Offering Practical Guidance to Employers
A correctional officer whose doctor restricted her from working the graveyard shift (6 p.m. to 6 a.m.) may pursue her ADA failure to accommodate and constructive discharge claims, according to a federal court in New Mexico. Maes v. City of Espanola (D.N.M. January 13, 2014).
Plaintiff’s doctor wrote that plaintiff’s working the graveyard shift “caused…
The plaintiff drove an excavator, which had an automatic transmission. The plaintiff moved the excavator from one jobsite to another by hauling it on a trailer behind a semi-truck, which had a manual transmission. While other employees sometimes hauled the excavator, the plaintiff moved it about 70% of the time. Due to a motorcycle accident,…
An employer’s losing a summary judgment motion in an employment case is one thing; for a plaintiff to win summary judgment is quite another. Such was the case in Lafata v. Dearborn Heights School District No. 7 (E.D. MI December 11, 2013), where a court rejected an employer’s defense that it “had a right to…
The EEOC has sued a hospital that granted an employee two months of medical leave and extended it for an additional four months, but denied her further medical leave and terminated her because her continued absence would cause it an undue hardship. EEOC v. Children’s Hospital and Research Center, Case No.”CV 13-5715 (N.D. CA.…
An employee who claimed her supervisor “dressed [her] down” for 45 minutes, telling her during the tirade that she was unqualified for her job “because bipolar people are deficient, flighty, dishonest and untrustworthy,” cannot establish her constructive discharge claim, according to the Eleventh Circuit of the U.S. Court of Appeals. Menzie v. Ann Taylor Retail…
A plaintiff’s failure to accommodate claim under the ADA may proceed even though the plaintiff did not follow the employer’s accommodation request procedures, according to a Virginia federal district court. Martin v. Yokohama Tire Corporation (W.D.Va. November 12, 2013).
The plaintiff, a diabetic, alleged that his requests for time off for doctors’ appointments and when…
A former employee’s ADA claim that he was terminated unlawfully pursuant to a “Maximum Medical Leave of Absence Termination Policy” –an “inflexible blanket policy,” he called it –-was rejected because he was unable to return to his job at the end of his leave, did not request a transfer to a job he could perform,…
Even if kidney stones were a disability under the ADA, an employer did not violate the ADA by not providing the plaintiff’s requested accommodations of “flexibility in her schedule” and a reduced work load for an indefinite period of time, according to a federal district court in Utah. Whitmeyer v. R & O Construction, Inc.…
A federal district court in Indiana has rejected an employer’s argument that attendance is an essential function, citing two reasons for denying summary judgment: that the job description “is silent as to whether attendance is an essential function” and that the company has 22 “formal” leave of absence plans. EEOC v. AT&T Corp. (D. IN.…
Denying a school district summary judgment on the plaintiff’s ADA claim, a court held that plaintiff’s anxiety and depression, “likely stemming from her concerns about possibly getting fired,” may be a disability under the ADA. Huiner v. Arlington School District, (D.SD, Sept. 26, 2013).
The plaintiff, a teacher, had been placed on a performance…
