Doe v. Pfrommer
| Decision Date | 10 June 1998 |
| Docket Number | Docket No. 97-7614 |
| Citation | 148 F.3d 73 |
| Parties | 13 NDLR P 28 John DOE, Plaintiff-Appellant, v. Paul PFROMMER, individually and in his official capacity as Director of the Rochester Office of Vocational Educational Services for Individuals with Disabilities (VESID) and Lawrence Gloeckler, individually and in his official capacity as Deputy Commissioner of New York State VESID Office, Defendants-Appellees. |
| Court | U.S. Court of Appeals — Second Circuit |
Joseph M. Connors, Disabilities Law Clinic of Albany Law School, Albany, NY, for Plaintiff-Appellant.
Peter H. Schiff, Deputy Solicitor General, Nancy A. Spiegel, Assistant Attorney General and Victor Paladino, Assistant Attorney General, for Dennis Vacco, Attorney General of the State of New York, Albany, NY, for Defendants-Appellees.
Before: FEINBERG, CALABRESI, Circuit Judges, SEYBERT, District Judge. *
Plaintiff-appellant John Doe brings this appeal of the district court's grant of summary judgment in favor of defendants-appellees Paul Pfrommer, individually and in his official capacity as Director of the Rochester Office of Vocational Educational Services for Individuals with Disabilities ("VESID"), and Lawrence Gloeckler, individually and in his official capacity as Deputy Commissioner of the New York State VESID office. Doe brought this action pursuant to 42 U.S.C. § 1983 claiming that the defendants denied him certain rehabilitative services under Title I of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973 ("Title I"), 29 U.S.C. § 720-753a, and that he was discriminated against on the basis of his disability in violation of both § 504 of the Rehabilitation Act, 29 U.S.C. § 794 and the Americans with Disabilities Act (the "ADA"), 42 U.S.C. §§ 12101-12213.
Upon careful consideration of the briefs and arguments raised in this appeal, we reverse in part and affirm in part the district court's decision and remand the action as specified in this opinion.
Plaintiff-appellant John Doe suffers from personality disorder and dysthymia and seeks to obtain employment as a writer/editor or word processor either on the job or at an in-home position. He holds a graduate degree in technical journalism. Prior to 1990, Doe was only able to obtain intermittent employment because his mental impairments limited his ability to accept authority, appear on time for work and otherwise perform in a manner such that he could prepare for or retain employment.
In August 1990, the Rochester office of VESID began to provide Doe with certain rehabilitation vocational services implemented under Title I of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973. On October 3, 1990, Pfrommer, through one of his vocational counselors, found Doe eligible for VESID benefits. On October 8, 1990, the Rochester VESID office created an Individualized Written Rehabilitation Program (an "IWRP") for Doe with a vocational goal of writer and editor. At around that same time, VESID also contracted for an independent psychological assessment of Doe. Dr. Santo Bentivegna concluded that Doe could work as a technical writer in "some sort of domain where he would be allowed to work in an autonomous fashion."
Thereafter, between November 26, 1990 and May 6, 1991, Doe was further provided with vocational counseling through the Job Hunt Club, which provided group sessions with other VESID clients. Near the end of this period, Doe also received several sessions of individual vocational counseling from In March 1991, the Rochester VESID office also contracted with WorkGuide, a transitional employment program in Rochester that arranged for trial work opportunities for VESID clients. WorkGuide was contracted to provide Doe with vocational rehabilitation services, including weekly group counseling and some individual vocational counseling. Doe's IWRP was also amended to reflect WorkGuide's involvement and to add an additional work goal of word processor. Between March 21, 1991 and May 2, 1991, Doe met five times in pre-placement sessions with WorkGuide counselor Cynthia Pecham Goodenberger.
VESID counselor Cathy Acunis. In March 1991, Acunis issued an opinion that Doe was ready to seek part-time employment, but he was not ready for referral to a regular employer.
WorkGuide then arranged to have Doe placed in a temporary work assignment at the United Way from May 6, 1991 to November 12, 1991. After joining the United Way, Doe ceased meeting individually with Goodenberger, although he continued to participate in his group counseling sessions with WorkGuide. Despite WorkGuide's general policy that supervisors will be provided with explanations as to the VESID client's health status and special needs, Doe's supervisor at United Way never received such explanation.
