FILED
NOT FOR PUBLICATION FEB 03 2012
MOLLY C. DWYER, CLERK
UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS U .S. C O U R T OF APPE ALS
FOR THE NINTH CIRCUIT
STEPHEN HARRIS, No. 10-55528
Plaintiff - Appellant, D.C. No. 2:98-cv-00892-GAF-AN
v.
COMMISSIONER OF SOCIAL MEMORANDUM *
SECURITY,
Defendant - Appellee.
Appeal from the United States District Court
for the Central District of California
Gary A. Feess, District Judge, Presiding
Submitted September 26, 2011 **
San Francisco, California
Before: HUG, SKOPIL, and BEEZER, Circuit Judges.
Stephen Harris appeals pro se from a judgment by the district court
affirming the administrative law judge’s (ALJ’s) denial of disability insurance
benefits (DIB) and additional supplemental security income (SSI). We have
*
This disposition is not appropriate for publication and is not precedent
except as provided by 9th Cir. R. 36-3.
**
The panel unanimously concludes this case is suitable for decision
without oral argument. See Fed. R. App. P. 34(a)(2).
jurisdiction over this matter pursuant to 28 U.S.C. § 1291. We review de novo the
judgment of a district court upholding an ALJ’s denial of benefits to a Social
Security claimant. Valentine v. Comm’r Soc. Sec. Admin., 574 F.3d 685, 690 (9th
Cir. 2009). We affirm the ALJ’s decision if substantial evidence supports his
findings and he correctly applied the law. Id. The facts of this case are known to
the parties. We need not repeat them here.
The ALJ properly concluded that Harris is ineligible for DIB. A disability
claimant must prove he was permanently disabled or subject to a condition which
became disabling prior to his last insured date. Johnson v. Shalala, 60 F.3d 1428,
1432 (9th Cir. 1995). It is undisputed that Harris’s last insured date was
September 30, 1991. The evidence shows that Harris suffered occasional
impairments, but to qualify as a disability an impairment must last at least twelve
months. Barnhart v. Walton, 535 U.S. 212, 217 (2002). Harris suffered from
cellulitis before his last insured date, but the evidence is inadequate to conclude
that the impairment lasted twelve months. The last time this injury appears in the
record as an ongoing complaint was only six months after its initial diagnosis and
was said to be improving. Substantial evidence supports the ALJ’s finding that
Harris failed to prove that he had a disability prior to his last insured date.
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The ALJ also correctly found that Harris did not submit an application for
benefits prior to December 1994. The ALJ determined that Harris met the
disability requirement for SSI as of his December 1994 application, but Harris
argues that he first submitted an application in 1991 and should be awarded SSI
from that date. The only evidence in Harris’s favor is a putative letter from the
SSA that says he initially filed in 1991. The next month, however, an SSA
operations supervisor responded to an inquiry about the letter and said that it was
issued “without any basis” and that the SSA had no evidence to corroborate an
earlier filing. At best these two records create a conflict in the evidence which the
ALJ must resolve. See Magallanes v. Bowen, 881 F.2d 747, 750 (9th Cir. 1989).
The ALJ noted that a comprehensive search of the archives uncovered no evidence
of a filing from before 1994. The only evidence favorable to Harris is directly
controverted by the same source, and there is no other evidence of a pre-1994
application. We hold that the ALJ did not err in concluding that Harris submitted
his first application in 1994.
Harris briefly argues that he was denied due process, but there is no
indication he did not have “the opportunity to be heard at a meaningful time and in
a meaningful manner.” Mathews v. Eldridge, 424 U.S. 319, 333 (1976) (internal
quotation marks omitted). He does not specify how exactly his due process rights
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were violated, and the record shows that the various tribunals to hear this action
have given him ample opportunity to prove his case.
We have reviewed Harris’s remaining contentions, and determine that they
lack merit.
AFFIRMED.
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