A Capehart Scatchard Blog

ADA

The Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990 (ADA) prohibits discrimination and ensures equal opportunity for persons with disabilities in employment, State and local government services, public accommodations, commercial facilities, and transportation.

Health System Properly Withdrew Job Offer Due to Failure of Applicant to Complete Vaccine Testing

By on February 5, 2019 in ADA, NJ Workers' Comp with 0 Comments

Janice Hustvet worked for Courage Center, which merged with Allina Health System in 2013.  Hustvet worked for 15 years at Courage Center as an Independent Living Skills Specialist, educating, supporting and assisting clients with disabilities including spinal cord and brain injuries. On May 13, 2013, Hustvet completed her pre-placement health assessment.  She acknowledged that she […]

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County Did Not Violate ADA When It Proposed A Half-Time Office Job With Full Pay But Refused To Grant Other Accommodations Requested By Plaintiff

By on January 14, 2019 in ADA, NJ Workers' Comp with 0 Comments

One of the most difficult issues for employers to deal with is the work injury which leaves an employee with lasting difficulties in performing job duties.  Employers encounter this frequently with occupational claims such as carpal tunnel or epicondylitis where the employer settles the compensable workers’ compensation claim and then places the employee back in […]

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New Jersey Plaintiff Failed to Prove His Obesity Met Standard of an ADA Disability

By on November 9, 2018 in ADA, NJ Workers' Comp with 1 Comment

Richard Helmrich worked as an Assistant Director of Food and Beverage at Mountain Creek Resort.  He was a large man, six-feet-tall with a body mass index between 40.27 and 47.53, above the threshold for obesity.  During his employment with the Resort he informed his boss of his weight and heart conditions.  His doctor diagnosed him […]

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Police Officer Who Could Not Drive Failed In His Disability Discrimination Suit

By on May 4, 2018 in ADA, NJ Workers' Comp with 0 Comments

Jeremy Christensen worked as a patrol officer for the Warner Robins Police Department in the State of Georgia.  He completed a required 12-week certification training program.  However, he experienced shooting pains and leg cramps while driving on September 2, 2013. Nonetheless, he finished the program and began a one-year probationary period required for all new […]

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Report of Plaintiff’s Personal Doctor Undercuts Her ADA Claim for Discrimination in Post-Offer Exam

By on November 16, 2017 in ADA, NJ Workers' Comp with 0 Comments
Report of Plaintiff’s Personal Doctor Undercuts Her ADA Claim for Discrimination in Post-Offer Exam

On July 26, 2012, Stephanie Nichols applied for a job as a Senior Radiology Technologist with OhioHealth Corp at the Riverside Breast Health Center.  She had worked in similar positions for over 30 years.  Nichols received the job offer contingent on passing a medical examination.  In the health assessment form that Nichols completed, she was […]

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Court of Appeals Holds Request for One-Year Leave of Absence is Unreasonable

By on June 1, 2017 in ADA, NJ Workers' Comp with 0 Comments

A leave of absence can qualify as a reasonable accommodation under the ADA, but how long should employers consider granting such leaves?  In Echevarria v. Astrazeneca Pharmaceutical, LP, 33 A.D. Cases 673 (1st Cir. 2017), some practical guidance emerges on this issue.  The case involved a Pharmaceutical Sales Specialist named Taymari Delgado Echevarria (hereinafter Delgado) […]

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Employer Defeats ADA Law Suit For Alleged Improper Requirement of Fitness Examination

By on December 15, 2016 in ADA, NJ Workers' Comp with 0 Comments

Fitness for duty examinations must meet a standard of being job related and consistent with business necessity.  If the employer does not have enough to meet this standard, the employer may be sued for discrimination under the ADA for improperly requiring a fitness examination.  The employer in Painter v. Illinois Department of Transportation, 2016 U.S. […]

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Court Validates Firing of City Worker While on Alternative Duty for Work-Related Injury

By on December 7, 2016 in ADA, NJ Workers' Comp with 0 Comments

Derrick Dillard injured his back and shoulder in a work-related car accident in March 2011.  He was unable to perform his previous duties as a Street and Drainage Maintenance Senior for the City of Austin, Texas.  He took FMLA leave and then placed in the City Return to Work Program, which was designed to help […]

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Supervisor’s Testimony Rebuts Written Job Description on 35 Pound Lifting Requirement Being Essential Job Function

By on November 23, 2016 in ADA, NJ Workers' Comp with 0 Comments

Kenneth Camp worked for 38 years for Bi-Lo, LLC., a grocery store in Tennessee, as a stock clerk.  He worked with two others stocking the grocery with product each night.  In March 2012 the Store Director, Mr. Gilreath, arrived at the store and noted that the three stock-shift clerks had not finished shelving all the […]

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Lyme Disease Qualifies As A Disability Under The New Jersey Law Against Discrimination

By on October 19, 2016 in ADA, NJ Workers' Comp with 0 Comments

In Cook v. Gregory Press, Inc., 2016 N.J. Super. Unpub. LEXIS 1885 (App. Div. August 11, 2016), the Appellate Division reversed a trial court’s dismissal of a plaintiff’s disability discrimination case involving an employee eventually diagnosed with Lyme disease.  The case involved Matthew Cook, who worked as a printing machine operator since 2002.  In 2011, […]

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Managed Healthcare Services Company Prevails In Nurse’s ADA Claim

By on September 27, 2016 in ADA, NJ Workers' Comp with 1 Comment

Katherina Swank worked for CareSource Management Group (hereinafter CareSource) as a Registered Nurse (RN).  CareSource provides managed healthcare services to Medicaid recipients.  Her work involved case manager duties by telephone until CareSource initiated a new approach in 2011 to delivering managed care services to the Ohio Department of Job and Family Services, which mandated that […]

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Court Finds Herniated Disc Condition Meets Test of Disability under ADAAA

Anthony Mazzeo provided technical and sales services to customers in Florida and southern Georgia for Color Resolutions International LLC.  He was diagnosed with a herniated disc in his low back in 2007.  His employer was aware of his condition.  Between January and March 2009 Mazzeo had three discussions with his supervisor regarding possible back surgery […]

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Rotator Cuff Tear May Be A Covered Disability Under ADA

By on June 21, 2016 in ADA, NJ Workers' Comp with 1 Comment

Michael Cannon applied for a job with Jacobs Field Services (hereinafter JFS) as a field engineer for a Colorado mining site. The company made him a job offer conditioned on his passing a post-offer medical examination.  During the post-offer exam, Cannon revealed to the doctor that he had an inoperable rotator cuff tear and had […]

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Obesity Is Not An Impairment Unless It Results From An Underlying Physiological Disorder

By on June 6, 2016 in ADA, NJ Workers' Comp with 0 Comments

An important ADA decision has come from the Court of Appeals in the Eighth Circuit in Morriss v. BNSF Railway Company, 817 F.3d 1104 (8th Cir. 2016).  The case stems from a post-offer medical examination.  Melvin Morriss applied for a machinist position and received a conditional offer of employment.  He was required to undergo a […]

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Appellate Court Upholds Termination of Employee Who Exceeded Light Duty Limit

By on May 30, 2016 in ADA, NJ Workers' Comp with 1 Comment

Most employers put limits on light duty and do not allow permanent light duty.  That was the case of the employer in the matter of Frazier-White v. David Gee, 2016 U.S. App. LEXIS 6318 (11th. Cir. 2016).  Plaintiff Frazier-White worked as a community service officer for the Hillsborough County Sheriff’s Office (HCSO).  She was responsible […]

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