Dovenmuehler v. St. Cloud Hosp.

• Decision Date: 04 December 2007
• Docket Number: No. 07-1096.,07-1096.
• Citation: 509 F.3d 435
• Parties: Jeanne DOVENMUEHLER, Appellant, v. ST. CLOUD HOSPITAL, Appellee.
• Court: U.S. Court of Appeals — Eighth Circuit

509 F.3d 435

Jeanne DOVENMUEHLER, Appellant, v. ST. CLOUD HOSPITAL, Appellee.

No. 07-1096.

United States Court of Appeals, Eighth Circuit.

Submitted: October 5, 2007.

Filed: December 4, 2007.

George E. Antrium, III, argued, Minneapolis, MN, for Appellant.

Paul R. Harris, argued, St. Cloud, MN, for Appellee.

Before LOKEN, Chief Judge, RILEY, and SMITH, Circuit Judges.

SMITH, Circuit Judge.

Jeanne Dovenmuehler sued St. Cloud Hospital ("St. Cloud"), alleging that St. Cloud violated the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) and Minnesota's Human Rights Act (MHRA). Dovenmuehler contends that St. Cloud improperly terminated her based on her chemical-dependency disability. The district court¹ granted St. Cloud's motion for summary judgment, concluding that: (1) Dovenmuehler did not have an impairment under either the ADA or MHRA; (2) she was not limited in a major life activity; (3) St. Cloud did not regard her as disabled; (4) St. Cloud had no duty to accommodate Dovenmuehler because she never disclosed her disability; and (5) she was not qualified for the job because the accommodation she required was unreasonable. The district court also found that St. Cloud had a legitimate nondiscriminatory reason for terminating Dovenmuehler and that Dovenmuehler failed to prove St. Cloud's reason was pretextual. We hold that Dovenmuehler has failed to establish that she is disabled under the ADA or MHRA. Therefore, we affirm.

I. Background

We recite the facts in the light most favorable to Dovenmuehler, the nonmoving party. In the early 1980s, Dovenmuehler was addicted to cocaine. She attended in-patient treatment and has not used cocaine since. Dovenmuehler has been a registered nurse in Minnesota since 1993.

In July 2004, Dovenmuehler applied for a registered nurse position in St. Cloud's Children's Center. Dovenmuehler's employment application listed her previous nursing experience, but she did not disclose to St. Cloud why she left her previous employer, St. Joseph's Hospital ("St. Joseph's"). St. Joseph's terminated Dovenmuehler for stealing narcotics. That same month, Dovenmuehler voluntarily reported herself to Minnesota's Health Professional Services Program (HPSP) seeking help for chemical dependency.²

St. Cloud interviewed Dovenmuehler for a position in the Children's Center and hired her on August 5, 2004. The Children's Center treats patients ranging from pre-term babies through children age 17. Intensive care patients comprise about 65% of the unit's daily volume, and often 98% of those patients are under the age of two. In caring for these patients, Dovenmuehler's duties would include administering routine and emergency narcotics to patients who, due to age and illness, typically cannot communicate their medication needs.

St. Cloud hired Dovenmuehler but made the hiring contingent upon her completing a medical placement evaluation with St. Cloud's Occupational Health Services (OHS).³ During her evaluation with OHS, Dovenmuehler disclosed that she had carpel tunnel syndrome, rare leg soreness, a previous back injury, and hepatitis C. She did not disclose that she was chemically dependent or that she had reported herself to HPSP. St. Cloud placed Dovenmuehler's employment on hold due to her hepatitis C pending notification of clearance by the Minnesota Department of Health.

Six weeks into her new job, Dovenmuehler told OHS that she had previously reported herself to HPSP and that HPSP had issued a plan that she needed to follow in order to practice nursing safely. Dovenmuehler also told OHS that she had been terminated from St. Joseph's due to alleged theft of Vicodin, but she stated that she was fighting the charges. Dovenmuehler did not tell OHS that she was chemically dependent. St. Cloud's Human Resources Director called St. Joseph's, her previous employer, and confirmed that Dovenmuehler had been involuntarily terminated.

Dovenmuehler's HPSP plan, which was intended to address her chemical dependency, contained "practice restrictions" that would require St. Cloud to "maintain supervised access to controlled substances ... for 2000 hours of professional practice or one year of continuous abstinence from alcohol and drugs of abuse and until HPSP authorizes in writing to lift or amend this restriction." The Human Resources Director and Dovenmuehler's supervisor met with Dovenmuehler to discuss the HPSP plan. They discussed compliance options for the HPSP plan including: limiting Dovenmuehler's duties so that she would not have access to medications; putting a "buddy" system in effect with a nurse from another unit; hiring an additional nurse to shadow Dovenmuehler during her shifts; visual oversight of Dovenmuehler; and transferring Dovenmuehler to another position in the Children's Center that would not involve medication.

