[NOT FOR PUBLICATION--NOT TO BE CITED AS PRECEDENT]

United States Court of Appeals For the First Circuit

No. 97-1554

JULIO A. PEREZ-ALVARADO,

Plaintiff, Appellant,

v.

KENNETH S. APFEL, COMMISSIONER OF SOCIAL SECURITY, Defendant, Appellee.

APPEAL FROM THE UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT

FOR THE DISTRICT OF PUERTO RICO

[Hon. Hector M. Laffitte, U.S. District Judge]

Before

Boudin, Stahl and Lynch, Circuit Judges.

Juan F. Matos Bonet and Matos Bonet & Matos De Juan on brief for appellant. Guillermo Gil, United States Attorney, Lilliam Mendoza-Torro, Assistant United States Attorney, and Wayne G. Lewis, Assistant Regional Counsel, Social Security Administration, on brief for appellee.

June 23, 1998

Per Curiam. Claimant Julio Perez Alvarado appeals a district court judgment that upheld the denial of his application for Social Security disability benefits. Alleging that he suffers from bronchial asthma and back, left leg, and chest pain, claimant maintains that he has been continuously disabled since he fractured his left thigh bone in a 1976 automobile accident. After thoroughly reviewing the record and the parties' briefs on appeal, we conclude that the ALJ's decision is supported by substantial evidence and uninfected by error of law. Contrary to claimant's contention on appeal, the ALJ was not required to credit the vocational expert's testimony that claimant could not work if he could not lift at all. Dr. Bonilla's report did not say that claimant was wholly unable to lift. To the contrary, the relatively benign findings recorded in this report and the other medical evidence supported the ALJ's conclusion that claimant retained the capacity to perform at least the sedentary jobs that the vocational expert described. Accordingly, the judgment of the district court is affirmed.