Opinion ID: 1364986
Heading Depth: 4
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: American National

Text: Notwithstanding the relatively plain statutory language, a majority of this court, in American National Ins. Co. v. Fair Employment & Housing Com. (1982) 32 Cal.3d 603 [186 Cal. Rptr. 345 [651 P.2d 1151] ( American National ), held that handicap must be construed as coextensive with its dictionary definition, to wit, `a disadvantage that makes achievement unusually difficult.' ( Id. at p. 609, quoting Webster's New Internat. Dict. (3d ed. 1961) p. 1027.) Applying this broad construction, the majority held that high blood pressure constituted a handicap within the meaning of the FEHA. As pointed out by Justice Mosk in dissent, the foregoing construction virtually ignored not only the statutory language, but also the pertinent legislative history. The original Assembly bill defined physical handicap to include hardness of hearing, deafness, speech impairment, visual handicap, being crippled, or any other health impairment which requires special education and related services. (Assem. Bill No. 1126 (1973-1974 Reg. Sess.), italics added.) Although the bill was subsequently amended to replace the outdated phrase being crippled with the longer reference to amputation or loss of function or coordination, it does not appear that the Legislature intended any significant change of substance. As Justice Mosk observed, The phrase was evidently outdated, and prior to final passage it was amended into its present form. Yet in its old-fashioned way it did express the Legislature's intent: in ordinary usage and common understanding, to be `crippled' means to suffer from impaired physical mobility because of the total or partial loss of use of one or more limbs, extremities, or major joints. In most cases such impairment results when the limb is missing (e.g., because of birth defect or amputation), or when the limb is intact but the person cannot move it because of paralysis caused by disease (e.g., polio, multiple sclerosis, muscular dystrophy, or stroke) or trauma (e.g., paraplegia or quadriplegia) or because of immobility of the joint (e.g., degenerative arthritis), or when the limb is movable but the person cannot always control or coordinate its motions (e.g., because of cerebral palsy, epilepsy, or Parkinson's disease). [¶] In substituting the present definition for the phrase `being crippled,' the Legislature merely restated this traditional meaning in contemporary words. ( American National, supra, 32 Cal.3d at pp. 613-614.) [7]