Day v. Shalala

COHN, District Judge. This is a class action social security case. Appellants, the Secretary of Health and Human Services (Secretary) and Ohio Bureau of Disability Determination (BDD), appeal the grant of class wide relief to respondents requiring the reopening of applications for disability benefits by class members. Class members are all persons who applied for and were denied, or were terminated from, the receipt of disability benefits by the BDD since October 9, 1984. The District Court found that the BDD had failed to comply with the Social Security Act (the Act) and accompanying regulations by not properly obtaining medical assessments and consultative examinations from treating physicians, using unpublished guidelines in the determination of claimants residual functional capacities, and issuing inadequate notices of denial of benefits. For the reasons that follow, the District Court will be affirmed in part and reversed in part.