Source: https://law.justia.com/cases/federal/appellate-courts/F3/177/180/475387/
Timestamp: 2019-05-23 20:56:00
Document Index: 448408290

Matched Legal Cases: ['§ 1630', '§ 1630', '§ 12101', '§ 1630', '§ 1630', '§ 1630', '§ 2323', '§ 531', '§ 1000']

Joseph B. Taylor, Appellant, v. Pathmark Stores, Inc, 177 F.3d 180 (3d Cir. 1999) :: Justia
Justia › US Law › Case Law › Federal Courts › Courts of Appeals › Third Circuit › 1999 › Joseph B. Taylor, Appellant, v. Pathmark Stores, Inc
Joseph B. Taylor, Appellant, v. Pathmark Stores, Inc, 177 F.3d 180 (3d Cir. 1999)
US Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit - 177 F.3d 180 (3d Cir. 1999)
Argued Feb. 9, 1999. Decided May 19, 1999
This case arises under the Americans with Disabilities Act ("ADA"). The plaintiff, Joseph B. Taylor, sued Pathmark Stores, Inc. ("Pathmark") in the District Court, alleging that Pathmark had discriminated against him on the basis of his disability or, in the alternative, that Pathmark wrongly regarded him as disabled. The District Court granted judgment as a matter of law for Pathmark on both claims. We will affirm the District Court's judgment on Taylor's claim that he was disabled within the meaning of the ADA, but reverse the judgment insofar as the District Court determined that Taylor was not regarded as disabled for the period between December 1995 and his rehiring in July 1997. In so doing, we reaffirm that, to successfully claim that he was wrongly regarded as disabled from working, a plaintiff need not be the victim of negligence or malice; an employer's innocent mistake (which may be a function of "goofs" or miscommunications) is sufficient to subject it to liability under the ADA, see Deane v. Pocono Med. Ctr., 142 F.3d 138, 143 n. 4 (3d Cir. 1998) (en banc), although the employer's state of mind is clearly relevant to the appropriate remedies. We recognize, however, a limited defense of reasonable mistake where the employee is responsible for the employer's erroneous perception and the employer's perception is not based on stereotypes about disability. Under these tests, material issues of fact remain for resolution at trial.
29 C.F.R. § 1630.2(j) (1) (1996). The relevant factors are (1) the nature and severity of the impairment; (2) the duration or expected duration; and (3) the expected or actual permanent or long-term impact of or resulting from the impairment. See 29 C.F.R. § 1630.2(j) (2). The impairment must be severe when compared to the functioning of the general population. The purpose of the ADA would be undermined if protection could be claimed by those whose relative severity of impairment was widely shared. See Forrisi v. Bowen, 794 F.2d 931, 934 (4th Cir. 1986). On the other hand, Congress expressed a strong remedial intent in enacting the ADA, and explicitly found that approximately forty-three million Americans were disabled as of 1990, see 42 U.S.C. § 12101(a) (1) (1998), which implies that the definition should not be so restricted that only the most extremely impaired are covered.
In Kelly v. Drexel University, 94 F.3d 102 (3d Cir. 1996), we found that a man who limped as a result of a hip injury, could not walk more than a mile, and had to climb stairs slowly was not disabled. We concluded that the restrictions on his ability to walk were "comparatively moderate," citing several district court cases that rejected similar claims. Id. at 106. Pathmark has also cited other cases in which walking problems were found not to constitute covered disabilities. See, e.g., Oesterling v. Walters, 760 F.2d 859, 861 (8th Cir. 1985) (a woman whose varicose veins prevented her from standing or walking for long periods was not disabled under the Rehabilitation Act's similar definition); Penchishen v. Stroh Brewery Co., 932 F. Supp. 671, 674 (E.D. Pa. 1996) (a woman with a metal plate in her left ankle who could not fully flex her foot or walk with a normal gait was not disabled), aff'd, 116 F.3d 469 (3d Cir.), cert. denied, --- U.S. ----, 118 S. Ct. 178, 139 L. Ed. 2d 119 (1997).
