Katie Rygmyr v. Leland Dudek,1 Acting Commissioner of Social Security Administration

United States Court of Appeals
For the Eighth Circuit
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No. 24-2005
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Katie Rygmyr
lllllllllllllllllllllPlaintiff - Appellant
v.
Leland Dudek,1 Acting Commissioner of Social Security Administration
lllllllllllllllllllllDefendant - Appellee
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Appeal from United States District Court
for the District of Minnesota
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Submitted: April 15, 2025
Filed: April 18, 2025
[Unpublished]
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Before GRUENDER, KELLY, and KOBES, Circuit Judges.
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PER CURIAM.
1Leland Dudek has been appointed to serve as Acting Commissioner of Social
Security, and is substituted as appellee pursuant to Federal Rule of Appellate
Procedure 43(c).

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Katie Rygmyr appeals the district court’s2 order affirming the denial of
supplemental security income. We agree with the district court that substantial
evidence in the record as a whole supports the adverse decision. See Bradford v.
O’Malley, 104 F.4th 1055, 1058 (8th Cir. 2024) (de novo review of district court’s
judgment; this court will affirm unless Commissioner’s findings are not supported by
substantial evidence). Specifically, we agree that the administrative law judge (ALJ)
did not err in defining a residual functional capacity (RFC) limitation by referencing
the Dictionary of Occupational Titles’ codes categorizing the complexity of
interactions required for jobs. It is the ALJ’s duty to make the RFC determination
regarding an individual’s functional abilities, and to phrase that determination in
vocationally specific terms when posing a hypothetical question to the vocational
expert (VE). See Harris v. Barnhart, 356 F.3d 926, 929 (8th Cir. 2004) (RFC is
function-by-function assessment of individual’s ability to do work-related activities);
Brenner v. Schweiker, 711 F.2d 96, 99 (8th Cir. 1983) (hypothetical question to VE
must set forth claimant’s functional limitations so that VE can realistically assess
availability of jobs).
The judgment is affirmed.
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2The Honorable Paul A. Magnuson, United States District Judge for the District
of Minnesota.
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