103 F. Supp. 2d 869 - Harmon v. Apfel’s Empirical Analysis

Citation profile

1 federal appellate · 3 district ·

Most-quoted passages

The sentences later courts lift from this opinion, ranked by how many decisions quote each — the parts of the opinion doing the work. These counts are smaller than the citation total above because most of the 11 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.

1. “Although the Appeals Council denied Thomas’s request for review, it received and filed the new evidence, i.e., Dr. Lake’s Disability Reports and the Anson Medical Records, into Thomas’s administrative record. The Appeals Council explained, however, that it had “considered the contentions raised in your representative’s [appeal] letter dated, August 5, 1998, as well as the additional evidence also identified on the attached Order of the Appeals Council, but concluded that neither the contentions nor the additional evidence provide[d] a basis for changing the Administrative Law Judge’s decision.”

   2 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the majority
   e.g. 235 F. Supp. 2d 445 - Hawker v. Barnhart · 711 F. Supp. 2d 1239 - Woodsum v. Astrue

2. “In deciding this case, the court must attempt to steer its analytical ship between the twin perils of Scylla and Charybdis. The court is caught between trying to provide meaningful judicial review of evidence not considered by the fact finder, while avoiding actually performing the task of weighing and solving conflicts in the evidence, which is, of course, the function of the ALJ. Specifically, in this modern-day version of the classic Greek fairy tale, Scylla represents any violation of the Fourth Circuit’s rule that when evidence not considered by the ALJ is submitted to the Appeals Council and is incorporated into the record, the reviewing court must also consider this evidence in determining whether the Commissioner’s decision is supported by substantial evidence. By attempting to adhere to such a rule when the Appeals Council fails to articulate the reasons why the new, additional evidence does not suffice as a basis for changing the ALJ’s decision, this court is drawn perilously close to Charybdis, which represents any violation of the Fourth Circuit’s rule that the Commissioner must indicate explicitly the weight of all relevant evidence because it is not within the providence of a reviewing court to determine the weight of the evidence.”

   1 later decision quote this exact passage · from the majority
   e.g. 235 F. Supp. 2d 445 - Hawker v. Barnhart

3. “[Ajlthough the Appeals Council’s decision whether to grant or deny review of an ALJ’s decision may be discretionary as well as unreviewable, and the regulations do not require the Appeals Council to articulate a reason for its decision not to grant review, a reviewing court cannot discharge its statutory function of determining whether the findings of the Commissioner are supported by substantial evidence when the Appeals Council considered evidence that the ALJ did not have the opportunity to weigh, and rejected that new, additional evidence without specifying a reason for rejecting it or explicitly indicating the weight given to the evidence. Consequently, this court adopts the Magistrate Judge’s recommendation as modified herein and re verses the Commissioner’s decision and remands the case to the Commissioner to articulate his assessment of the additional evidence presented by Plaintiff, so that this court may determine whether the Commissioner’s decision is supported by substantial evidence.”

   1 later decision quote this exact passage · from the majority
   e.g. Suber v. Commissioner of the Social Security Administration