Taylor argues that Pathmark only allows one break every two hours and that his need for a break every hour makes him function at less than fifty percent of a typical Pathmark employee. The District Court responded that the standard is one of comparison to the "average person in the general population." 29 C.F.R. § 1630.2(j) (1) (1996). Taylor presented no evidence that Pathmark employees resembled the general population in average ability, though he did plausibly argue that Pathmark employed people of average ability. The more important point is that Taylor is mixing scales of measurement. That he can only stand for half as long as the average Pathmark employee, or average person, is not necessarily proof that he is substantially impaired in his ability to stand. The relevant question is whether the difference between his ability and that of an average person is qualitatively significant enough to constitute a disability. Because Taylor can stand and walk for fifty minutes at a time, and can continue for longer periods if he takes a break every hour, he can carry out most regular activities that require standing and walking, even though he may not be able to perform Pathmark's jobs without accommodation. We conclude that his ability to walk and stand is not significantly less than that of an average person.
Taylor finally argues that the employee in Kelly had no evidence that he used any special device, cane, or crutches to aid in walking. By contrast, Taylor needs a cane or crutch after fifty minutes and uses a prosthetic shoe to ease his pain and discomfort. Under our jurisprudence, the determination whether a disability exists must be made by evaluating a person's impairment as it affects major life activities without the use of mitigating measures, even if the person uses such mitigating measures in regular activity. See Matczak v. Frankford Candy & Chocolate Co., 136 F.3d 933 (3d Cir. 1997).2 Taylor contends that the District Court improperly took mitigating measures into account when determining his abilities by failing to note that Taylor needed ameliorative footwear to maintain his present level of mobility.
If Taylor had needed a cane or crutch to stand for fifty minutes an hour, his argument would be persuasive. But there is no evidence that Taylor required an assistive device to stand or walk for at least fifty minutes an hour. If he wanted to stand for longer, he needed a cane or crutch, but someone like Taylor who can stand for fifty minutes unassisted is not substantially limited in standing, and thus his need for assistance to improve his performance does not show that he has a disability. As for the air cast/cast type shoe, Pathmark argues that no doctor ever ordered him to use such devices, and that if he did so for his own comfort that cannot prove his disability. See Douglas v. Victor Capital Group, 21 F. Supp. 2d 379 (S.D.N.Y. 1998) (plaintiff used cane or crutches on occasion, but there was no evidence he was medically required to do so, and voluntary use could not meet his burden of proof). We have not been able to find evidence in the record that a doctor ordered Taylor to use an air cast, and we believe that occasional use of an air cast to diminish discomfort does not raise Taylor's condition to the level of a disability.3 Therefore we will affirm the District Court's judgment on the issue of whether Taylor was actually substantially limited in the major life activity of walking.
29 C.F.R. § 1630.2(l) (1996). Taylor argues that Pathmark regarded him as disabled by virtue of the ADA Committee's determination that he was too impaired to take any Pathmark job, with or without accommodation.
Several cases support our conclusion that, in general, an employer's perception that an employee cannot perform a wide range of jobs suffices to make out a "regarded as" claim. In Dipol v. New York City Transit Authority, 999 F. Supp. 309, 314 (E.D.N.Y. 1998), the court found that the plaintiff had proved a "regarded as" claim when, after receiving information from the plaintiff's doctor, the employer immediately placed the plaintiff on no-work status, excluding him from all jobs. In Coleman v. Keebler Co., 997 F. Supp. 1102, 1114 (N.D. Ind. 1998), the court held that evidence that the defendant concluded that the plaintiff could not perform any available jobs in a production plant created a material issue of fact on a "regarded as" claim. More generally, if an impairment at a certain level of severity would constitute a disability, then it follows that an employer who perceives an employee as having such an impairment perceives the employee as disabled. Cf. 29 C.F.R. pt. 1630 App., § 1630.2(j) ("An individual who has a bad back that prevents the individual from performing any heavy labor job would be substantially limited in the major life activity of working because the individual's impairment eliminates his or her ability to perform a class of jobs.").
