Opinion ID: 4447149
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: Confidentiality Violation under the ADA

Text: Popeck argues that she brought a claim alleging that Rawlings violated the ADA’s confidentiality provisions and that the district court erred in failing to consider it. Rawlings responds that Popeck brought no such claim because she raised the confidentiality provisions for the first time in moving for summary judgment. -6- Case No. 19-5092, Popeck v. Rawlings Co., LLC, et al. Popeck’s complaint only off-handedly mentions the ADA’s confidentiality provisions. She alleges that Rawlings employees reviewed her “confidential FMLA and ADA paperwork,” that Popeck did not authorize this, and that those alleged actions “violate[d] the company’s confidentiality policies.” Those allegations address Rawlings’s purported violation of its internal policies, not the ADA’s confidentiality provisions. Besides, Popeck presents those allegations during the general narrative portion of her complaint; she fails to link them to any specific claim. The oblique reference to confidential ADA paperwork did not notify the defendants of a standalone claim founded on the ADA’s confidentiality provisions. Parties may not obtain relief on legal claims raised for the first time in summary judgment briefings, so we will not consider Popeck’s argument here. See Tucker v. Union of Needletrades, Indus., & Textile Emps., 407 F.3d 784, 789 (6th Cir. 2005).