’s opinion. The ALJ’s resolution of the conflicting evidence was not
unreasonable, even if other interpretations may be reasonable.
3. Substantial evidence supports the great weight afforded by the ALJ to the
opinions of non-examining state psychologists. An ALJ may give weight to
medical opinions that are consistent with the overall record. See 20
C.F.R. §§ 404.1527(c)(4), 416.927(c)(4). For non-examining sources, the weight
given to the opinion depends “on the degree to which they provide supporting
explanations for their medical opinion” and how “consistent [the] medical opinion
is with the record as a whole.”
Id. § 404.1527(c)(3)–(4). The ALJ here considered
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the supporting explanations provided in the state psychologists’ opinions and
found that they were consistent with treatment records, school evidence, and
Alfano’s activities of daily living. The ALJ’s finding that these opinions were
consistent with the record as a whole and entitled to significant weight was not an
unreasonable interpretation of conflicting evidence.
4. The ALJ’s decision to reject Alfano’s testimony regarding the severity of
her impairments is supported by substantial evidence. In making the disability
determination, the ALJ is responsible for “determining credibility and resolving
conflicts in the medical testimony.”
Magallanes, 881 F.2d at 750. However,
without evidence that the claimant is malingering, the ALJ must provide “clear and
convincing” reasons for rejecting the claimant’s testimony, which requires
identification of “what testimony is not credible and what evidence undermines”
the testimony.
Lester, 81 F.3d at 834. Here, the ALJ outlined the conflict between
Alfano’s testimony and other evidence in the record at each step of his
determination and explained how her testimony was not supported by the body of
evidence. The ALJ’s credibility determination was not unreasonable.
5. Alfano’s other arguments are premised on her arguments that the ALJ
erred in weighing the medical evidence and discrediting her testimony. Because
the ALJ did not unreasonably give little weight to Alfano’s testimony and the
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opinion of her treating physician based on the conflicting record evidence,
substantial evidence supports the ALJ’s determinations with regards to Appendix 1
Listings 12.04 and 12.06, Alfano’s residual functional capacity, and job
availability.
AFFIRMED.
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