Kenneth J.V. v. Kijakazi
- Katherine Menendez
- 0:22-cv-00373
- U.S. District Court · District of Minnesota
- 3
In Kenneth J.V. v. Kijakazi, Judge Menendez reversed the disability decision and remanded for further proceedings after finding the agency’s reasoning unclear.
Kenneth J.V. and the Social Security Administration. Kenneth J.V.’s denied disability-benefits applications must be considered in further proceedings; the order did not award benefits.
What happened
In Kenneth J.V. v. Kijakazi, the court reviewed a magistrate judge’s recommendation concerning Kenneth J.V.’s applications for disability benefits. The recommendation found that the administrative law judge did not explain why the decision limited Kenneth J.V. to occasional contact with others instead of also addressing a recommended limit to superficial contact.
The court found no clear error and accepted the recommendation. It denied both sides’ motions for summary judgment, granted Kenneth J.V.’s motion to send the case back, and reversed the Commissioner’s decision denying his disability insurance and Supplemental Security Income applications.
Judge Menendez ordered the case returned to the Social Security Administration for further proceedings consistent with the recommendation. The order did not award benefits; it required the agency to reconsider the matter.
The detailed version
- Kenneth J.V. v. Kijakazi · No. 0:22-cv-00373
- Katherine Menendez
- Mar. 7, 2023
Background
The case concerned Kenneth J.V.’s applications for Disability Insurance Benefits and Supplemental Security Income. Magistrate Judge Dulce J. Foster issued a Report and Recommendation on January 27, 2023. No objections were filed.
Judge Foster recommended denying both parties’ motions for summary judgment, denying their supplemental motions for summary judgment, and granting Kenneth J.V.’s motion for remand. The recommendation addressed the administrative law judge’s mental residual functional capacity finding. The finding limited Kenneth J.V. to “occasional” contact with other people but did not expressly include a limitation to “superficial” contact.
The administrative law judge had found persuasive the opinions of two psychological consultants who concluded that Kenneth J.V. would be limited to superficial contact with others. But the administrative law judge did not explain why that limitation was not included in the residual functional capacity finding. Judge Foster concluded that the administrative law judge may have treated “occasional” and “superficial” as meaning the same thing, even though the Social Security Appeals Council had recently explained that they are not synonymous. Judge Foster found the error potentially outcome-determinative and concluded that remand was required.
Court’s Review and Rulings
Because there were no objections, Judge Menendez reviewed the Report and Recommendation for clear error. After reviewing the recommendation and the record, the court found no error and accepted it.
The court ordered the following:
- The Report and Recommendation was accepted. - Kenneth J.V.’s motion and supplemental motion for summary judgment were denied. - The Commissioner’s motion and supplemental motion for summary judgment were denied. - Kenneth J.V.’s motion for remand was granted. - The Commissioner’s decision denying Kenneth J.V.’s Disability Insurance Benefits and Supplemental Security Income applications was reversed. - The case was remanded to the Social Security Administration under sentence four of 42 U.S.C. § 405(g) for further proceedings consistent with the Report and Recommendation.
The order required further agency proceedings and did not state that benefits were awarded.
Read the full 3-page opinion on CourtListener, the free public archive maintained by the Free Law Project.