NONPRECEDENTIAL DISPOSITION
To be cited only in accordance with Fed. R. App. P. 32.1
United States Court of Appeals
For the Seventh Circuit
Chicago, Illinois 60604
Submitted September 7, 2016*
Decided September 15, 2016
Before
DIANE P. WOOD, Chief Judge
RICHARD A. POSNER, Circuit Judge
FRANK H. EASTERBROOK, Circuit Judge
No. 15‐3733
SHUNTAY ANTONIO BROWN, Appeal from the United States District
Plaintiff‐Appellant, Court for the Northern District of Illinois,
Eastern Division.
v.
No. 15 C 1313
CAROLYN W. COLVIN,
Acting Commissioner of Social Security, Amy J. St. Eve,
Defendant‐Appellee. Judge.
O R D E R
Shuntay Brown sought judicial review of the denial of his applications for
Supplemental Security Income and Disability Insurance Benefits. The district court
dismissed the suit without prejudice after concluding that Brown had failed to exhaust
his administrative remedies. Brown moved for reconsideration of that determination
under Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 60(b), and the court denied the motion. We affirm.
* We have unanimously agreed to decide the case without oral argument because
the briefs and record adequately present the facts and legal arguments, and oral
argument would not significantly aid the court. See FED. R. APP. P. 34(a)(2)(C).
No. 15‐3733 Page 2
Brown applied for SSI and DIB based on various mental‐health conditions. Those
applications were denied initially and on reconsideration.
Rather than request a hearing in front of an administrative law judge (the next
step in the agency’s administrative review process), Brown filed this suit. In March 2015,
the district court dismissed the suit; he did not exhaust administrative remedies, the
court said, because he did not seek review from an ALJ and the Appeals Council.
Brown then requested and received a hearing before an ALJ, who concluded in a
decision dated May 13, 2015, that he was not disabled. The ALJ found that Brown was
capable of a full range of work at all exertional levels, with certain limitations regarding
his ability to perform simple, routine, and repetitive tasks and his interactions with
others. The ALJ informed Brown that he had 60 days within which to appeal her
decision to the Appeals Council, see 20 C.F.R. §§ 404.968, 416.1468. Over the following
month, Brown sent multiple letters to the ALJ asking her to reopen the case. The ALJ
denied these requests, and in a letter of June 10, 2015, informed Brown that he should file
an appeal with the Appeals Council “immediately” if he disagreed with her unfavorable
decision in May.
Brown filed an appeal with the Appeals Council on July 29. The Appeals Council
dismissed the request for review as untimely, finding no good cause to extend the time
for appealing because Brown repeatedly had been advised that he needed to file an
appeal within 60 days of the ALJ’s decision.
Brown then returned to the district court and sought reconsideration of its earlier
dismissal on grounds that the agency had rendered a final decision that the court could
review under 42 U.S.C. § 405(g). The court denied his motion. The agency’s final decision
was the Appeals Council’s dismissal, which the court said was not subject to further
review, and Brown had not established exceptional circumstances meriting relief under
Rule 60(b).
On appeal Brown maintains that he is entitled to Rule 60(b) relief because he has
exhausted the agency’s administrative‐review process but says nothing to suggest why
the district court was wrong to conclude that he did not demonstrate exceptional
circumstances to merit the “extraordinary remedy” of relief under that rule, Banks v. Chi.
Bd. of Educ., 750 F.3d 663, 668 (7th Cir. 2014) (quoting Bakery Mach. & Fabrication, Inc. v.
Traditional Baking, Inc., 570 F.3d 845, 848 (7th Cir. 2009)). Even pro se litigants must
comply with Federal Rule of Appellate Procedure 28(a)(8), which requires that an
appellate brief contain a cogent argument and reasons supporting it. In his reply brief,
No. 15‐3733 Page 3
Brown asserts that his mental impairments and lack of counsel kept him from complying
with the administrative‐review procedures, but he waived those arguments by not
developing them and by raising them for the first time only in his reply brief.
See Nationwide Ins. Co. v. Cent. Laborers’ Pension Fund, 704 F.3d 522, 527 (7th Cir. 2013).
To the extent that Brown seeks to challenge the underlying dismissal for failure to
exhaust administrative remedies, he may not do so because in a prior order we limited
this appeal to a review of the order denying the Rule 60(b) motion (the order of
December 3, 2015).
AFFIRMED.