Court Opinion

ID: 9954057
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2024-03-25 17:01:09.734575+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T08:11:50.020369
License: Public Domain

NOT FOR PUBLICATION                           FILED
                    UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS                       MAR 25 2024
                                                                      MOLLY C. DWYER, CLERK
                                                                       U.S. COURT OF APPEALS
                           FOR THE NINTH CIRCUIT

ETHAN E. PRINTEMPS-HERGET,                      No.    22-35230

                Plaintiff-Appellant,            D.C. No. 3:18-cv-00476-MO

 v.
                                                MEMORANDUM*
MEGAN J. BRENNAN, Postmaster General,

                Defendant-Appellee.

                   Appeal from the United States District Court
                            for the District of Oregon
               Michael W. Mosman, Senior District Judge, Presiding

                            Submitted March 20, 2024**
                             San Francisco, California

Before: FRIEDLAND, SANCHEZ, and H.A. THOMAS, Circuit Judges.

      Plaintiff-Appellant Ethan E. Printemps-Herget appeals pro se the district

court’s dismissal of his disability discrimination claims based on his termination

      *
             This disposition is not appropriate for publication and is not precedent
except as provided by Ninth Circuit Rule 36-3.
      **
             The panel unanimously concludes this case is suitable for decision
without oral argument. See Fed. R. App. P. 34(a)(2).
from the United States Postal Service (USPS) in December 2014.1 We have

jurisdiction under 28 U.S.C. § 1291. We affirm.

      At a 2020 pretrial conference, the district court allowed Printemps-Herget,

over the Postmaster General’s objection, to modify his theory of the case from one

of actual hamstring disability to one based on a “record of” or being “regarded as”

having a hamstring disability. However, the modification was premised on

Printemps-Herget’s production of a 2013 Equal Employment Opportunity

Complaint (2013 EEO Complaint) from a different USPS station, which allegedly

contained mention of his hamstring injury, and Printemps-Herget’s ability to

demonstrate that his supervisors had knowledge of the complaint. After

Printemps-Herget did not comply with the court’s instruction to produce the 2013

EEO Complaint and did not produce any other evidence to prove that his

supervisors believed he had a record of disability, the district court dismissed the

case for “not having evidence on which a rational jury could rely to support any of

the claims.”

      The district court properly dismissed the case. Printemps-Herget abandoned

his actual disability claim, leaving only the “record of” and “regarded as” theories

1
 Printemps-Herget also raises concerns with pre-trial discovery procedures, that he
could not name individual USPS employees as defendants, and the effectiveness of
his pro bono counsel in district court. However, these issues are not properly
before the court where Printemps-Herget concedes that he only challenges “the
decision to dismiss the case before trial.”

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to proceed to trial. But without the 2013 EEO Complaint, Printemps-Herget

offered no evidence that those involved in his termination ever perceived him as

having a history of disability. See K.D. ex rel. C.L. v. Dep’t of Educ., Haw., 665

F.3d 1110, 1117 (9th Cir. 2011) (establishing appellant’s burden on appeal).

      AFFIRMED.

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