Daniel Berry v. Carolyn Colvin

MEMORANDUM

Plaintiff-Appellant Daniel Berry (“Berry”) appeals the order adopting the magistrate judge’s report and recommendation to affirm the decision of Defendant-Appel-lee Carolyn W. Colvin, Acting Commissioner of Social Security Administration (“the Commissioner”), to deny social security disability benefits and supplemental security income benefits.

First, we decline to address Berry’s argument that the administrative law judge (“ALJ”) erred in failing to give him notice that, in order to prove that he could not return to his past relevant work, he had to submit written documentation that he previously held a commercial driver’s license (“CDL”) and that his last employer required him to have a CDL. We will not reverse an ALJ’s decision based on a legal error that is harmless. Treichler v. Comm’r of Soc. Sec. Admin., 775 F.3d 1090, 1099 (9th Cir. 2014). Even assuming, arguendo, that the ALJ erred in failing to give Berry notice of those requirements, the error was harmless because the ALJ found at step four that Berry could not return to his past relevant work as a courier driver—as he previously performed it— because he could not perform the exertion requirements of the…