Opinion ID: 2631069
Heading Depth: 4
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: Essential Functions

Text: ¶ 30 Whether certain tasks are essential functions varies from job to job and industry to industry. A judge is ill-equipped to determine, with his or her legal expertise, the essential elements of a fast-food job. Rather, that determination must be based on factual evidence and testimony from those with experience in the industry. Additionally, there is no legal rule that could create the basis for a mixed question of fact and law. While the adjective essential does introduce a level of abstraction into the fact-finder's determination, it does not create a mixed question any more than the modifier reasonable changes the reasonable man standard into a legal determination. Cf. Benson v. Ames, 604 P.2d 927, 929 (Utah 1979) (finding that negligence under a reasonable man standard is a factual determination disrupted on appeal only if substantial evidence fails to support the trial court's ruling). We consequently hold that the question of whether an employee can perform the essential functions of prior employment is a factual determination that should be overturned on appeal only if substantial evidence fails to support it.