We conclude that this set of facts was insufficient to support a directed verdict for the defendant. The District Court concluded that Taylor was proffering both a theory that he was disabled and a theory that he was wrongly regarded as disabled, which theories undercut one another. However, a plaintiff may plead in the alternative, and our caselaw finds no difficulty with pairing the two claims in one complaint. In Olson v. General Electric Astrospace, 101 F.3d 947 (3d Cir. 1996), we expressed no discomfort in denying summary judgment on a "regarded as" claim where the plaintiff had also alleged actual disability, although "the evidence that was apparently offered to demonstrate [his] fitness as an employee ironically establishes that he was not substantially limited in a major life activity." Id. at 953. Similarly, in Arnold v. United Parcel Service, Inc., 136 F.3d 854, 860, 862 (1st Cir. 1998), the court held that there is no conflict in bringing an actual disability and a "regarded as" claim together. See also Koblosh v. Adelsick, No. 95C5209, 1996 WL 675791, at * 5 (N.D. Ill. Nov. 20, 1996) (same).
At all events, we disagree with the District Court's description of Taylor's claims. Taylor did not claim that he was "not disabled" with respect to the frozen food manager job, as the court suggested; he claimed that the job's requirements did not interact with his disability in a way that prevented him from doing the job or that required accommodation (beyond allowing him to rest his leg on a milk crate from time to time, a measure that may not even technically be an accommodation and that we discuss further infra) . The distinction is highlighted by the example of a deaf person who claims that he is qualified for a job that involves converting handwritten notes into word processing files: He would not be "not disabled" with respect to the job, because disability is not a job-specific determination, but the job would not be affected by his disability.
We find the cases Pathmark cites on reasonable reliance to be inapposite. In Wooten v. Farmland Foods, 58 F.3d 382 (8th Cir. 1995), for example, the court held that the evidence of an employer's perception of an employee's abilities based on a doctor's note provided by the employee was insufficient to establish a "regarded as" claim. The court held that Wooten's employer's perceptions were not based on stereotype or myth but on a doctor's written restrictions. But the law in this circuit is that a "regarded as" plaintiff can make out a case if the employer is innocently wrong about the extent of his or her impairment:
Similarly, Riemer v. Illinois Department of Transportation, 148 F.3d 800 (7th Cir. 1998), sustained a "regarded as" claim where the employer's misperception about the effects of the plaintiff's asthma, based on a doctor's report, led it to exclude the plaintiff from an entire class of jobs, and in Johnson v. American Chamber of Commerce Publishers, Inc., 108 F.3d 818 (7th Cir. 1997), the court wrote, "If for no reason whatsoever an employer regards a person as disabled--if, for example, because of a blunder in reading medical records, it imputes to him a heart condition he never had--and takes adverse action, it has violated the statute...." Id. at 819; see also Dipol, 999 F. Supp. at 314 (the fact that the employer, after receiving information from a doctor, immediately placed the plaintiff on no-work status made out a "regarded as" claim); Mendez v. Gearan, 956 F. Supp. 1520, 1525 (N.D. Cal. 1997) (employer's mistaken perception that a temporary impairment was permanent could found a "regarded as" claim).4
Because the ADA imposes extensive requirements on employers and covers a broad range of conditions, new puzzles seem to arise from every case. Deane announced our conclusion that employer mistakes can lead to "regarded as" liability. The question then becomes: What limits, if any, are there to this principle? There are no clear answers in our precedent, the statute, the legislative history, or the EEOC's interpretive guidelines. We must, however, answer the question to resolve this case. We believe that guidance can be found in the general logic of the ADA, which requires an interactive relationship between employer and employee, and concomitantly requires an individualized evaluation of employees' impairments. See Taylor v. Phoenixville Sch. Dist., 174 F.3d 142 (3d Cir. 1999).6
Pathmark also argues that Taylor never proved that there was a job that he could do that was open during the relevant time period. As Pathmark points out, it has no duty to create a special job for a disabled person. See EEOC Technical Assistance Manual at 90.0530 (an employer is not required to create a new job or bump an employee from an existing job as a reasonable accommodation); cf. Shiring v. Runyon, 90 F.3d 827 (3d Cir. 1996) (reaching the same result under the functionally identical Rehabilitation Act). Specifically, Pathmark argues that Taylor never proved that there was an available frozen food manager position during the relevant period; his old job was filled before he returned in 1992, and nothing in the record shows that there was a vacancy thereafter. Unless there was a frozen food vacancy, Pathmark persuasively reasons, there can be no causal connection between Pathmark's perception of Taylor's abilities and its failure to give him the frozen food job. Taylor responds that he did not pursue the frozen food job more aggressively because his union representative was told that he was going to be put back to work. This is an issue of fact to be resolved on remand.