St. Could, based upon prior experience with HPSP plans, construed "supervised access" as requiring, in some cases, constant observation. In deciding how to implement the HPSP plan, St. Cloud considered: what unit the employee worked in; the essential functions of each specific position; the unit size and location; the patient population being served; the staffing of the unit; and the budget for the unit. Looking at these factors, St. Cloud determined it could not accommodate Dovenmuehler's HPSP plan restriction because it would need to have a nurse shadow her at all times due to the duties of Dovenmuehler's position, the young patient population, and the private room layout of the unit where she would be working.

St. Cloud terminated Dovenmuehler on October 27, 2004, informing her that her position in the Children's Center would not permit the supervised narcotics access required by her HPSP plan. Since being terminated by St. Cloud, Dovenmuehler has been hired by University of Minnesota Fairview Hospital and St. Gabriel's Hospital. Both hospitals have implemented Dovenmuehler's HPSP plan restrictions.

The district court granted summary judgement to St. Cloud concluding, among other things, that "Plaintiff is not disabled under the ADA or MHRA. Defendant terminated Plaintiff because Defendant was given an HPSP plan that it could not fulfill with any reasonable accommodation." Thus, the district court granted the motion.

II. Discussion

On appeal, Dovenmuehler argues that the district court erred in granting summary judgment. She contends that the district court erred in finding that she did not demonstrate she is disabled or perceived as disabled. Dovenmuehler claims she met the burden of proving her prima facie case of discrimination.

We review de novo the district court's grant of summary judgment to St. Cloud. Equal Employment Opportunity Comm'n v. Wal-Mart Stores, Inc., 477 F.3d 561, 568 (8th Cir.2007). Summary judgment is appropriate when there is no genuine issue of material fact and the moving party is entitled to judgment as a matter of law. Id. (quotations and citation omitted).

The ADA prohibits discrimination by an employer "against a qualified individual with a disability because of the disability of such individual." 42 U.S.C. § 12112(a).⁴ Drug addiction that substantially limits one or more major life activities is a recognized disability under the ADA. Thompson v. Davis, 295 F.3d 890, 896 (9th Cir.2002). However, the ADA protects only individuals who are no longer using illegal drugs. Campbell v. Minneapolis Public Housing Authority, 168 F.3d 1069, 1072 n. 1 (8th Cir.1999).

ADA and MHRA disability discrimination claims are analyzed under the well-known McDonnell Douglas burden shifting analysis. McDonnell Douglas Corp. v. Green, 411 U.S. 792, 802, 93 S.Ct. 1817, 36 L.Ed.2d 668 (1973); Burchett v. Target Corp., 340 F.3d 510, 516 (8th Cir.2003). The employee bears the initial burden of proving a prima facie case of discrimination. McDonnell Douglas Corp., 411 U.S. at 802, 93 S.Ct. 1817. The employer then has the burden to articulate a legitimate, nondiscriminatory reason for the adverse employment action. Id. at 802-03, 93 S.Ct. 1817. Finally, to prevail, plaintiff must show that the defendant's proffered reason was a pretext for discrimination. Id. at 804, 93 S.Ct. 1817.

Dovenmuehler's prima facie case of employment discrimination required that she prove (1) she has a disability within the meaning of the ADA or MHRA; (2) she is qualified to perform the essential functions of her job, with or without reasonable accommodation; and (3) she suffered an adverse employment action because of her disability. Burchett, 340 F.3d at 517 (citations and quotation omitted). The plaintiff bears the burden to prove she is disabled. Id.

Dovenmuehler has not met her burden on step one of the prima facie case. More specifically, she has not shown she has a disability within the meaning of the ADA or the MHRA. To show that she qualifies as disabled under federal and state law, Dovenmuehler must show that she: (1) has a physical, sensory, or mental impairment which materially limits one or more major life activities; (2) has a record of such an impairment; or (3) is regarded as having such an impairment. Minn.Stat. § 363A.03, Subd. 12. See also 42 U.S.C. § 12102(2)(A). Major life activities include caring for one's self, performing manual tasks, walking, seeing, hearing, breathing, learning, and working. Fjellestad v. Pizza Hut of America, Inc., 188 F.3d 944, 948 (8th Cir.1999).

With respect to the prima facie case, Dovenmuehler makes three arguments on appeal. First, Dovenmuehler asserts that she is...