Opinion ID: 766776
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: ADA Claim and Judicial Estoppel

Text: 19 The ADA prohibits employer discrimination against an employee on the basis of a disability. 42 U.S.C. sec. 12112(a). The ADA both proscribes adverse employment treatment of an employee on the basis of the employee's physical or mental disability, 42 U.S.C. sec.sec. 12112(b)(1)-(4), and imposes an affirmative duty on employers to make reasonable accommodations for the disabilities of an employee who can perform the essential functions of her job with or without accommodation. 42 U.S.C. sec.sec. 12112(b)(5)-(7). 20 Feldman claims that Prairie States violated the ADA by failing to accommodate her disabilities. To establish a prima facie case for failure to accommodate under the ADA, Feldman must show that: (1) she was or is disabled; (2) Prairie States was aware of her disability; and (3) she is a qualified individual who, with or without reasonable accommodation, can perform the essential functions of the employment position that she held with Prairie States. See Bombard v. Fort Wayne Newspapers, Inc., 92 F.3d 560, 563 (7th Cir. 1996). 21 In granting summary judgment for Prairie States, the district court held that Feldman failed to establish that she was disabled. However, in our de novo review of summary judgment, we reserve opinion on the district court determination that Feldman was not disabled. Instead, we evaluate whether Feldman's contention that she is a qualified individual under the ADA is precluded by her earlier declarations regarding her disability in her applications for SSDI benefits. We find this question dispositive here. 22 Feldman's claim under the ADA raises the issue of judicial estoppel examined in a case decided last term by the Supreme Court, Cleveland v. Policy Management Systems Corp., 526 U.S. 795, 119 S.Ct. 1597 (1999). An applicant for SSDI benefits must establish that she is disabled under the Social Security Act and thus not only unable to do [her] previous work but cannot . . . engage in any other kind of substantial gainful work which exists in the national economy . . . 42 U.S.C. sec. 423(d)(2)(A). However, under the ADA, a claimant must establish that she is a qualified individual with a disability who would have been able to perform the essential functions of her job with or without a reasonable accommodation from her employer. 42 U.S.C. sec. 12111(8). At first glance, a claim of total disability under SSDI might seem fundamentally inconsistent with status as a qualified individual under the ADA. The doctrine of judicial estoppel prevents a party from adopting a position in a legal proceeding contrary to a position successfully argued earlier by that party in a legal proceeding. Ogden Martin Sys. of Indianapolis v. Whiting Corp., 179 F.3d 523, 526 (7th Cir. 1999). As a result, before Cleveland, some circuits applied a strong presumption of judicial estoppel of an ADA claim after a previous application for or receipt of SSDI benefits. See Cleveland v. Policy Mgt. Sys. Corp., 120 F.3d 513, 518 (5th Cir. 1997); McNemar v. Disney Store, Inc., 91 F.3d 610, 618-20 (3d Cir. 1996). 23 Cleveland, however, explained that the mere act of applying for SSDI should not estop a plaintiff from making a subsequent ADA claim. Cleveland, 119 S.Ct. at 1603. We have already ruled that claims under the ADA and SSDI are not so inconsistent that judicial estoppel is always appropriate. Weigel v. Target Stores, 122 F.3d 461, 467-68 (7th Cir. 1997). Sufficient divergence exists between the definitions of disability under the ADA and SSDI that, in some circumstances, an individual can claim truthfully both that she is unable to engage in any substantial gainful activity under SSDI but also a qualified individual with a disability under the ADA. See, e.g., Wilson v. Chrysler Corp., 172 F.3d 500, 504-05 (7th Cir. 1999); Weigel, 122 F.3d at 467-68. See also Rascon v. US West Commun., 143 F.3d 1324, 1330-31 (10th Cir. 1998); Swanks v. Washington Metro. Area Transit Auth., 116 F.3d 582, 584 (D.C. Cir. 1997). 24 The ADA and SSDI pursue different statutory purposes and require different, though related, inquiries into an individual's disability. First, SSDI provides a welfare safety net for those who are unable to work, regardless of employers' willingness to accommodate their disabilities, whereas the ADA serves a remedial purpose in opening work opportunities for the disabled by forcing employers to accommodate employees' disabilities so long as that does not im pose an undue burden. The ADA only protects the disabled who can work with or without reasonable accommodation while SSDI does not consider reasonable accommodation at all in defining disability. Thus, an individual might be able to work with reasonable accommodation and therefore be a qualified individual under the ADA, but be unable to work without reasonable accommodation and thus totally disabled under SSDI as well. 25 Second, SSDI utilizes broad administrative definitions designed to process masses of claimants with only a general inquiry into each applicant's individual situation. The SSA categorically considers certain conditions to be disabilities without consideration of the individual's actual level of impairment. See 20 C.F.R. sec.sec. 404.1520(d), 404.1525(a). In contrast, the ADA delves into the facts of each plaintiff's case within a litigation context to determine whether the plaintiff was unable to perform her particular job with or without reasonable accommodations for her condition. An individual might have a condition that the SSA considers categorically disabling, but be able to perform her job with or without reasonable accommodation because her condition is not terribly severe or disabling in fact. 26 Third, the severity of a disability may change over time such that an individual was totally disabled when she applied for SSDI, then later was a qualified individual at the time of the employment decision disputed in an ADA suit. Even though the underlying disability is the same, the SSDI application and the ADA suit might reference quite different points in time between which an improvement or deterioration in the plaintiff's disability may have transpired. Although an ADA suit must be brought promptly after the relevant employment decision, it is possible that the passage of time and a concomitant change in the disability could explain an inconsistency between SSDI and ADA status. 