Tamara Alyn Lanham v. KILOLO KIJAKAZI, Acting Commissioner of Social Security

UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS
FOR THE NINTH CIRCUIT
TAMARA ALYN LANHAM,
Plaintiff-Appellant,
v.
KILOLO KIJAKAZI, Acting
Commissioner of Social Security,
Defendant-Appellee.
No. 22-35399
D.C. No. 6:20-cv-01601-MC
District of Oregon,
Eugene
ORDER AMENDING
MEMORANDUM DISPOSITION
Before: RAWLINSON, BEA, and SUNG, Circuit Judges.
The Memorandum Disposition filed on May 4, 2023, is hereby amended by
deleting the last two sentences. With this amendment, the panel unanimously
voted to deny the Petition for Rehearing.
Judges Rawlinson and Sung voted to deny, and Judge Bea recommended
denying, the Petition for Rehearing En Banc.
The full court has been advised of the Petition for Rehearing En Banc, and
no judge of the court has requested a vote.
The Petition for Rehearing/En Banc by Appellant Tamara Lanham, filed
June 16, 2023, is DENIED.
FILED
AUG 2 2023
MOLLY C. DWYER, CLERK
U.S. COURT OF APPEALS

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A copy of the Amended Memorandum Disposition is attached. No further
petitions for rehearing or rehearing en banc will be considered.
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NOT FOR PUBLICATION
UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS
FOR THE NINTH CIRCUIT
TAMARA ALYN LANHAM,
Plaintiff-Appellant,
v.
KILOLO KIJAKAZI, Acting
Commissioner of Social Security,
Defendant-Appellee.
No. 22-35399
D.C. No. 6:20-cv-01601-MC
AMENDED MEMORANDUM*
Appeal from the United States District Court
for the District of Oregon
Michael J. McShane, District Judge, Presiding
Argued and Submitted April 20, 2023
Portland, Oregon
Before: RAWLINSON, BEA, and SUNG, Circuit Judges.
Tamara Lanham appeals the denial of her application for Social Security
benefits. We review the district court’s decision “de novo, and will disturb the
denial of benefits only if the decision contains legal error or is not supported by
FILED
AUG 2 2023
MOLLY C. DWYER, CLERK
U.S. COURT OF APPEALS
* This disposition is not appropriate for publication and is not precedent
except as provided by Ninth Circuit Rule 36-3.

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substantial evidence.” Terry v. Saul, 998 F.3d 1010, 1012 (9th Cir. 2021) (citation
omitted).
1. Any error in incorporating the residual functional capacity (RFC)
limitation of “minimal reading and writing skills” into the hypothetical posed to
the Vocational Expert (VE) was harmless. See Carmickle v. Comm’r Soc. Sec.
Admin., 533 F.3d 1155, 1162 (9th Cir. 2008) (explaining that an error is harmless
when it is “inconsequential to the ultimate nondisability determination”) (citations
omitted)). The VE identified two jobs in the national economy, small parts
assembler and electronics worker, which do not require reading or writing. And
Lanham conceded before the district court and at oral argument on appeal that she
could perform these jobs.
2. The ALJ did not err by declining to address the rebuttal job-numbers
evidence. See White v. Kijakazi, 44 F.4th 828, 836 (9th Cir. 2022) (“[A]n ALJ
need only resolve job-number inconsistencies if the competing job numbers
constitute significant probative evidence . . . .”) (citation, alteration, and internal
quotation marks omitted)). The generic job numbers contained in Lanham’s post-
hearing filing did not significantly undermine the VE’s expert opinion regarding
the number of available jobs. See Kilpatrick v. Kijakazi, 35 F.4th 1187, 1192–93
(9th Cir. 2022) (recognizing VEs as experts).
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AFFIRMED.
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