E.E.O.C. v. U.P.S.

• Decision Date: 15 September 2000
• Docket Number: No. 99-4367,99-4367
• Citation: 249 F.3d 557
• Parties: (6th Cir. 2001) Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, Plaintiff-Appellant, v. United Parcel Service, Inc., Defendant-Appellee. Argued:
• Court: U.S. Court of Appeals — Sixth Circuit

Page 557

249 F.3d 557 (6th Cir. 2001)

Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, Plaintiff-Appellant, v. United Parcel Service, Inc., Defendant-Appellee.

No. 99-4367

UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS FOR THE SIXTH CIRCUIT

Argued: September 15, 2000

Decided and Filed: May 7, 2001

Appeal from the United States District Court for the Southern District of Ohio at Cincinnati. No. 97-01142, Sandra S. Beckwith, District Judge. [Copyrighted Material Omitted] Lisa J. Banks, EQUAL EMPLOYMENT OPPORTUNITY COMMISSION, Washington, D.C., for Appellant.

James Alan Lips, Rebecca L. Simpson, Cindy-Ann L. Thomas, TAFT, STETTINIUS & HOLLISTER, Cincinnati, Ohio, for Appellee.

Before: NORRIS and DAUGHTREY, Circuit Judges; BERTELSMAN, District Judge^*.

PER CURIAM.

OPINION

In this appeal, the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission seeks reversal of the district court's decision granting summary judgment to the defendant, United Parcel Service, in an action brought by the EEOC under the Americans with Disabilities Act, 42 U.S.C. § 12117(a), on behalf of former UPS employee William Woods. Because we find disputed questions of material fact concerning the company's failure reasonably to accommodate Woods's disability by permitting him to transfer to another UPS facility, we conclude that summary judgment was inappropriate and reverse.

PROCEDURAL AND FACTUAL BACKGROUND

Summarized, the complaint in this suit indicated that Woods was originally a UPS driver at the company's facility in Austin, Texas, when he developed a serious reaction to a local allergen and was advised by his physician to leave central Texas. Woods requested a transfer from the company, but UPS refused the transfer, citing company policy and, according to Woods, suggested instead that he resign his position in Texas and re-apply for a job with UPS in Ohio, thereby achieving the same result. Allegedly acting on this advice, Woods quit his job, moved his family to northern Kentucky, and applied for a job with UPS in Cincinnati. Upon receipt of his application, however, UPS informed Woods that he would not be rehired due to a company policy of not hiring former employees.

Woods filed a complaint with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, which filed this lawsuit on his behalf, alleging that UPS failed to provide a reasonable accommodation of Woods's disability by refusing to allow his relocation to a different geographical region. UPS moved for summary judgment, arguing first that Woods could not make out a prima facie case of discrimination because he was not disabled, that his EEOC charge was not timely filed with respect to the failure to transfer claim, and that Woods lost coverage under the ADA when he voluntarily resigned his job in Texas. UPS also argued that even if Woods was actually disabled and covered by the ADA, UPS had no obligation to accommodate him because he was able to perform the essential functions of his job without accommodation, because UPS did not know or have reason to know of his disability, and because relocating Woods to Cincinnati was unreasonably burdensome.

The district court granted UPS's motion. The court began by dividing the EEOC's complaint into two distinct violations, i.e., the failure to transfer and the failure to rehire. The court characterized the first violation (the failure to transfer) as a reasonable accommodation claim, and the second (the failure to rehire) as a discrimination claim. Because Woods did not file his EEOC complaint until April 1995 -- approximately one year after UPS informed him that he would not be transferred due to company policy -- the court ruled that his charge was untimely under the ADA, which incorporates Title VII's 300-day filing requirement. Therefore, the court granted summary judgment to UPS on the transfer issue.

Regarding the purported "second" claim of discriminatory failure to rehire, the court found that Woods could not establish that he was disabled or that UPS regarded him as disabled after he was in the Cincinnati area, because his allergies had cleared up at that point. The court further held that UPS employees in Cincinnati did not know of Woods's disability in Texas, and so the EEOC could not establish that their failure to rehire Woods was based on any discriminatory motive. Finally, the court noted in a footnote that even if the EEOC intended the failure to rehire claim to be construed as a denial of a reasonable accommodation, the claim would fail because once Woods had voluntarily resigned his position in Texas, he was no longer entitled to the protection of the ADA.

