Benjamin SHARFARZ, Plaintiff-Appellant, v. Otis R. BOWEN, Secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services, Defendant-Appellee

Appellant is a sixty-one-year-old claimant for Social Security disability insurance benefits. He suffers from generalized severe osteoarthritis of the spine, which produces considerable limitation of motion in multiple joints and is evidenced by marked deformity of extremities. Following an evi-dentiary hearing before an administrative law judge (AU), the AU found that despite appellant’s severe arthritis, he could perform medium work and thus could return to his former occupation as a painter (which involved carrying up to forty pounds and climbing ladders). The Appeals Council declined to…