Taylor also suggests that he would have wanted to be considered for a cashier job, and there apparently were cashier vacancies for which the ADA Committee could have considered him. Pathmark's own ADA manuals suggested that cashier jobs did not require extended walking and standing. Furthermore, under the ADA the employer may be required to participate with a covered employee to identify a vacant position that the employee can perform, as employees may otherwise lack the ability to identify such positions. See Taylor, 174 F.3d at 160-61; Mengine v. Runyon, 114 F.3d 415, 420 (3d Cir. 1997). Therefore, there is at least a genuine and material issue as to whether Pathmark would have had a position for Taylor in 1996.
The Supreme Court will decide this issue shortly. See Sutton v. United Air Lines, Inc., --- U.S. ----, 119 S. Ct. 790, 142 L. Ed. 2d 653 (1999), granting cert. to 130 F.3d 893 (10th Cir. 1997)
Dotson v. Electro-Wire Products, Inc., 890 F. Supp. 982 (D. Kan. 1995), another case cited by Pathmark, is distinguishable. In that case, the physician's note at issue did not describe an impairment that could reasonably be thought to substantially limit the plaintiff in a major life activity. On receipt, the defendant did not change the plaintiff's job duties or take other actions to indicate that it considered her incapable of doing the general class of job. See id. at 991. In contrast, Pathmark sent Taylor a letter saying that his restrictions were permanent and that he was fired
We are also influenced by the Supreme Court's decisions in Faragher v. City of Boca Raton, 524 U.S. 775, 118 S. Ct. 2275, 141 L. Ed. 2d 662 (1998), and Burlington Industries, Inc. v. Ellerth, 524 U.S. 742, 118 S. Ct. 2257, 141 L. Ed. 2d 633 (1998). In those cases, the Court determined that general principles of agency law justified imposing Title VII liability on employers for sexual harassment committed by supervisors, but defined an affirmative defense to liability in order to give employers incentives to create effective anti-harassment programs. The details of the defense were dictated by concerns for logic and equity, not by Title VII's explicit provisions. We take the same path here
We note that it will not always be immediately clear whether a particular physician is an employee's agent. For example, whereas in Delaware, a worker seeking workers' compensation has a right to select an independent physician, see 19 Del.Code Ann. § 2323 (1998), the Pennsylvania Workers' Compensation Act allows an employer to establish a list of designated physicians or health care providers, and an employee may be required to visit one of those on the list in order to maintain a workers' compensation claim, see 77 Pa. Stat. Ann. § 531(1) (I) (1998). An employer's employment, ownership, or control of such physicians or health care providers must be disclosed in order for them to be placed on the list. Even if the providers on the list are independent, if the employer designates them and relies on their judgments, the onus may well be on the employer, rather than the employee, to correct their mistakes. It is also possible that the list will consist of independent providers negotiated by the employees' labor union and the employer. See 77 Pa. Stat. Ann. § 1000.6(a) (3) (1998). We express no opinion on all these agency issues, which are not present here and will have to be resolved on a case-by-case basis