Settlement Agreement: Orange County Clerk of Courts
Corporation did not violate ADA by terminating employment of commercial truck driver for alcoholism
Lexology
Sakari Jarvela worked as a commercial truck driver for Crete Carrier Corporation from November 2003 until April 2010. At some point, Jarvela developed a problem with alcohol abuse. He sought treatment in March 2010. Jarvela's physician diagnosed him as suffering with alcoholism and referred him to an outpatient treatment program. Jarvela requested leave under the Family Medical Leave Act (FMLA), which Crete approved. Jarvela completed his treatment program in April 2010 and immediately sought to return to work, only one and a half months after being diagnosed with alcoholism. Crete maintains a company policy that prohibits it from employing anyone who has had a diagnosis of alcoholism within the past five years. The Department of Transportation (DOT) regulations prohibit anyone with a currently clinical diagnosis of alcoholism from driving commercial trucks. Thus, Ray Coulter, Crete's vice president for safety, determined that Jarvela no longer met the qualifications to be a commercial truck driver for Crete, and terminated his employment.
Lexology
The EEOC issued two informal discussion letters critiquing policies and forms used by unidentified public employers when making disability related inquiries of employees. Although informal discussion letters are not “official” EEOC opinions, they provide guidance on an employer’s legal obligations. In these informal letters, the EEOC reviewed the agencies’ fitness for duty exam forms and sample reasonable accommodation policy and accompanying questionnaires and found that they contained language that violated both the American with Disabilities Act (ADA) and the Genetic Information Nondiscrimination Act (GINA).
Wheelchair Patrons Sue Pennsylvania Malls Over Access
The National Law Journal
Several malls in Pennsylvania present unacceptable obstacles to people in wheelchairs, who face difficult slopes and other barriers when seeking to patronize the shopping centers, according to a proposed federal class action against a real estate investment trust.
Disabled plaintiff Christopher Mielo, who has filed other Americans with Disabilities Act claims in Pennsylvania, alleges Tennessee-based real estate investment trust CBL & Associates Properties, Inc. has violated Title III of the act by allowing three of its malls to be difficult to negotiate by patrons and workers in wheelchairs.
Four Pittsburgh-area malls owned by CBL—Monroeville Mall and Monroeville Annex in Monroeville, Pa., and Westmoreland Mall and Westmoreland Crossing in Greensburg, Pa.—have parking areas or curb ramps with slopes too steep to be easily and safely traversed by people in wheelchairs, according to the complaint in Mielo v. CBL & Associates, filed on July 11 in U.S. District Court for the Western District of Pennsylvania.
At one mall, the complaint alleges, the pavement under supposedly accessible parking spaces was broken and uneven. At others, spots marked “van accessible” weren’t wide enough to accommodate specialized vans than can haul wheelchairs; at another, no parking places were designated accessible to such vans.
The complaint, which contends these “architectural barriers” violate the ADA, seeks declaratory relief and a permanent injunction directing the company to bring its properties in full compliance with that law.
Plaintiffs’ attorneys are R. Bruce Carlson, Stephanie Goldin and Carlos Diaz, of Carlson Lynch LTD.
Disabled Man Settles Discrimination Suit Against Smithsonian
Washington City Paper
Lawyers representing a disabled man who filed a federal discrimination suit against the Smithsonian Institution last year after the National Air and Space Museum allegedly refused to allow him on its flight simulators because he was in a wheelchair say their client has settled with the Smithsonian—in an agreement, they say, that will make the museum more friendly to disabled visitors.