Sepúlveda-Villarini v. Dep't of Educ. of P.R.

Citation628 F.3d 25
Decision Date10 December 2010
Docket NumberNos. 08-2283,Nos. 09-1801,s. 08-2283,s. 09-1801
PartiesIsrael SEPÚLVEDA-VILLARINI, Plaintiff, Appellant, v. DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION OF PUERTO RICO, et al., Defendants, Appellees. Marta Velázquez-Torruella, Plaintiff, Appellant, v. Alexis Oliveras-Santiago, et al., Defendants, Appellees.
CourtUnited States Courts of Appeals. United States Court of Appeals (1st Circuit)
628 F.3d 25

Israel SEPÚLVEDA-VILLARINI, Plaintiff, Appellant,
v.
DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION OF PUERTO RICO, et al., Defendants, Appellees.
Marta Velázquez-Torruella, Plaintiff, Appellant,
v.
Alexis Oliveras-Santiago, et al., Defendants, Appellees.


Nos. 08-2283, 09-1801.

United States Court of Appeals,
First Circuit.


Heard May 5, 2010.
Decided Dec. 10, 2010.

628 F.3d 26

Mauricio Hernandez Arroyo, with whom Law Offices of Mauricio Hernandez Arroyo was on brief, for appellants.

Susana I. Peñagaricano-Brown, Assistant Solicitor General, with whom Irene S. Soroeta-Kodesh, Solicitor General, Leticia Casalduc-Rabell, Deputy Solicitor General, and Zaira Z. Girón-Anadón, Deputy Solicitor General, were on brief, for appellees.

Before LYNCH, Chief Judge, SOUTER, Associate Justice,* and SELYA, Circuit Judge.

SOUTER, Associate Justice.

The issue in each of these consolidated cases is the sufficiency of the complaint to state a claim for failure to accommodate an employee's disability as required by Title I of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), 42 U.S.C. §§ 12111-12117, and § 504 of the Rehabilitation Act, 29 U.S.C. § 794. The district court dismissed each under Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 12(b)(6) for failure to state a claim. We vacate and remand.

It takes nimble footwork to reach that exact issue. The appellants in these suits, Israel Sepúlveda-Villarini (Sepúlveda) and

628 F.3d 27
Marta Velázquez-Torruella (Velázquez), are public school teachers in Ponce, Puerto Rico. The appellees are the Puerto Rico Department of Education; its Secretary, Rafael Aragunde-Torres (Aragunde); and the school director (and appellants' supervisor), Alexis Oliveras-Santiago (Oliveras). Aragunde is sued in his official capacity; Oliveras is sued in his personal capacity.

The appellants' claims and the district court's resolution of them are largely similar, but differ somewhat in the details. Sepúlveda alleged that he suffered a stroke while teaching and required heart by-pass surgery. The nature of his continuing impairment is unclear, but he claims that his doctor ordered him to apply for accommodations upon his return to work. The provision of a reasonable accommodation to a qualified individual with a disability is required by 42 U.S.C. § 12112. See also § 12102(2) (definition of disability); § 12111(8) & (9) (definitions of qualified individual with a disability and reasonable accommodation). For five school years the school made accommodations for Sepúlveda, providing him a classroom on the first floor, a reduced class size of 15 pupils most years, and (at least for some years) a rest period.1 Things changed in the 2007-08 year, after the Secretary had issued instructions to keep class size at a minimum of 20. Allegedly as a consequence, the school director enlarged Sepúlveda's class to 30, but provided a neophyte teacher to share the duties.

Sepúlveda claims that the new arrangement is an unreasonable refusal to accommodate, resulting in emotional consequences with physical symptoms requiring treatment, and he seeks monetary and equitable relief. His citation to legal authority is vague, but the district court understood him to raise claims of unlawful discrimination under Title I of the ADA, 42 U.S.C. §§ 12111-12117 (prohibiting discrimination on the basis of disability by employers); Title II of the ADA, 42 U.S.C. §§ 12131-12165 (same, by government entities); § 504 of the Rehabilitation Act, 29 U.S.C. § 794 (same, by recipients of public funding) and Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, 42 U.S.C. § 2000e et seq. (prohibiting employment discrimination on the basis of sex, race, religion, national origin). The district court dismissed all claims of personal liability against the school director, Oliveras,2 and all Title VII claims. It dismissed the ADA Title I claim for failure to allege how the smaller class size would allow Sepúlveda to go on teaching and the Rehabilitation Act claim for the same reason. The court cited its ruling in a prior case to hold that Title II of the ADA did not reach employment-based claims (and in the alternative rejected the Title II claim on the same grounds invoked for Title I). With all federal claims gone, the court also dismissed without prejudice claims brought under the Puerto Rico Civil Code, for which supplemental jurisdiction was sought.

Velázquez alleges that she suffers from a throat condition known as aphonia, with symptoms including excessive coughing and shortness of breath, which was allegedly aggravated by dust and debris stemming from construction at the school some years ago. Also on doctor's orders, she

628 F.3d 28
sought accommodations for her disability and for four 3 school years was provided with accommodations virtually identical to Sepúlveda's, although her maximum class size was generally 20 rather than 15. When the Secretary's instructions were circulated, her class size, too, was increased ("up to thirty (30) students," without a team teacher), and she, too, alleges that ensuing emotional and physical stress required treatment. She seeks equitable relief and damages, in pleadings the district court...

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