Perry Newman v. John W. Gardner, Secretary of Health, Education and Welfare

The plaintiff, an Eastern Kentucky-underground coal miner from the time he was seventeen years old, stopped working in February, 1962, at the age of 38. He filed a claim for disability benefits in June of 1962 due to “neck injury, silicosis, ruptured disc, hemorrhoids, and numb spells in his left leg.” The defendant Secretary determined that the only medically determinable impairment was and is an intervertebral disc lesion which (a) is remedial with reasonable effort and safety to the plaintiff, and (b) even unremedied, did not prevent the plaintiff from engaging in gainful occupations, such…