Vazquez-Morales v. Social Security

                    [NOT FOR PUBLICATION]

                UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS
                    FOR THE FIRST CIRCUIT

                                         

No. 95-1851 

                   MATILDE VAZQUEZ-MORALES,

                    Plaintiff, Appellant,

                              v.

               COMMISSIONER OF SOCIAL SECURITY,

                     Defendant, Appellee.

                                         

         APPEAL FROM THE UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT

               FOR THE DISTRICT OF PUERTO RICO

       [Hon. Salvador E. Casellas, U.S. District Judge]
                                                                  

                                         

                            Before

                    Torruella, Chief Judge,
                                                      
                Selya and Cyr, Circuit Judges.
                                                         

                                         

Raymond Rivera Esteves and  Juan A. Hernandez Rivera on brief  for
                                                                
appellant.
Guillermo  Gil,  United  States Attorney,  Maria  Hortensia  Rios-
                                                                              
Gandara,  Assistant  United  States  Attorney,  and  Wayne  G.  Lewis,
                                                                             
Assistant  Regional Counsel, Social  Security Administration, on brief
for appellee.

                                         

                      February 27, 1996
                                         


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          Per  Curiam.  We have carefully reviewed the record
                                 

on  appeal and  the parties'  briefs.   The  judgment of  the

district court  is affirmed  for  the reasons  stated in  its

order and in the report  and recommendation of the magistrate

judge which the order adopted.  We add only two comments.  

          1.  Claimant argues that the ALJ's finding that she

can  walk and sit  for an hour  each day is  not supported by
                         

substantial  evidence   because  the  Medical   Advisor  (MA)

testified  to  the contrary  at  the hearing.    We disagree.

Although the  MA first  stated that claimant  "must not  work

standing or walking," he later clarified this by stating that

she could spend, in an eight-hour day, "[o]ne hour walking or

one hour standing."

          Although confusing, it seems to us, first, that the

MA's  bottom line is that claimant can walk and stand for one
                                                           

hour  during an  eight hour  day.   We think  that claimant's

focus on  the  use of  the word  "or" in  the  last quote  is

hypertechnical.    Second,  there is  other  evidence  in the

record -- the two residual functional capacity assessments --

which  indicates that  claimant can  walk and  stand for  six
                                                                         

hours  per working  day.    Finally,  claimant  submitted  no

evidence of her  own to show the  impact of her condition  on

her ability to function.

          2.  In the same vein, claimant's assertion that the

Vocational  Expert  (VE)  described  a  secretarial  job   as

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requiring "indefinite" periods of walking and standing is not

supported by the  record.  The VE was  describing the general

requirements of such work and  was not assigning times to the

various activities.

          The judgment  of the  district  court is  affirmed.
                                                                        

See 1st Cir. R. 27.1.
               

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