Court Opinion

ID: 9493060
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-05 14:57:01.156243+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:55:37.676625
License: Public Domain

O’TOOLE, District Judge,
dissenting.
After criticizing the district court for deciding this case as a matter of law, the majority then does exactly the same thing. *651Holding that, on the facts presented to the district court, the plaintiffs request for leave from her job1 was a reasonable accommodation under the Americans with Disabilities Act (“ADA”), 42 U.S.C. §§ 12101 et seq., the court directs the entry of a judgment as to liability in favor of the party with the burden of proof. Besides invading the province of fact-finding without warrant, the court’s ruling expands the reach of the ADA beyond what its language should properly be understood to authorize. I respectfully dissent.
I.
The plaintiffs illness caused her to have several substantial periods of absénce from work over the course of her employment with the defendant. She was able to be absent and yet remain employed by taking advantage of a combination of employee benefits, including sick leave and short-term disability leave.-
It appears from the record that the last time she actually worked was in' November, 1995. Beginning in late November, in order to undergo a bone marrow transplant, she began a period of short-term disability leave which apparently expired in March, 1996. Still recuperating, she then began to receive long-term disability benefits under her employer’s plan. In June, the employer notified her that the one-year period for reservation of- her job — that is, her right to return to her job from disability status — had also expired in March.2 She asked for a further extension of the reservation of her right to return to work for a few weeks, but her request was denied and her employment was formally terminated.
The court now holds that her request for an extension must be considered a “reasonable accommodation” of her disability which the employer was bound to afford her under the ADA unless the employer could demonstrate that doing so would cause it undue hardship. Since the employer proffered no evidence of undue hardship, the court concludes that the plaintiff is entitled to judgment in her favor as to liability.
II.
The plaintiff may be entitled to a remedy under the ADA if she is a “qualified individual with a disability.” She is a “qualified individual with a disability” if she has the requisite skill and experience for the position, which is undisputed here, and if she is able to “perform the essential functions of the employment position” “with or without reasonable accommodation.” See 42 U.S.C. § 12111(8); see also Criado v. IBM Corp., 145 F.3d 437, 443 (1st Cir.1998).
There is no dispute that when Garcia’s employment was terminated, she was not able to perform her job without an accommodation. She was not then performing it, and had not performed it for some months. Nonetheless, the court concludes that the plaintiff would have been “qualified” to perform her job with the accommodation she requested: that she be excused from performing the job until she had recovered sufficiently to be able to return to work once again.
When a period of leave from a job may appropriately be considered an accommodation that enables an employee to perform that job presents a troublesome problem, partly because of the oxymoronie anomaly it harbors, but also because of the daunting challenge of line-drawing it pres*652ents. The prevailing view among the Courts of Appeals, and the law of this Circuit, is that a period of leave can in some circumstances be a reasonable accommodation required of an employer under the ADA. See Criado, 145 F.3d at 443. Put another way, it is wrong to say categorically that leave can never be a reasonable accommodation.
The term “leave” is a capacious one, however, and the cases do not hold that any leave will qualify as a reasonable accommodation. See Walsh v. United Parcel Serv., 201 F.3d 718, 726-27 (6th Cir.2000) (finding leave requested by plaintiff “objectively unreasonable”). “Reasonable accommodation” is also a capacious term, purposefully broad so as to permit appropriate case-by-case flexibility. Whether a particular proposed leave is a reasonable accommodation must be answered in the factual context of the case at hand. See, e.g., Criado, 145 F.3d at 443 (“Whether the leave request is reasonable turns on the facts of the case.”). Where many interrelated considerations bear on an assessment of what is “reasonable,” prudence cautions against too ready a resort to summary dispositions as a matter of law. See Ward v. Massachusetts Health Research Institute, 209 F.3d 29, 36 (1st Cir.2000) (reversing summary judgment; declining to hold accommodation unreasonable per se); Nunes v. Wal-Mart Stores, 164 F.3d 1243, 1248 (9th Cir.1999) (reversing summary judgment because reasonableness of leave was jury question); Cehrs v. Northeast Ohio Alzheimer’s Research Ctr., 155 F.3d 775, 782-85 (6th Cir.1998) (following Criado and reversing summary judgment for employer); Criado, 145 F.3d at 444 (affirming denial of employer’s motion for judgment as a matter of law). In any context, however, to be a “reasonable accommodation” a measure must be both an “accommodation” and “reasonable.”
