Opinion ID: 788414
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: Prima facie case of ADA retaliation

Text: 41 The ADA provides: No person shall discriminate against any individual because such individual has opposed any act or practice made unlawful by this chapter or because such individual made a charge, testified, assisted, or participated in any manner in an investigation, proceeding, or hearing under this chapter. 42 U.S.C. § 12203(a). To establish a prima facie case of retaliation under the ADA, an employee must show that: (1) he or she engaged in a protected activity; (2) suffered an adverse employment action; and (3) there was a causal link between the two. Brown v. City of Tucson, 336 F.3d 1181, 1186-87 (9th Cir.2003). If the employee establishes a prima facie case, the employee will avoid summary judgment unless the employer offers legitimate reasons for the adverse employment action, whereupon the burden shifts back to the employee to demonstrate a triable issue of fact as to whether such reasons are pretextual. See Brooks v. City of San Mateo, 229 F.3d 917, 928 (9th Cir.2000). 42 Pardi has demonstrated a prima facie case. Pursuing one's rights under the ADA constitutes a protected activity. See, e.g., McAlindin v. County of San Diego, 192 F.3d 1226, 1238 (9th Cir.1999) (stating that vigorously asserting [one's] rights under the ADA and other state and federal discrimination laws constitutes protected activity); Hashimoto v. Dalton, 118 F.3d 671, 679-80 (9th Cir.1997) (determining that meeting with an Equal Employment Opportunity counselor to discuss sex and race discrimination constitutes protected activity). It is undisputed that Pardi lodged numerous union grievances and EEOC charges regarding Kaiser's failure to accommodate his disability. Pardi engaged in protected activities throughout the post-termination period, up to the date of the settlement. Indeed, it appears that the desire to halt the EEOC's investigations into Pardi's complaints motivated Kaiser to enter into the Settlement Agreement. 43 An adverse employment action is any action reasonably likely to deter employees from engaging in protected activity. Ray v. Henderson, 217 F.3d 1234, 1243 (9th Cir.2000). 5 Here, Kaiser failed to: (1) promptly delete Pardi's termination for cause from its records, (2) inform the DCA investigator about the Settlement Agreement, (3) turn over to the investigator medical records that would tend to exculpate Pardi, and (4) turn over to the investigator evidence of Pardi's history of complaints against Kaiser. We conclude that Kaiser's acts are reasonably likely to deter employees from engaging in protected activity and amount to actionable retaliation under this Court's expansive view of adverse employment actions. See Ray, 217 F.3d at 1240-44. 44 When adverse employment decisions closely follow complaints of discrimination, retaliatory intent may be inferred. See Bell v. Clackamas County, 341 F.3d 858, 865-66 (9th Cir.2003) (holding that proximity in time may by itself constitute circumstantial evidence of retaliation). Pardi made numerous complaints to the union, Kaiser's human resources department, and the EEOC about Kaiser's failure to accommodate his disability throughout 1997-1999. Pardi's complaints resulted in union grievance proceedings, including an arbitration in July 1999, and several EEOC investigations. 45 Some of Pardi's claims were pending at the time of the settlement negotiations in early January 2000. Soon thereafter, in early February, Kaiser failed to timely change Pardi's personnel file and made incomplete disclosures to Bleeker in connection with his investigation of Pardi. The temporal proximity between Pardi's protected activities and Kaiser's adverse acts sufficiently raises an inference of a causal link. 46 We conclude that Pardi has made a prima facie showing cognizable as a cause of action under the ADA. At the present stage of the litigation, Kaiser has not offered a legitimate, non-retaliatory explanation for its post-Settlement Agreement conduct, thus relieving Pardi from having to show that [Kaiser]'s explanation is merely a pretext for impermissible retaliation. Winarto v. Toshiba Am. Elecs. Components, Inc., 274 F.3d 1276, 1284 (9th Cir.2001). We must next consider whether the district court was correct to decide that Kaiser's report to the RCB and participation in the RCB's official investigation into Pardi's case were protected by the state litigation privilege. This question requires us to determine whether a state litigation privilege may be raised as a defense to actions alleged to violate federal civil rights laws. 47