Court Opinion

ID: 9954591
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2024-03-26 17:02:10.58862+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T08:11:58.056565
License: Public Domain

NOT FOR PUBLICATION                           FILED
                    UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS                       MAR 26 2024
                                                                      MOLLY C. DWYER, CLERK
                                                                       U.S. COURT OF APPEALS
                           FOR THE NINTH CIRCUIT

MICHAEL A. REHFELDT,                            No.    23-15240

                Plaintiff-Appellant,            D.C. No. 1:20-cv-00181-KJM

 v.
                                                MEMORANDUM*
U.S. DEPARTMENT OF HOMELAND
SECURITY; ALEJANDRO N.
MAYORKAS, Secretary of Homeland
Security (substituted for former Acting
Secretary of Homeland Security Chad Wolf,
pursuant to FRCP 25(d)),

                Defendants-Appellees,

and

CHAD F. WOLF,

                Defendant.

                  Appeal from the United States District Court
                            for the District of Hawaii
                Kenneth J. Mansfield, Magistrate Judge, Presiding

                     Argued and Submitted February 14, 2024
                          University of Hawaii Manoa

Before: PAEZ, M. SMITH, and KOH, Circuit Judges.

      *
             This disposition is not appropriate for publication and is not precedent
except as provided by Ninth Circuit Rule 36-3.
      Michael Rehfeldt appeals the district court’s order granting summary

judgment in favor of the Department of Homeland Security and Alejandro

Mayorkas (collectively, “Defendants”). We have jurisdiction pursuant to 28 U.S.C.

§ 1291. Because the parties are familiar with the facts, we do not recount them

here, except as necessary to provide context to our ruling. We affirm in part and

reverse in part.

1.    The district court did not abuse its discretion by deeming Defendants’

statement of undisputed facts admitted for purposes of summary judgment. The

District Court’s Local Rule 56.1(g) provides that “material facts set forth in the

movant’s concise statement will be deemed admitted unless controverted by a

separate concise statement of the opposing party.” Local Rules of Practice for the

United States District Court for the District of Hawaii (Aug. 26, 2019). Local rules

have the “force of law” and are binding upon the parties and the court. Martel v.

County of Los Angeles, 21 F.3d 940, 946–47 (9th Cir. 1994). Rehfeldt admits that

he failed to controvert almost all of Defendants’ factual assertions. The district

court thus did not abuse its discretion by following its own rules and deeming

Defendants’ factual statements admitted.

2.    Even treating Defendants’ statements of fact as admitted, however, the

district court erred in granting Defendants summary judgment on Rehfeldt’s Count

II for violation of the Rehabilitation Act, 29 U.S.C. § 701, et seq.

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      Under the Act, “[o]nce an employee requests an accommodation . . . , the

employer must engage in an interactive process with the employee to determine the

appropriate reasonable accommodation.” U.S. E.E.O.C. v. UPS Supply Chain Sols.,

620 F.3d 1103, 1110 (9th Cir. 2010) (quoting Zivkovic v. S. Cal. Edison Co., 302

F.3d 1080, 1089 (9th Cir. 2002)).1 This interactive process “requires: (1) direct

communication between the employer and employee to explore in good faith the

possible accommodations; (2) consideration of the employee’s request; and (3)

offering an accommodation that is reasonable and effective.” Id. (quoting Zivkovic,

302 F.3d at 1089). Rehfeldt asserts that at least three genuine disputes of material

fact exist as to whether Defendants engaged in this interactive process in good

faith, specifically with respect to: (1) his request to work remotely; (2) his request

under the Voluntary Leave Transfer Program (“VLTP”); and (3) his relocation to

the Annex. We consider each in turn.

      First, Rehfeldt has failed to raise a genuine dispute of material fact regarding

whether Defendants improperly rejected his request for remote work because the

evidence, even viewed in the light most favorable to Rehfeldt, shows that

Defendants engaged in the interactive process in response to this request. Indeed,

although a request to work remotely can in some cases be considered reasonable,

1
       “In determining whether a federal agency has violated the Rehabilitation
Act, the standards under Title I of the Americans with Disabilities Act (‘ADA’)
apply.” McLean v. Runyon, 222 F.3d 1150, 1153 (9th Cir. 2000) (citation omitted).