In the first place, an “accommodation” must serve a functional purpose; it is a means to a desired end. An accommodation as contemplated by the ADA is a measure that enables the performance of a job by a person who, without the measure, is disabled from performing the job. See 42 U.S.C. § 12111(9). It effectively transforms a disabled person into an enabled person for the purposes of the job.
The converse follows. If the measure does not enable the otherwise disabled person to perform the essential functions of the job, it loses its functional quality and consequently fails to operate as an accommodation.
An accommodation must not only be functionally effective; it must also be reasonable.3 Again, whether a proposed accommodation is reasonable or not will ordinarily be judged on the peculiar facts of a given case. In most eases, it will be a matter to be left to assessment and evaluation by the trier of fact.
Nonetheless, judges may sometimes be called upon to decide what circumstances might make a proposed measure a reasonable accommodation, or not, as a matter of law. See Walsh, 201 F.3d at 726-27 (affirming grant of summary judgment in favor of employer because plaintiffs requested accommodation was “objectively unreasonable”); see also Evans v. Federal Express Corp., 133 F.3d 137, 139-40 (1st Cir.1998) (affirming summary judgment, and holding that, under state law, accommodation not shown likely to be successful was not reasonable). There is hazard in trying to speak too broadly or too categorically, especially in this area where the varieties of potential accommodations, and the reasons why any given accommodation *653might or might not be reasonable, are myriad. Still, there will be cases in which a court may appropriately take the question away from the trier of fact and decide it as a matter of law.
III.
As the court’s opinion points out, there is some ambiguity in this record as to whether the parties presented the case to the district court for judgment as a matter of law or for decision on the court’s fact-finding. They presented a stipulation of undisputed facts and cross-moved for summary judgment. If nothing else appeared, one would conclude that they were seeking only a ruling of law. But the parties’ stipulation indicated that they were submitting the liability portion of the case “to the Court for adjudication on the merits of the legal controversies. in this matter.” “Adjudication on the merits” ordinarily suggests more than summary judgment. Unlike a full consideration of a case after trial, summary judgment does not always end in an adjudication, because even on cross-motions based on stipulated facts, a court might conclude that neither side is entitled to win as a matter of law and that the dispute must be submitted to the fact-finder. The full job of the fact-finder, after all, includes not only settling conflicts in the “basic” facts, but also drawing appropriate inferences from those facts. By praying for adjudication on the merits, the parties indicated that they expected the district court to resolve the factual, as well as legal, issues pertinent to the issue of liability.
Any lingering doubt as to what the parties intended is dispelled by what they have told us. Both sides asserted in their briefs to us that the applicable standard of appellate review is “clear error,” the standard used to review fact-finding by a district court. Thus, both before the district court and before this court, the parties presented the matter as having been submitted as a “case stated” for full “adjudication” by the district court.
Moreover, the district court’s opinion indicates, consistently with the parties’ characterization, that the judge thought he was not merely policing the fact-finding function under Rule 56, but instead was performing it. In posing the issue he was presented with, he said, “[T]he Court must therefore determine whether plaintiffs requested accommodation was reasonable under the circumstances.... ” Garcia-Ayala v. Lederle Parenterals, Inc., 20 F.Supp.2d 312, 315 (D.P.R.1998). He then went on, “The Court finds that plaintiffs request was not reasonable under the circumstances.” Id. (emphasis added).
