Opinion ID: 628594
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: The Burden of Proof in this Case

Text: 47 In this case, the issue has been joined in a manner that places us squarely within the third category described above. Therefore, the district court erred in two respects on the question of burdens of proof: Because the VOA acknowledged that it had refused Mr. Barth's application on account of his handicap, the court should not have invoked the Burdine three-step scheme; and, more to the point, it wrongly assigned the burden of persuasion on the undue hardship issue to Mr. Barth instead of the agency. 48 The VOA does not claim that limiting Mr. Barth's overseas assignments to posts at which adequate medical facilities are available would be unreasonable in the abstract. Rather, it asserts that the requested accommodation would result in undue hardship as a result of considerations peculiar to its operation; essentially, its need for flexibility in the difficult task of rotating a small number of radio engineering specialists among twelve far-flung relay stations, most of them hardship posts, while trying to maintain the efficiency of its operation. The VOA notes that its non-hardship posts, the only ones at which Mr. Barth would be eligible to serve, function as short-term havens for its specialists. Yet, given the thin staffing of VOA posts, every transfer from, say, Liberia to Munich, Germany, implies the need for another transfer in the opposite direction. Mr. Barth, however, would be medically disqualified for such transfers, thereby imposing additional burdens on the remaining engineers. For these and other operational reasons, the VOA maintains that its staffing problems would be greatly compounded by admitting someone into the Service who from the outset had Mr. Barth's serious limitations on assignability. 49 The accommodation Mr. Barth seeks is assignment to one of three or four non-hardship posts in the VOA radio relay system. As the VOA admits that it restricts the assignments of certain of its current radio specialists for medical and family reasons, there can be no claim that such an accommodation would mark a fundamental alteration in the nature of the VOA's program. The agency argues instead that permanently assigning Mr. Barth to non-hardship postings would impose, in these particular circumstances, undue hardship on the VOA. This is an affirmative defense that the VOA had the burden of proving. The issue to be resolved, then, is whether it has met that burden. But because the district court erred in assigning the ultimate burden of proof to Mr. Barth, we must also decide whether that error was harmless. See Williams v. United States Elevator Corp., 920 F.2d 1019, 1022-23 (D.C.Cir.1990) (discussing standards for harmless error analysis in civil cases). 50 In Williams, we stated that in determining whether an error in a civil case was harmless, [t]he proper inquiry is 'whether the error itself had substantial influence. If so, or if one is left in grave doubt, the [verdict] cannot stand.' ... This inquiry 'involves an assessment of the likelihood that the error affected the outcome of the case.'  Id. at 1023 (quoting Kotteakos v. United States, 328 U.S. 750, 765, 66 S.Ct. 1239, 1248, 90 L.Ed. 1557 (1946), and Jordan v. Medley, 711 F.2d 211, 218 (D.C.Cir.1983)). 51 Mr. Barth does not claim that the Government failed to produce evidence of undue hardship. Therefore, the only conceivable prejudice from the district court's error is the possibility that its misallocation of the ultimate burden of proof affected the outcome of the case. For this to occur, the evidence presented would have to be in sufficient balance so that the outcome would depend on who had the burden. See, e.g., United States ex rel. Bilyew v. Franzen, 686 F.2d 1238, 1248 (7th Cir.1982) (If the evidence is closely balanced, then common sense indicates there is a reasonable possibility that who bears the burden of proof will determine the outcome.); cf. New York Life Ins. Co. v. Taylor, 147 F.2d 297, 301 (D.C.Cir.1945) (finding harmful error in civil case where burden of proof by preponderance of evidence was placed on wrong party because the evidence was such that the result might well have depended on where the ultimate burden of proof lay). 52 Here, the district court examined the administrative record and concluded that the VOA's decision that Mr. Barth's handicap could not be reasonably accommodated was proper and consistent with the requirements of the Rehabilitation Act. Mem. op. at 18. The court observed that [t]he thin staffing at each post required flexibility of assignment, put a premium on workers not subject to serious health risks, and offered few options for initial assignment of Mr. Barth. Id. It found that at the time he sought waiver Mr. Barth could function only at three or four posts. Id. Mr. Barth does not challenge the court's findings. To the contrary, he complains that 53 the government attempts to characterize this as a fact-bound appeal, claiming appellant has asserted that the District Court's findings are 'clearly erroneous.' The government must have read a different brief, for we have no quarrel here with the facts as found by the district court. 54 Reply Brief for Appellant at 1 (citation omitted); see also Fed.R.Civ.P. 52(a) (Findings of fact ... shall not be set aside unless clearly erroneous....). 55 Our examination of the records satisfies us that the VOA introduced sufficient evidence to support a claim of undue hardship by virtue of the loss of essential operational flexibility that would have resulted from an attempt to accommodate Mr. Barth's medical needs. And because Mr. Barth does not challenge the district court's findings of fact, we must accept those findings as true. Viewing the evidence through the lens of those findings, we conclude that it was not so closely balanced that the court's error in assigning the burden of persuasion to Mr. Barth would have affected the outcome.