ADA in the News: September 10, 2014

1.      Employers must focus on a person's ability, not disability, Ridge says

The Patriot-News

Within the past year, the U.S. Department of Labor made a sweeping policy change that former Gov. Tom Ridge believes will make great strides to help people with disabilities to find jobs.

 

Sunbridge Regency-North Carolina Pays $35,000 to Settle EEOC Disability Discrimination Lawsuit

SunBridge Regency-North Carolina, Inc., a North Carolina corporation that operates a nursing home in Mount Olive, N.C., will pay $35,000 and furnish other relief to settle a disability discrimination lawsuit filed by the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC), the agency announced today.

According to the EEOC's lawsuit, SunBridge hired Margaret Washington to work as a cook and dietary aide at its Mount Olive facility in June 2013. Washington has a physical impairment that limits her use of the left side of her body. Shortly after Washington began working for SunBridge, her supervisor asked her what was wrong with her left arm. Washington explained that she did not have the full use of her left arm, but that she was still able to perform her job duties. The EEOC said that a few weeks later, Washington's supervisor informed her that she did not believe she could perform her job duties without the full use of both arms. Shortly thereafter, SunBridge Inc. fired Washington for that reason.

 

1.      EEOC Disability Case Against Sony to Proceed, Federal Judge Orders

JD Supra

U.S. District Judge James B. Zagel of the Northern District of Illinois has issued an order denying a motion by Sony for a pre-trial judgment in its favor in a discrimination case brought by the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission under the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), the agency announced today. (EEOC v. Staffmark Investment LLC and Sony Electronics, Inc, 12-CV-9628, N.D. Ill.). In its lawsuit filed Dec. 4, 2012, the EEOC charged that Sony violated the ADA when it terminated Dorothy Shanks, a temporary worker with a prosthetic leg who was assigned to inspect Sony televisions.

 

1.      EEOC Challenges Overbroad Medical Releases In Lawsuit Against Cummins Power

JD Supra

Shoreview, Minn.-based Cummins Power Generation violated federal law by requiring an employee to submit overbroad medical release forms to have a fitness for duty examination, the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) charged in a lawsuit it filed today.

In its lawsuit, the federal agency contended that Cummins required an employee to sign various medical release forms that sought irrelevant information. Cummins informed the employee that he had to sign a release before taking a fitness-for-duty examination. When the employee objected to executing the releases presented to him, Cummins informed him that he had to sign a release or face termination. Cummins ultimately fired the employee for failing to sign the release, the EEOC said.

The EEOC maintains that by requiring the employee to execute an overly broad release, Cummins was making disability-related inquiries that were not job-related or consistent with business necessity. Such alleged conduct violates the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA). Further, the EEOC asserts that the releases presented to the employee would have resulted in the disclosure of family medical history in violation of the Genetic Information Nondiscrimination Act (GINA). The EEOC argues that Cummins also violated the anti-retaliation provisions of the ADA and GINA by firing the employee for his good-faith objections to the releases.

The EEOC brought the suit under Title I of the ADA, which prohibits disability discrimination in employment, and under Title II of GINA, which prohibits the acquisition of genetic information, after first attempting to reach a pre-litigation settlement through its conciliation process. The case (EEOC v. Cummins Power Generation, Civil Action 0:14-cv-03408-SRN-SER) was filed in U.S. District Court for the District of Minnesota, and is assigned to U.S. District Judge Susan Richard Nelson.

 

Accessible technology: Redbox DVD rental kiosk class action settlement highlights litigation risk presented by self-service equipment

Lexology

They are sprouting up everywhere:  Kiosks that allow customers to buy tickets, rent DVDs, get boarding passes, check-in at a hotel, count change, and even rent cars without ever having to interact with a human being.  These self-service kiosks can be a boon for customers and businesses, but they also create lawsuit exposure for businesses that fail to consider how they will be used by individuals who are blind or have limited mobility.     

 

1.      Police Officer's ADHD Was Not a Disability Within The Meaning of the ADA

The National Law Review

Weaving v. City of Hillsboro, 2014 WL 3973411 (9th Cir. 2014) Matthew Weaving worked as a police officer for the City of Hillsboro for approximately three years before his employment was terminated due to “severe interpersonal problems” between him and other employees of the police department.  Weaving contended that his interpersonal problems resulted from his attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (“ADHD”) and that his termination violated the Americans with Disabilities Act (“ADA”).  After the case went to a jury, which found in Weaving’s favor, the City filed a motion for judgment as a matter of law based on insufficient evidence to support the verdict.  The district court denied the City’s motion, but the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit reversed, holding that a jury could not reasonably have concluded that Weaving’s ADHD substantially limited his ability to work or interact with others and, therefore, he was not disabled within the meaning of the ADA.  See also Chubb & Son v. Superior Court, 2014 WL 3919614 (Cal. Ct. App. 2014) (no error in trial court’s permitting parties to disclose to their respective attorneys privileged documents in connection with former in-house counsel’s disability discrimination lawsuit).

 

1.      Blind Advocacy Group, Author, Sue Uber Over Alleged Discrimination

The San Francisco Appeal

A blind author and the National Federation of the Blind sued ridesharing company Uber in federal court in San Francisco today, alleging that it discriminates against blind riders with guide dogs.

The lawsuit alleges that some Uber drivers have refused to give rides to blind people with service dogs and that others have mishandled the dogs or harassed their owners.

It asks for an injunction requiring Uber Technologies Inc. to take steps to ensure that its drivers don’t illegally refuse to transport blind people with service dogs.

 

1.      3 Tips For Handling ADA Public Accommodation Cases

Mondaq News Alerts

Although we frequently write about the Americans with Disabilities Act, we rarely write about Title III of the ADA which requires places of public accommodation to be barrier-free to disabled persons. Title III of the ADA can be very complicated to understand and as a result claims of violations have become a bit of a cottage industry for some plaintiffs' attorneys.

There are, to be sure, legitimate claims by disabled persons that they cannot access a building. However, unfortunately business owners have also discovered that there are certain repeat attorneys paired with the same plaintiff who file dozens of ADA lawsuits.

 

1.      Dropped connection - telecom employee's ADA claims get hung up in court

Lexology

Sometimes, even when an employer offers  an ostensibly reasonable accommodation  under the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), the employee in question isn’t sat- isfied. Such was the circumstance in Hamedl v. Verizon, an appellate court decision that likely left the plaintiff with an even greater sense of dissatisfaction.

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