Accordingly, I am in agreement with the court’s conclusion stated in Part III of its opinion that the parties submitted the matter as a “case stated” and that review of the district court’s fact-finding is for clear error.4 Reich v. John Alden Life Ins. Co., 126 F.3d 1, 6 (1st Cir.1997); EEOC v. Steamship Clerks Union, Local 1066, 48 F.3d 594, 603 (1st Cir.1995). The “clear error” standard applies not only to resolution of factual disputes, but also to the factual inferences drawn by the district court on the basis of the stipulated facts. Id.
On the record presented and under an appropriate application of the statute’s terms, a fact-finder’s inference-based conclusion that the plaintiffs request for an extension of her right to return to work was not a reasonable accommodation cannot be called clearly erroneous. The clearly erroneous standard does not permit an appellate court to substitute its own evaluative judgment of what was or was not reasonable, unless the district court’s conclusion was unquestionably, not just arguably, wrong. If the same facts that were presented to the judge below had been presented to a jury, and if the jury had returned a verdict that the requested leave was hot a reasonable accommodation, I *654cannot imagine that this court would disturb that finding.
IV.
Rather than challenging the district court’s fact-finding as clearly erroneous, the majority identifies two legal errors it says the district court committed. First, the court says the district court failed to give individualized consideration to the plaintiffs case, but instead decided that the plaintiffs request for additional leave was per se unreasonable. Second, the court says that the district court improperly shifted the burden of,proof as to “undue hardship” by requiring the plaintiff to disprove it, rather than requiring the employer to establish it.
The second purported error, I think, stems from an incorrect reading of the district court opinion. The issue argued by the parties, and the issue decided by the district court, was whether the plaintiff was a qualified person with a disability. In particular, resolution of that issue depended on whether the plaintiffs request for further leave was a reasonable accommodation. The employer did not argue undue hardship. Though the district court opinion does state that granting the accommodation would place the employer “in an untenable business position,” Garcia-Ayala, 20 F.Supp.2d at 315, in context that phrase was used not as an elaboration of the “undue hardship” affirmative defense, but as part of the court’s explication of why, in the district court’s judgment, the requested accommodation was not reasonable. I do not think it is accurate to say that the district court was giving the employer the benefit of the “undue hardship” affirmative defense, or shifting to the plaintiff the burden to disprove that affirmative defense.
The other error the majority finds is that the district court applied a per se rule about the permissible length of a leave and, therefore, failed to make an individualized assessment of the case. I must say I do not quite understand this criticism. I do not find any indication in the district court’s opinion that it failed to give attention to the particulars of the case. To the contrary, the district court discussed in detail the facts of the case as presented by the parties; it gave no less attention to the “individualized” facts of the case than the parties did.
The majority cannot mean that the need for individualized assessment of an ADA case necessarily precludes a disposition as a matter of law, because this court has affirmed dispositions of ADA cases as a matter of law. See, e.g., Tardie v. Rehabilitation Hosp., 168 F.3d 538 (1st Cir.1999); Feliciano v. Rhode Island, 160 F.3d 780 (1st Cir.1998). And the majority certainly cannot mean that the need for individualized assessment always requires submission of the matter for decision by the trier of fact, because, after all, the court’s disposition now orders entry of judgment for the plaintiff as a matter of law, without submission to thé trier of fact.
The more pertinent question is, if the district court decided the case by making a pure ruling of law as the majority apparently asserts, rather than by applying the law to the facts and the permissible inferences it drew from them, was its ruling incorrect? Specifically, did the district court err in holding (if it did) that no rational fact-finder could conclude that the extension of leave requested by Garcia was a reasonable accommodation under the ADA?5 I would conclude that on the particular facts of this case, such a ruling would not have been an error.
The leave extension requested by the plaintiff was not a reasonable accommodation as a matter of law because it was not an accommodation at all as that term *655ought to be understood. To be an accommodation, the requested leave would have to do what an accommodation under the ADA must do — enable the employee to perform the essential functions of her job. To put it in terms of the EEOC’s proposed definition of “reasonable accommodation,” Garcia’s requested leave would not have been “effective.”
