Stacey Case v. Michael Astrue

MEMORANDUM

Stacey Case appeals the district court’s judgment affirming the Administrative Law Judge’s (ALJ) determination that Case was not disabled. Case argues that the ALJ’s decision should be reversed because it did not contain the requisite “specific, legitimate reasons” for rejecting her treating rheumatologist’s opinions about her residual functional capacity (RFC). Morgan v. Comm’r of Soc. Sec. Admin., 169 F.3d 595, 600 (9th Cir.1999) (internal quotation marks and citation omitted). Although the ALJ properly “set[ ] out a detailed and thorough summary of the facts and conflicting clinical evidence,” id. (internal quotation marks and citation omitted), we conclude that several of the ALJ’s reasons for discounting the treating physician’s RFC were improper.

The ALJ erred by discounting the treating physician’s RFC because it was completed “for obvious litigious purposes.” “The purpose for which medical reports are obtained does not provide a legitimate basis for rejecting them” unless there is additional evidence demonstrating impropriety, and the ALJ identified no such evidence. Lester v. Chater, 81 F.3d 821, 832 (9th Cir.1995); see also Reddick v. Chater, 157 F.3d 715,…