Court Opinion

ID: 9678780
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-24 06:32:12.815318+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:17:07.804730
License: Public Domain

DONIELSON, Judge
(specially concurring).
I agree with my colleagues that petitioners were guilty of disability discrimination and that the district court’s decision reversing the Commission’s decision must be reversed. I write separately to express my concern over the undisputed fact that Brown’s employment application was falsified so that it indicated she had no physical disability when in fact she had a heart condition preventing her from doing any heavy lifting, an important part of the job description. It is unclear from the record whether Brown herself answered the disability question falsely or if she was directed to do so. The salient point is that the application was falsified. This same situation, however, also occurred in Foods, Inc., 318 N.W.2d at 164. There, the court indicated that the employee stated on her employment application that she had no “physical defects” when she in fact knew for several years that she had epilepsy. The court there did not hold such falsification precluded a finding of disability discrimination. I, therefore, agree that Brown’s action or acquiescence in falsifying her application in this case is not legally sufficient to overrule the Commission’s decision.