Court Opinion

ID: 9750418
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-28 14:57:45.790143+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T07:26:09.791682
License: Public Domain

WIEAND, Judge,
dissenting:
The majority has determined to reverse and remand for a new trial. I dissent. In my judgment, the evidence was insufficient to show a violation of the Pennsylvania Human Relations Act of October 27, 1955, P.L. 744, as amended, 43 P.S. § 951 et seq. Therefore, I would direct that the verdict be vacated and that judgment n.o.v. be entered in favor of the appellant-employer.
The Pennsylvania Human Relations Act forbids denial of employment on the basis of a “non-job related handicap or disability.” This is defined as:
*196[A]ny handicap or disability which does not substantially interfere with the ability to perform the essential functions of the employment which a handicapped person applies for, is engaged in or has been engaged in.
Pennsylvania Human Relations Act, supra, § 4, as amended, 43 P.S. § 954(p). A “non-job-related handicap or disability” is further explained by regulation, 16 Pa.Code § 44.4, as follows:
(ii) A handicap or disability is not job-related merely because the job may pose a threat of harm to the employe or applicant with the handicap or disability unless the threat is one of demonstrable and serious harm.
(iii) A handicap or disability may be job-related if placing the handicapped or disabled employe or applicant in the job would pose a demonstrable threat of harm to the health and safety of others.
The record in the instant case demonstrates unequivocally that Boyd Murphy’s epilepsy was uncontrolled and that his continued employment posed a serious threat of injury to himself and others. His disability, therefore, was clearly job-related.
Shortly after Murphy had started working for Cartex Corporation, his supervisor became aware that Murphy was afflicted with epilepsy, for Murphy had a seizure on the job. Murphy was thereupon examined by his physician at the company’s request. Based upon the contents of a letter from the physician, Murphy was offered a position in another department pursuant to a special “bumping privilege” in the company’s policy. The offered position would have allowed Murphy to take the longer work breaks which his physician had recommended. Murphy rejected his employer’s offer because it involved a cut in wages. He assured his supervisor that he would take his medication as prescribed and that his seizures would not recur. Murphy worked on the production line for Cartex for a period of two and one-half years, during which he suffered approximately *197fifteen seizures while at work. The evidence also showed that Murphy had suffered several seizures outside the workplace, one of which had occurred while he was driving and had resulted in an automobile accident.
Throughout the period of his employment, Murphy assured his supervisor that the seizures could be controlled by medication and that he would take his medication regularly. His immediate supervisor testified that Murphy attributed his seizures to lack of sleep, poor diet, failure to take his medication, and stress. The testimony was that during seizures, Murphy had to be carried off the production line and that he then had to rest for varying periods of time. These interruptions interfered with the performance of his job and also with the abilities of those around him to perform their work. Murphy continued to work at Cartex until, finally, a seizure occurred which resulted in serious burns to Murphy’s hands. Murphy’s supervisor testified that Murphy’s continued employment would have posed a threat to the safety of himself and others.
The statute does not prevent an employer from discharging an employee who suffers from a handicap or disability which is job-related. There is no duty to employ a person who, because of handicap or disability, presents a safety risk to himself and other employees. Jenks v. Avco Corp., 340 Pa.Super. 542, 551, 490 A.2d 912, 917 (1985).
The Act has been interpreted to impose upon an employer a duty to make reasonable accommodations in order to utilize the productive capacities of a handicapped person to the fullest extent. Jenks v. Avco Corp., supra, 340 Pa.Superior Ct. at 550, 490 A.2d at 916. While conceding that his epilepsy was a condition which impaired his ability to work on the production line, Murphy argues that the company’s “bumping” policy required that it accommodate his epilepsy by offering him another job. Assuming, without deciding, that an employer’s duty to make reasonable accommodations extends not only to the job which an employee was *198hired to perform but to other available positions as well, the evidence in this case failed to show that there were any jobs available for which Murphy’s uncontrolled epilepsy would not have been an impediment.1
Cartex’s bumping policy permitted an employee with a medical problem which interfered with the performance of his job to move to a different job and “bump” an employee with less seniority so long as the medical condition did not impede the employee’s ability to perform the duties of the new job. Murphy contended that he should have been permitted to take a position in the finishing department, the warehouse department, or in the maintenance department as a janitor. The evidence showed, however, that Murphy had been considered for these jobs prior to the decision to terminate him. The decision to terminate had been made only after Cartex had determined that there were no jobs available that Murphy could perform without danger to himself and others. In the finishing department work was done with electrically powered tools2 which, of necessity, posed a risk to an employee with uncontrolled epilepsy. Work in the warehouse included the loading and unloading of trucks on a four foot high loading dock, the handling of drums weighing five hundred pounds, the lifting and stacking on shelves of various materials weighing between thirty arid one hundred pounds, and the driving of a fork-lift truck. The janitorial duties required an employee to climb ladders3 and occasionally drive a vehicle. Duties in the warehouse and maintenance departments, moreover, were largely unsupervised so that employees were required frequently to work alone. Although appellant claimed the right to “bump” into these positions, he failed to present any medical evidence, in response to his employer’s testimo*199ny to the contrary, that his epilepsy was controllable and that he was physically able to fulfill the duties and responsibilities of other available positions without endangering himself or others.
Murphy argues that work conditions in the production room, which included heat, stress, overtime hours, and limited work breaks, contributed to his seizures. This contention, also, is not supported by medical evidence. Moreover, the evidence showed that Murphy had not complained or made known to his employer that he believed that his seizures were being brought on by the conditions under which he worked. Instead, he had continued to assert that he could control his seizures by medicine and rest. At the time of his discharge, however, his seizures were uncontrolled. He was terminated not because he was an epileptic but because he was unable to control his seizures in the workplace. There is no basis in the record to conclude that his seizures would be better controlled if he were assigned to another department.
Because appellee failed to show that other jobs were available which would eliminate the risk of harm to himself and others by virtue of uncontrolled epileptic seizures, I would hold that the Human Relations Act imposed upon his employer no duty to continue his employment. Appellee’s disability, because it constituted a substantial risk to the safety of himself and others, was clearly job-related. Therefore, Cartex could terminate Murphy’s employment. It was not required to continue his employment until serious harm occurred. Neither was it required to create for him a special job at which he could work without threat of harm from uncontrolled seizures.
I would reverse and enter judgment in favor of the appellant-employer.

. The evidence showed that Cartex employed other epileptics, but that in such cases the affliction was controlled and did not present a danger to the employee or others.

. These tools included saws, sanders, buffers, and trimmers.

. Ladders were involved in painting, washing windows, and changing light bulbs.