Court Opinion

ID: 9491912
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-05 14:27:30.863598+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:55:00.730116
License: Public Domain

LUCERO, Circuit Judge,
dissenting.
In reversing the jury verdict in this case, the majority concludes that, for purposes of the Americans with Disabilities Act (“ADA”), neither the district court nor the employee, Poindexter, articulated the mental impairment and major life activity at issue with sufficient particularity. The majority also concludes that the district court committed reversible error by submitting to the jury the legal question of whether the employee suffered a mental impairment affecting a major life activity. I respectfully disagree with both conclusions.
I
The majority claims that both the employee and the district court failed to articulate a mental impairment. This is in direct conflict with the employer’s, Santa Fe Railway, concession that the employee’s anxiety attacks constitute a mental impairment within the meaning of the ADA. Moreover, the record provides no support for the majority’s conclusion that, to the prejudice of the employer, the employee failed to state the major life activity at issue in this case. To the contrary, in denying the employer’s motion for judgment as a matter of law, the district court stated: “Santa Fe insists on characterizing the major life activity at issue as working. Poindexter never claimed that her disability prevented her from performing at work. She merely maintained she had problems getting to and from work.” Appellant’s App. at 67 (emphasis added). It is apparent from the record that Poindexter claimed that the life activity affected was “getting to and from work” — in other words, commuting.
Not only is the majority opinion at odds with the record before us, it is in tension with traditional rules of pleading. The rules merely require that a complaint “concisely states facts upon which relief can be granted upon any legally sustainable basis. Only a *1233generalized statement of the facts from which the defendant may form a responsive pleading is necessary.” New Home Appliance Ctr., Inc. v. Thompson, 250 F.2d 881, 883 (10th Cir.1957); see also Fed.R.Civ.P. 8(a) (requiring “a short and plain statement of the claim showing that the pleader is entitled to relief’).1 The employee’s complaint surely satisfies these requirements. If the employer found the complaint prejudi-cially “vague or ambiguous,” it could have called for a more definite statement of the facts “before interposing a responsive pleading.” Fed.R.Civ.P. 12(e); see Thompson, 250 F.2d at 883. The employer’s failure to do so belies a claim of prejudicial lack of specificity in the employee’s pleading. Despite the majority’s assertion to the contrary, its approach ignores the federal notice pleading requirements and effectively drives civil procedure in ADA cases back to pre-code rules of pleading.
II
The majority decides that in submitting the mental impairment and major life activity issues to the jury, the trial judge committed clear, prejudicial error. This overlooks the district court’s denial of the employer’s motions for summary judgement and judgment as a matter of law that, at a minimum, implicitly decided these issues of law2. The trial court may have been redundant, even technically wrong, in submitting the issues of mental impairment and major life activity to the jury, but absent objections from the employer, doing so was not “patently plainly erroneous and prejudicial” such as to warrant reversal.3 See Aspen Highlands Skiing Corp. v. Aspen Skiing Co., 738 F.2d 1509, 1516 (10th Cir.1984), aff'd, 472 U.S. 585, 105 S.Ct. 2847, 86 L.Ed.2d 467 (1985).
The plain error test is an exacting one. Reversal is appropriate- only “where the error ‘has seriously affected the fairness, integrity or public reputation of judicial proceedings.’ ” Id. (quoting Rowe International, Inc. v. J-B Enterprises, 647 F.2d 830, 835 (8th Cir.1981)). The test therefore requires more than a mere showing that the instruction was erroneous and that the plaintiff prevailed. Furthermore, in applying the plain error test, we must determine whether the instructions at issue were “ ‘hopelessly confusing’ ” and whether they “fail[ed] ‘to provide even the barest legal guideposts to aid the jury in rationally reaching a decision.’ ” Id. (quoting McNello v. John B. Kelly, Inc., 283 F.2d 96, 102 (3d Cir.1960)). The trial court instructed the jury that “[sjpecifically, the plaintiff claims that she *1234suffers from panic or anxiety attacks and depression, which she claims are disabilities under the ADA.... [S]he claims the panic or anxiety attacks prevented her from being able to commute to Topeka to her job.” Appellant’s App. at 37. This instruction squarely meets the Aspen Highlands Skiing Corp. standards. The majority thus ignores the appropriate standard of review and the record in this case when it concludes that the “jury had no guidance as to which endeavors it could properly consider as major life activities in reaching its decision.” Maj. Op. at 1231.
The majority’s approach is at variance with the settled application of the plain error doctrine. This is made all the more manifest by a review of the results reached in all of the cases on which the majority relies for its use of the plain error rule. See Ryder v. City of Topeka, 814 F.2d 1412, 1427-28 (10th Cir.1987) (subjecting jury instruction to plain error review because of party’s failure to raise objection and finding that “[n]o such error appears [in the] record”); Aspen Highlands Skiing Corp., 738 F.2d at 1516 (applying plain error test and stating that “circumstances do not justify setting aside the verdict and judgment on grounds not raised below”); Moe v. Avions Marcel Dassault-Breguet Aviation, 727 F.2d 917, 924-25 (10th Cir.1984) (refusing to reverse under the plain error standard of review because “[t]he totality of [the] instructions” supports the jury’s verdict). Significantly, in Phillips v. Duro-Last Roofing, Inc., 973 F.2d 869 (10th Cir.1992), the only case cited by the majority in which a reversible error was found, the court did not apply the plain error doctrine because “under unique circumstances” it reviewed the case under the same standard “as if an objection had been timely made.” Id. at 871. I do not believe this case presents the exceptional circumstances that justify reversal on plain error grounds.
Moreover, our case law dictates that “[w]hen a district court erroneously submits a question of law to the jury, we employ a de novo standard of review and address the legal question.” Driggins v. City of Oklahoma City, 954 F.2d 1511, 1513 (10th Cir.1992). I see no reason to do otherwise here. Given the nature of our geographically dispersed, transportation-dependent society and the ubiquity of commuting, it is certainly debatable whether commuting is an activity of sufficient “significance” to deserve “inclusion under the statutory rubric” of major life activity. Bragdon, 118 S.Ct. at 2205; see also Reeves v. Johnson Controls World Servs., Inc., 140 F.3d 144, 151 (2d Cir.1998). The majority’s disposition of this ease defers resolution of that issue to a later day.