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see Humphrey v. Mem’l Hosps. Ass’n, 239 F.3d 1128, 1137 (9th Cir. 2001),

Defendants indicated that implementing such a request would pose an “undue

burden” given that Rehfeldt’s job required handling sensitive information. More

importantly, Defendants offered Rehfeldt at least one practical alternative,

specifically that he take various forms of leave, which this court has considered a

reasonable accommodation under the Act. See id. at 1136. Defendants thus

satisfied their obligation, and the district court properly granted summary judgment

on this issue.

      Second, Rehfeldt has raised a genuine dispute of material fact regarding

whether his VLTP request would have constituted a reasonable accommodation.

As part of the interactive process, the employee has the initial burden of showing

that a reasonable accommodation is possible. See Buckingham v. United States,

998 F.2d 735, 740 (9th Cir. 1993). Once the employee has done so, the employer

cannot “avoid reasonable accommodation absent a showing of undue hardship.”

Barnett v. U.S. Air, Inc., 228 F.3d 1105, 1113 (9th Cir. 2000), vacated on other

grounds sub nom. US Airways, Inc. v. Barnett, 535 U.S. 391 (2002).

      Defendants argue that Rehfeldt was ineligible for VLTP on the basis that he

had not yet exhausted his other leave sources at the time of his application. But

Rehfeldt has presented evidence that such a requirement was not consistently

enforced. Thus, a genuine dispute of material fact exists as to whether VLTP

                                          4
would have constituted a reasonable accommodation that Defendants were

required to consider. UPS Supply Chain Sols., 620 F.3d 1103 (quoting Zivkovic,

302 F.3d at 1089). Summary judgment was therefore improper.

      Finally, Rehfeldt has raised a genuine dispute of material fact regarding

whether his relocation to the Annex was an effective accommodation. Under the

Act, “[a]n appropriate reasonable accommodation must be effective.” Barnett, 228

F.3d at 1115; see also UPS Supply Chain Sols., 620 F.3d at 1110 (“Ineffective

modifications . . . are not accommodations.”). And though the interactive process

required by the Act “does not require an employer to be clairvoyant regarding the

effectiveness of a modification,” UPS Supply Chain Sols., 620 F.3d at 1112, an

employee need only show that their employer “was aware or should have been

aware that the modification it offered . . . was not effective,” id. at 1114 (emphasis

added).

      Although Rehfeldt failed to dispute Defendants’ statement that “[w]hile

working out of the Annex, [he] never informed management that his asthma

worsened,” Rehfeldt has nonetheless presented evidence from which a reasonable

trier of fact could find that Defendants should have been aware that his relocation

to the Annex was an ineffective accommodation. As we said in UPS Supply Chain

Sols., “[w]here . . . there is a disputed issue of fact regarding whether the

modifications the employer selected were effective, and where the trier of fact

                                           5
could reasonably conclude that the employer was aware or should have been aware

that those modifications were not effective, summary judgment is not appropriate.”

620 F.3d at 1114. That is the situation here, and summary judgment on that issue

was therefore improper.

      In short, Rehfeldt has presented evidence that Defendants “foreclosed at

least one potentially reasonable accommodation” by denying his VLTP

application, Barnett, 228 F.3d at 1117, and failed to offer “an accommodation that

[was] reasonable and effective” by relocating him to the Annex, UPS Supply Chain

Sols., 620 F.3d at 1111. Viewing all evidence in the light most favorable to

Rehfeldt, a reasonable trier of fact could determine that Defendants did not engage

in the interactive process in good faith. For these reasons, summary judgment was

not warranted. See Barnett, 228 F.3d at 1116.

      AFFIRMED IN PART, REVERSED IN PART, AND REMANDED.

      Each side shall bear their own costs on appeal.

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