It seems to me that the following proposition can be extrapolated from the cases: For a proposed period of leave to constitute an effective accommodation, it must meet at least two conditions. First, it must be instrumental to effect or advance a change in the employee’s disabled status with respect to the job, so that the employee is enabled to do it. A period of leave would meet this criterion if it permitted the employee to receive therapy or treatment that would succeed in removing the obstacle to employment the particular disability posed. In Criado, for example, the court noted that the employee’s physician believed that “the leave would ameliorate her disability.” 145 F.3d at 444. Similarly, an EEOC interpretive guideline suggests that leave “for necessary treatment” could be a reasonable accommodation, 29 C.F.R. pt. 1630, app., and the Department of Labor advises that leave might be a reasonable accommodation “when the disability is of a nature that it is likely to respond to treatment.” 29 C.F.R. pt. 32, app. A(b). Simply the possibility of improvement is not enough, however; the recovery must be reasonably likely. See Evans, 133 F.3d at 140 (construing similar State statute). Further, the prospect of recovery (or enablement) should be judged not by hindsight, but by what reasonably appears at the time the leave is requested. Id.
Second, the employee’s return to work must be relatively proximate in a temporal sense. The cases do not speak with one voice on this subject, and some give little attention to it, except to imply that the temporal element will figure in the jury’s assessment of reasonableness. Although there seems to be general agreement that a leave period cannot be indefinite, the leave periods that have been explicitly or implicitly approved vary in length. Some variation is not inappropriate; that is consistent with the need to evaluate each case on its particular facts.
In the end, however, the leave must not only be one that serves a proper medical purpose; it must also be one that serves the statutory purpose, which is to enable the employee to perform the essential functions of her job. Cf. Evans, 133 F.3d at 140 (construing similar state statute). It cannot be overlooked that the statute speaks in the present tense, indicative mood. A “qualified individual with a disability” entitled to the 'statute’s protection is a person who “can perform the essential functions of the employment position” with reasonable accommodation. 42 U.S.C. § 12111(8) (emphasis added). “Can perform,” as in “now.” I would not contend that the statute requires literally instantaneous effectiveness of an accommodation. By approving - the idea that some leaves might qualify as reasonable accommodations, courts, including this one, have properly rejected such a cramped and unrealistic reading of the statute. However, fidelity to both the language and purpose of the statute requires that the time within which the proposed accommodation accomplishes its intended purpose — enabling the employee to perform the job — must be such that the accommodation is tolerably consistent with the statutory words, “can perform.”
I would conclude that the plaintiff did not carry her burden of proffering evidence that the leave she requested was “effective” in these two essential ways. She asked that the employer abide her continued recuperation for an additional period, but she offered little — essentially an unelaborated prognostic estimate — that would enable an objective assessment either of the realistic prospect of recovery as of the time of the request, or of the likely duration of her absence. Further, I do not *656think the requested leave could legitimately be- said to be an • accommodation enabling her, more or less contemporaneously, to perform the essential functions of the job.- It may have given her an opportunity to become able again a couple of months down the road, but that is something -that this statute, properly construed, does not address.
Before she began- her 'most recent disability leave in November, 1995, Garcia was performing her job without accommodation. As of late August, 1996, she had apparently recovered and was able again to perform her job without accommodation. Between November and late August, she was not able to work. The requested leave would not have changed that. It would not have made her- able to work when she was unable, -and when she was able again, it was unnecessary. In point of fact, it would have had no effect on her actual ability to work. What it would have affected was the employer’s ability to terminate her employment because she could not work. Restricting an employer’s ability to terminate an employee who is unable to work can be a legitimate object of legislative regulation,6 but that is not the objective of the statute we are considering. It does not diminish the importance or value of the ADA to conclude that it does not solve all- problems, and in particular that it does not solve the problem of protecting job security for employees who need an extended absence from the workplace for medical reasons.