. In stating that a plaintiff has a duty to "specifically plead major life activities she believes [to be] impaired,” the majority cites Bragdon v. Abbott, 524 U.S. 624, 118 S.Ct. 2196, 141 L.Ed.2d 540 (1998). In Bragdon, the Court said "it may seem legalistic to circumscribe our discussion to the activity of reproduction. We have little doubt that had different parties brought the suit they would have maintained an HIV infection imposes substantial limitations on other major life activities.” Id. at 2205. There is nothing here to support the suggestion that Bragdon requires a greater degree of specificity in ADA pleadings than required by the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure. A full reading of Bragdon shows that the Court limited its discussion of major life activities to reproduction because "[Respondent's claim throughout this case has been that the HIV infection placed a substantial limitation on her ability to reproduce and to bear children,” id. at 2204, and the issue on certiorari was specifically limited to reproduction. In the case before us, the record shows the employee consistently claimed that her mental impairment severely affected her ability to commute to and from work.

. In denying the employer’s motion for judgment as a matter of law, the trial court stated: "Santa Fe next argues that, as a matter of law, commuting to work is not a major life activity. The court disagrees, reaffirming its previous ruling that the evidence was sufficient to submit the issue to the juiy.” Appellant’s App. at 66-67 (footnote omitted). Although not the most articulate statement of the issue, this shows the court was presented with the legal question of whether "commuting to work” was a major life activity, and resolved the matter against the employer. True, the judge also stated that ”[f]rom the evidence presented, the jury could have found that Poindexter’s panic attacks and depression affected more aspects of her life than commuting.” Id. Considering the above statements by the court and the absence of contemporaneous objections by the employer to the jury instructions, I do not consider plain error review appropriate.

. The instruction submitted could only have worked to the advantage of the employer; the trial court effectively gave the employer a second chance to challenge the employee's prima facie case.