In Doe's first performance evaluation at United Way, he received excellent reviews and it was noted that he got along with others. On his second performance evaluation dated July 22, 1991, Doe's overall evaluation was good, but problem areas included tardiness and working on outside projects during the day. Despite these problems, Doe did not receive any additional counseling from VESID, nor was his IWRP modified. In fact, just a few days later, on July 25, 1991, the United Way terminated Doe after he broke out in a loud phone argument with the owner of a parking lot over a disputed towing fee for Doe's car. Doe admitted that he also wrote to the owner of the parking lot regarding the dispute on United Way letterhead. The next day, on July 26, 1991, Ms. Acunis (Doe's VESID counselor) advised Doe that she would be recommending that his VESID case be closed once it received WorkGuide's final report. WorkGuide then terminated its involvement with Doe on August 1, 1991.
On August 9, 1991, Doe met with defendant-appellee Paul Pfrommer to discuss VESID's decision to close his case. On August 23, 1991, Doe then formally wrote to Pfrommer requesting reinstatement of his VESID services. On September 17, 1991, VESID sent Doe a letter explaining that his benefits had been closed because his medical condition interfered with carrying out the vocational plan. Prior to terminating his benefits, VESID did not discuss the closure of Doe's case with him because the closure had been directly discussed with and agreed to by Pfrommer. The termination letter further indicated that Doe could reapply for benefits if his mental health problems improved.
Doe appealed this decision by letter dated October 14, 1991 to Pfrommer, requesting that vocational services be reinstated pending his appeal. This request was reiterated to Pfrommer in a November 19, 1991 telephone call. In addition, in December 1991, Doe's treating psychiatrist, Dr. John Schubmehl, informed Doe's advocate that Doe might be successful in a supportive work environment if he had a job coach. Pfrommer denied this request and indicated that Doe could not receive any vocational rehabilitation services until his doctor indicated that he had gained insight into appropriate work behavior.
On March 3, 1992, Doe requested an administrative review and a fair hearing on his appeal. On June 3, 1992, Pfrommer issued an administrative review decision that again denied Doe's request for vocational rehabilitation services. Thereafter, Doe's fair hearing was held before Impartial Hearing Officer Subagh Winkelstern on June 23, 1992. At the hearing, Pfrommer stated that his decision was based on the competing needs of the taxpayer and the employers with whom VESID needed to foster good relations and that at this time only, Doe was not ready to be placed in employment because of his behavior patterns. On September 2, 1992, the hearing officer issued a decision Doe then appealed the hearing officer's decision to Gloeckler on September 10, 1992 and requested that his "status quo" rights be maintained during this period. Gloeckler then issued a letter dated September 22, 1992, which declined to review the hearing officer's decision and advised Doe to pursue further action through the judicial system.
that found that even though Doe's personality disorder was unlikely to improve with treatment, Pfrommer's decision to close the case was proper. In particular, the hearing officer found that the job coach program was not appropriate for Doe and that "it has been amply demonstrated that Mr. Doe does not have insight into his behaviors." Moreover, the hearing officer found that there was no "reasonable expectation that Mr. Doe's behaviors would change without extensive psychotherapy taking place first. It is true that Mr's Doe's personality disorder, by definition, is unlikely to change even with therapy. However, this does not change the outlook on his chances to be employable, thus the VESID decision." The hearing officer also found that Doe's "status quo" rights under New York regulations to maintain VESID benefits during appeal had been violated and ordered VESID to provide the services if defendant Deputy Commissioner Gloeckler decided to entertain a final appeal. The decision expressly stated, however, that should Gloeckler decide not to review Doe's case, "services to Mr. Doe should cease and his case should be closed." The decision concluded by stating that it "in no way precludes Mr. Doe from reapplying to VESID for services in the future, once he is able to demonstrate that [he] has gained some insight into his behaviors, as attested to by his psychotherapist."
In February 1993, Doe then filed the instant action, which raised seven claims. The first two claims asserted causes of action under § 1983 and challenged the adequacy of Doe's IWRP as required under Title I in two ways: first, the refusal to provide for a job coach in the IWRP violated plaintiff's right to have an adequate program to allow him to achieve his primary vocational goal of becoming employed as a writer, editor or word processor; second, the IWRP failed to provide for a vocational goal of...
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