Court Opinion

ID: 9499222
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-05 17:41:27.954088+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:59:21.574392
License: Public Domain

JULIA SMITH GIBBONS, Circuit Judge,
concurring.
I agree with the majority opinion’s holding affirming the district court but write separately to emphasize that morbid obesity, as opposed to the general condition of being overweight, may have a physiological cause. The EEOC, however, has put forth no evidence in this case either that Grin-dle’s morbid obesity has a physiological cause or that morbid obesity, because of the nature of the disorder, always has a physiological cause. For this reason, the EEOC cannot defeat the motion for summary judgment.
Under the American with Disabilities Act (“ADA”), an individual is disabled if he has a physical impairment that substantially limits one or more major life activities, or if the individual’s employer believes that the individual has such an impairment. 42 U.S.C. § 12102(2). The Supreme Court has laid out two ways in which an individual can be “regarded as” having a disability and fall into the latter of these categories. Sutton v. United Air Lines, Inc., 527 U.S. 471, 489, 119 S.Ct. 2139, 144 L.Ed.2d 450 (1999). First, an employer can be under the mistaken belief that the employee is disabled, when in fact he is not. Id. Second, the employee can actually have a physical impairment, and the employer can know it, but the employer mistakenly believes that the impairment is more disabling than it in fact is. Id. The EEOC pursued its case under the second approach. Thus, to make out a case, the EEOC needs to show that (1) Grindle has a physical impairment, (2) Watkins knew of the impairment, and (3) Watkins believed that the impairment limited Grin-dle’s major life activity of working when in fact it did not.
The EEOC has not met its burden on the first part of the test — that morbid obesity is a physical impairment under the ADA and its governing regulations. The regulation defines “physical impairment” as:
Any physiological disorder, or condition, cosmetic disfigurement, or anatomical loss affecting one or more of the following body systems: neurolog*444ical, musculoskeletal, special sense organs, respiratory (including speech organs), cardiovascular, reproductive, digestive, genito-urinary, hemic and lymphatic, skin, and endocrine.
29 C.F.R. § 1630.2(h)(1). The EEOC argues that morbid obesity is a “condition,” and that by this definition, a “condition,” unlike a “disorder,” need not have a physiological cause to be considered a physical impairment. Watkins counters that morbid obesity is only a physical impairment if it has a physiological cause. Although a literal reading of § 1630.2(h)(1) suggests that no physiological cause is needed, a closer look at the history of the regulation indicates that this interpretation is not correct.
When the EEOC adopted § 1630.2(h)(1), it stated that its intent was to adopt “the definition of the term ‘physical or mental impairment’ found in the regulations implementing section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act at 34 CFR part 104.” 56 Fed. Reg. 35726, 35740-41 (July 26, 1991). Both at the time the regulation was adopted and today, the Rehabilitation Act regulation defines “physical impairment” as:
any physiological disorder or condition, cosmetic disfigurement, or anatomical loss affecting one or more of the fol-1 lowing body systems: neurological; musculoskeletal; special sense organs; respiratory, including speech organs; cardiovascular; reproductive, digestive, genito-urinary; hemic and lymphatic; skin; and endocrine.
34 C.F.R. § 104.3(j)(2)(i)(A) (1991). The difference between the two regulations is slight but important. As noted above, § 1630.2 has a comma separating disorder and condition, whereas § 104.3 does not. This means that under the definition the agency intended to adopt, “physiological” modifies both “disorder” and “condition” rather than just “disorder.” In addition to this statement that the EEOC was adopting the definition of § 104.3, the actual definition given by the agency in the Federal Register does not contain the extraneous comma. See 56 Fed.Reg. at 35740-41. Finally, the definition of physical impairment for the Rehabilitation Act, 29 U.S.C. § 794, which is often interpreted coexten-sively with the ADA, likewise does not contain the extra comma. See 45 C.F.R. § 84.3(j)(2). Thus, the best reading of § 1630.2 is that the comma following “disorder” is scrivener’s error, meaning that the statute requires a “physiological disorder or condition” in order for a “physical impairment” to exist under the ADA.
The limited cases dealing with this issue support the reading that morbid obesity can be a physical impairment if evidence is put forth of a physiological cause. In Cook v. State of R.I., Dep’t of Mental Health, Retardation, and Hosps., the First Circuit held that a jury could conclude that morbid obesity is a physical impairment. 10 F.3d 17, 24 (1st Cir.1993). The court reached this holding after the plaintiff put forth substantial evidence that her morbid obesity was “a physiological disorder involving a dysfunction of both the metabolic system and the neurological appetite-suppressing signal system, capable of causing adverse effects within the musculoskeletal, respiratory, and cardiovascular systems.” Id. at 23. The Second Circuit and this court have reached similar conclusions. The Second Circuit stated in Francis v. City of Meriden that “a cause of action may lie against an employer who discriminates against an employee on the basis of the perception that the employee is morbidly obese or suffers from a weight condition that is the symptom of a physiological disorder.” 129 F.3d 281, 286 (2d Cir.1997) (internal citation omitted). In that case, however, the plaintiff put forth no evidence of a physiological cause for his being overweight, leading the court to conclude that *445he did not allege that he had a physical impairment within the meaning of the ADA. Id. at 287. Similarly, this court has distinguished cases in which the plaintiff puts forth evidence of a physiological condition from cases in which the plaintiff alleges discrimination only on the basis of a physical characteristic. Andrews v. State of Ohio, 104 F.3d 803, 808-09 (6th Cir.1997) (citing Cook, 10 F.3d at 25). Like in Francis, however, the plaintiffs in Andrews made no showing their weight conditions had a physiological cause. Absent proof of “a [weight or fitness] status which is the result of a physiological condition,” we held that the condition did not qualify as a “physical impairment” under the ADA. Id. at 810.1
At both the district court and on appeal, the EEOC focused its argument on a literal reading of § 1630.2 that a “condition” need not have a “physiological cause” to meet the definition of impairment. The agency has made no showing, to any court, that Grindle’s weight condition has a physiological cause. Without such evidence, the EEOC cannot show that Grindle’s condition is a “physical impairment” under the ADA and summary judgment is appropriate.

. It is possible that morbid obesity is a disorder that by its very nature has a physiological cause. This would preclude the need for a plaintiff to put forth evidence that his individual case was caused physiologically. No court or agency has ever adopted this position, however, and the EEOC has put forth no evidence, medical or otherwise, to support such a sweeping conclusion.