Case summary: BAILEY v. chater (U.S. 4th Circuit court of appeals 1995)

Bailey v. Chater
C.A.4 (Va.), 1995.

United States Court of Appeals, Fourth Circuit.
Verle J. BAILEY, Plaintiff-Appellant,
v.
Shirley CHATER, Commissioner of Social Security, Defendant-Appellee.
No. 94-2241.

Argued June 7, 1995.
Decided Oct. 18, 1995.

Margaret Cuthbert Broaddus of Cuthbert Law Offices in Petersburg, Va. successfully appealed the denial of a client’s Social Security benefits. The claimant suffered from diabetes, hypertension and glaucoma. Medical evidence indicated she had been hospitalized for diabetic ketoacidosis in late 1989. She was unable to perform substantial work after that incident but did not have more thorough examinations until May 1992. An Administrative Law Judge set a disability date of December 1991 – or two years after the date the claimant alleged she became disabled. The court ruled the ALJ's decision was wholly arbitrary and not supported by substantial evidence. The onset of the claimant’s disability was ambiguous, the court said, and the Administrative Law Judge should have relied on a medical advisor to determine the correct date. “In cases such as this one, medical advisors are the prescribed mechanism for reaching the required evidentiary threshold; their services may not be dispensed with by fiat,” according to the opinion.

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