27 Looking to these substantive differences among others, the Court in Cleveland decided that judicial estoppel ought not apply merely because an individual has applied for or received SSDI benefits. Cleveland, 119 S. Ct. at 1603 (enumerating scenarios where an individual could qualify under both the ADA and SSDI). Any inconsistency in making claims, without receiving benefits, under both the ADA and SSDI is of the sort normally tolerated by our legal system. Id. Feldman's prior application for SSDI, by itself, does not estop her from making an ADA claim for the same underlying medical condition. 28 Judicial estoppel of an ADA claim, however, is distinguishable from summary judgment against the plaintiff when factual assertions essential to the claim are undermined by the plaintiff's previous sworn statements. Although Cleveland clarified that an ADA claim is not estopped simply because an individual applied for or received SSDI benefits, a plaintiff cannot avoid summary judgment merely by asserting that she is a qualified individual if she made prior statements, in applying for SSDI, regarding her disability that are squarely contradictory. A plaintiff may declare that she was totally disabled in her SSDI application, then declare that she was a qualified individual under the ADA, but she must show that this apparent inconsistency can be resolved with reference to variance between the definitions of disability contemplated by the ADA and SSDI. Thus, a plaintiff's sworn assertion in an application for disability benefits that she is, for example, 'unable to work' will appear to negate an essential element of her ADA case--at least if she does not offer a sufficient explanation. Id. 29 Like the plaintiff in Cleveland, Feldman argues that her claim of complete disability in her application for SSDI benefits does not preclude her from establishing that she was a qualified individual under the ADA. In her SSDI application, however, Feldman swore unequivocally that she was completely and totally disabled and cannot perform any substantial gainful employment. She declared that she could barely move and could not work a six to eight hour day because of pain, stiffness and fatigue. Her application stated that even daily activities are really restrictive because she had virtually no use of her left hand and felt such severe pain that it restricted use of her upper extremities. Feldman admitted that she could not carry a briefcase or drive long distances as her job required. These declarations appear on their face to contradict her argument before the district court on her ADA claim that she was a qualified individual who could per form the essential functions of her job as a traveling salesperson. As we once explained, [w]hen employees (and/or their physicians) represent that they are 'totally disabled,' 'wholly unable to work,' or some other variant to the same effect, employers and factfinders are entitled to take them at their word. Weigel, 122 F.3d at 467. 30 In her SSDI application, Feldman convinced the SSA of her total disability with unambiguous statements about her total incapacity to perform any substantial gainful employment. Feldman now explains flatly that she was able to perform the essential functions of her job, with or without reasonable accommodations and, thus, was a 'qualified individual.' This bald statement, without more, crashes face first against her claim of total disability in her SSDI application. We cannot permit litigants to adopt an alternate story each time it advantages them to change the facts. Feldman presented no explanation of the contradiction between her statements before the SSA and her statements to the district court on her ADA claim. 31 To avoid summary judgment under Cleveland, a plaintiff must resolve the apparent inconsistency with an explanation which warrants a reasonable juror's conclusion that the plaintiff could perform the essential functions of her job, with or without reasonable accommodation, even assuming the truth of the earlier statement. Cleveland, 119 S.Ct. at 1604. Although we have already explained that contradictions between SSDI and ADA attestations might be explicable, and thus a plaintiff is entitled to account for such inconsistencies, we will not assume that such a contradiction can be resolved in the absence of direct explanation. The Court in Cleveland insisted that [w]hen faced with a plaintiff's previous sworn statement asserting 'total disability' or the like, the court should require an explanation of any apparent inconsistency with the necessary elements of an ADA claim. Id. Unlike the plaintiff in Cleveland, Feldman failed to offer any explanation for the contradiction between her SSDI and ADA statements. We therefore will affirm the district court's grant of summary judgment.