On appeal, the EEOC contends that the district court wholly mischaracterized its case by separating the complaint into two distinct claims. The Commission argues that the failure to transfer and the failure to rehire were all part of a single extended negotiation that resulted in UPS's failure reasonably to accommodate Woods's disability with relocation, and that insofar as the terms of that negotiation are contested, the matter should be presented to a fact-finder for trial. UPS, of course, denies that there are any disputed issues of material fact and supports the district court's construction of two distinct claims, arguing that both are barred as a matter of law. We disagree on both counts.

The record at the time of the summary judgment motion showed that Woods had been a driver in the company's Austin district since January 1984. Without question, he was a "qualified individual" for ADA purposes: his record at UPS was unblemished and he later received positive letters of reccommendation from his supervisor in Texas. In 1988, Woods began developing serious allergic reactions that grew progressively worse over time. By 1994, these reactions were quite severe and constant, including fever, swollen eyes, nasal congestion, fever blisters, rashes, lung congestion, fatigue, and depression, making it difficult for him to breathe, eat, and sleep. According to his doctors, Woods was allergic to the pollen of a plant, Mountain Cedar, which is specific to central Texas and unique in causing allergic rhinitis. Because the pollen is found only in a particular area of the country, Woods's doctors advised him that relocation might be the only solution when other treatments failed.

In March 1994, Woods wrote a letter to William Smith, the central Texas district manager for UPS, informing Smith that he suffered from severe allergies specific to central Texas and that he wanted to transfer out of the region in order to alleviate his symptoms. Specifically, Woods sought a transfer to the Kentucky area where he had lived previously and had not suffered from allergies. His request was accompanied by letters from Woods's doctors urging UPS to consider seriously the request for a transfer. One physician pointed out that the numerous medications prescribed for Woods's condition "ha[d] been ineffective" but that alternatives were unavailable because they would cause sedation, an unsafe condition for a professional driver. In April 1994, Rick Montecinos, the human resources manager for UPS, informed Woods that although a transfer was not possible under company policy, Woods could nevertheless resign his position in Texas and be rehired in Ohio or Kentucky.

Montecinos arranged for Woods and his wife to meet with Alexa Johnson, the UPS human resources manager in Cincinnati, in order to discuss the possibility of obtaining a position there. Johnson similarly advised Woods that he could not be transferred to Ohio, but that, as an alternative, he could quit his job in Texas and apply as a new hire in Ohio, sacrificing any accumulated seniority under the collective bargaining agreement. Johnson refused to accept an application from Woods while he was still employed by UPS in Texas, but told him if he applied to her before the busy Christmas season, there would be the possibility of at least a seasonal job for him.

On the basis of these conversations, Woods resigned his position with UPS in Texas and moved his family to Kentucky in October 1994. He submitted an application to UPS in Cincinnati, along with favorable letters of recommendation from Montecinos and Joel Davis, Woods's center manager in Texas. In November or December 1994, however, Woods was told that he would not be hired, due to the policy of UPS not to rehire former employees.

UPS, for its part, denies that any of its employees ever promised Woods that he could have a job in Cincinnati and argues that UPS would have been happy to have Woods stay on as an employee in Texas if he so desired. UPS also suggests that the real reason Woods wanted to transfer to Kentucky was that his family resided there, and that his allegations about disabling allergies were a useful mechanism for getting Woods closer to his family despite the no-transfer policy. UPS alleges that Woods by his own admission was never so disabled by his allergies that he could not do his job, and emphasizes that Woods decided to resign his position voluntarily after his request for a transfer was denied.

DISCUSSION

1. Standard of Review

We review a grant of summary judgment de novo. See, e.g., Hammon v. DHL Airways, Inc., 165 F.3d 441, 447 (6th Cir. 1999). In doing so, we must view the evidence and all inferences to be drawn therefrom in a light most favorable to the non-movant. See, e.g., Keever v. City of Middletown, 145 F.3d 809, 811 (6th Cir.), cert. denied, 525 U.S. 963 (1998). Summary judgment is proper when "the pleadings, depositions, answers to interrogatories, and admissions on file, together with the affidavits, if any, show that there is no genuine issue as to any material fact and that the moving party is entitled to a judgment as a matter of law." Fed. R. Civ. P. 56(c).

2. Timeliness

The United States Supreme...