Barnhart v. Thomas
Pauline Thomas applied for disability benefits because of a heart condition and related medical problems after being laid off from her job as an elevator operator, a position that her employer eliminated. Social security regulations provide a sequential process for determining whether a claimant has a disability. A claimant is entitled to benefits if, among others things, she does not retain the functional capacity to perform her past work (Step Four), and she is unable to perform any other jobs existing in significant numbers in the national economy (Step Five). An administrative law judge (ALJ) found that Thomas was not disabled under Step Four because she was still functionally able to perform her previous work as an elevator operator. The ALJ considered Thomas’s Step Five argument that her previous work no longer existed in the national economy, but held that such information was not relevant to the determination of disability under Step Four. The district court affirmed the ALJ but the court of appeals reversed, holding that Thomas should have been permitted at Step Four to introduce evidence that the job of elevator operator is no longer substantial gainful work existing in the national economy because such evidence is relevant to the Step Four determination of whether Thomas could have performed her previous work. The court held that the criteria of Step Four could be met, allowing the court to move on the Step Five, either by showing that the claimant cannot perform her past work or by showing that the previous job is not substantial gainful work existing in the national economy.
Question Presented:
Titles II and XVI of the Social Security Act define disability as the "inability to engage in any substantial gainful activity by reason of any medically determinable physical or mental impairment
which can be expected to result in death or which has lasted or can be expected to last for a continuous period of not less than 12 months." The Act further provides that a claimant "shall be
determined to be under a disability only if his physical or mental impairment or impairments are of such severity that he is not only unable to do his previous work but cannot, considering his age,
education, and work experience, engage in any other kind of substantial gainful work which exists in the national economy." Under the Act, "work which exists in the national economy" means
"work which exists in significant numbers either in the region where such individual lives or in several regions in the country." The question presented is:
Whether the Commissioner of Social Security may determine that a claimant is not "disabled" within the meaning of the Act because the claimant remains physically and mentally able to do her previous work, without considering whether that particular job exists in significant numbers in the national economy.