Our obligation is to construe and apply the statute as it was written, sensibly and consistently, so that, among other things, both employers and employees will understand what it requires and what it does not. Discharging that obligation will occasionally call for rulings that deny relief to plaintiffs such as Garcia who have- endured extraordinary personal hardship. We make such rulings when necessary in every area of the law, and if called on we should not shy from the obligation in this area as well, without regard to our views as to whether the plaintiff was not treated particularly well by her long-time employer or whether the ADA ought to contain a provision it does not.
V.
Even if I were to agree with the majority that the district court had not reached its conclusion as an adjudicator of fact and law, but rather had improperly ruled that Garcia’s requested accommodation was unreasonable as a matter of law, I would nevertheless disagree with the court’s disposition.
First, it should be plain from what I have already said that I do not agree that the requested leave was so clearly a reasonable accommodation that no rational fact-finder could conclude otherwise. Whether the opinion says it in so many words or not, that is certainly the substance of its disposition. If the district court erroneously ruled as a matter of law, the proper disposition of this case would be to vacate the judgment for the employer and send the case back for trial by a fact-finder. (I would not hold either side to the waiver of jury trial made previously-)
Second, the court’s opinion gives inappropriate weight to the employer’s ability to replace Garcia with a temporary employee during her absence from the workplace. I have two problems with it. To begin with, it is an inquiry more pertinent to-the affirmative defense of “undue hardship,” which was not argued by the employer or considered by the district court. As the court notes, ante, at 648 n. 13, there is considerable debate about the relationship between the concepts of reasonable accommodation and undue hardship, and I eagerly agree with the court that this case *657does not call for us to weigh in on that subject. Since the “undue hardship” defense was not argued or resolved below, I would leave it alone.
More fundamentally, the court’s opinion morphs the meaning of the statute by suggesting that an accommodation that permits the employer, without hardship, to hire someone else to perform the essential functions of the job is equivalent to an accommodation that permits the disabled employee to perform the essential functions of the job. Again, such a provision might be an appropriate feature of a statute mandating leave policies, but it is not a fitting part of a statute that forbids job discrimination against disabled persons by requiring employers to accept them as workers when — preconceptions, stereotypes, and “usual” business practices aside — they are able to do the job.
VI.
For these reasons, except as to the court’s conclusion about the nature of the proceedings below, I respectfully disagree with the reasoning and dissent from the disposition set forth in the court’s opinion.

. The court describes the plaintiff’s request as one for a period of leave. I have some doubt as to whether that is the best way to describe her request that her job reservation rights be extended longer than the normal period. I am content, however, to accept the court’s characterization for the purposes of this discussion.

. It does not appear that the plaintiff challenged that calculation either at the time or in her suit. The employer asserts without contradiction that its one-year job reservation period was equal to the period guaranteed under Puerto Rican law.

. The EEOC as amicus argues that a reasonable accommodation is one that is "feasible” and "effective.” EEOC Br. at 14, 16. It seems to me that view gives short shrift to the modifier. "Feasible and effective” could be a shorthand way of expressing the functionality necessary to make the measure an accommodation. The inclusion of the modifier indicates that the measure must not only be "feasible and effective,” i.e. functional, but "reasonable” to boot.

. Of course, any purely legal rulings are subject to de novo review.

. The district court expressly recognized that a leave may qualify as a reasonable accommodation in some circumstances. Garcia-Ayala, 20 F.Supp.2d at 315. It is clear, therefore. that it did not rule that a period of leave could never be a reasonable accommodation, and thus the ruling is not in direct conflict with any of our precedents.

. Congress has addressed the problem in the Family and Medical Leave Act, 29 U.S.C. §§ 2601 et seq. Whether it has done so sufficiently is not for our consideration, at least on this occasion.