Dennis J. Cohen v. Jo Anne Barnhart

Not for Publication in West's Federal Reporter
Citation Limited Pursuant to 1st Cir. Loc. R. 32.3
United States Court of Appeals
For the First Circuit
No. 02-1959
DENNIS J. COHEN,
Plaintiff, Appellant,
v.
JO ANNE BARNHART,
Defendant, Appellee.
APPEAL FROM THE UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT
FOR THE DISTRICT OF MASSACHUSETTS
[Hon. Rya W. Zobel, U.S. District Judge]
Before
Stahl, Senior Circuit Judge,
Lipez and Howard, Circuit Judges.
Michael James Kelley on brief for appellant.
Michael J. Sullivan, United States Attorney, Robert J. Triba,
Regional Chief Counsel, Joseph E. Dunn, Assistant Regional Counsel,
and Rayford A. Farquhar, Assistant U.S. Attorney, on brief for
appellee.
April 2, 2003

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Per Curiam. Claimant-appellant Dennis Cohen appeals
from a judgment of the district court affirming an order of the
Commissioner of Social Security that Cohen was not entitled to
disability benefits. The disputed issue in this case is
whether, as of June 30, 1994, the date he was last insured
("DLI"), appellant suffered from a disabling mental impairment
or combination of mental impairments.
Having carefully reviewed the record and the parties'
briefs, we reject each of appellant's assignments of error and
agree with the district court that there is substantial
evidence in the record supporting the Commissioner's finding
that appellant suffered from a progressively worsening mental
impairment that, as of the date of his application for
disability benefits, had not yet reached a level of severity
that would in itself preclude him from performing his past
relevant work as a cook, and that, accordingly, appellant's
mental impairment was not in itself severe enough to be
disabling as of the much earlier DLI. See Social Security
Ruling 83-20, Titles II and XVI: Onset of Disability (S.S.A.
1983) (requiring the ALJ to call a medical advisor when there
is ambiguity as to how long an impairment "ha[s] existed at a
disabling level of severity").
Affirmed. See Loc. R. 27(c).

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