Suttles v. US Postal Service

Citation927 F. Supp. 990
Decision Date15 May 1996
Docket NumberCivil Action No. H-94-3565.
PartiesDony M. SUTTLES, Plaintiff, v. UNITED STATES POSTAL SERVICE, Marvin T. Runyon, Postmaster, Defendants.
CourtU.S. District Court — Southern District of Texas

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Dony M. Suttles, Houston, TX, pro se.

Michelle Zingaro, United States Attorney's Office, Houston, TX, for defendants.

MEMORANDUM AND ORDER

CRONE, United States Magistrate Judge.

I. Introduction

Pending before the court is the Motion for Summary Judgment (# 26) filed by Defendants United States Postal Service ("Postal Service") and Marvin Runyon ("Runyon") in his capacity as Postmaster General. The defendants seeks summary judgment on all of Plaintiff Dony M. Suttles' ("Suttles") claims.

Having reviewed the pending motion, the submissions of the parties, the pleadings, and the applicable law, this court is of the opinion that the defendants' motion should be granted.

II. Background

Suttles began working for the Postal Service as a letter carrier on July 9, 1983, at the Grandville Alder station in Houston, Texas. His duties as a letter carrier were to case, sort, and deliver mail. Casing is the term for sorting the mail by address prior to bundling and delivering it. Casing entails inserting the mail into slots with the appropriate street address. According to Suttles' amended complaint, the cases were six feet high and had at least six hundred slots.

Over the course of his employment with the Postal Service, Suttles alleges that he developed a serious case of Airways Disease ("asthma"). Suttles claims that it was caused by his constant exposure to excessive dust in the cases, vehicle fumes, and smoke. In 1984, Suttles was hospitalized with asthma for five to seven days. Suttles' doctor released him to return to work with no restrictions and placed him on daily medication. Subsequently, Suttles went to another doctor at the McGovern Allergy Clinic and was tested for allergies. It was discovered that Suttles was allergic to airborne dust, pollen, and numerous other substances. After Suttles returned to work, he continued to have asthma attacks as a result of his exposure to dusty mail cases and letters as well as pollen. The attacks often required him to visit the emergency room once a week.

His condition continued to worsen, and in 1985, Suttles alleges that his doctor suggested to him that a change in climate might improve his condition. Suttles, therefore, requested a voluntary transfer to work in Chattanooga, Tennessee. The transfer enabled him to live in Dalton, Georgia, and to attend to his mother who was in a rest home there. As a condition of his transfer, Suttles was required to relinquish his seniority and cover all moving expenses. Suttles transferred in October 1985. After his relocation, Suttles continued to work as a letter carrier and maintained daily asthma medication. In January 1986, however, Suttles was hospitalized for eight days with severe asthma. Because his treating physician told him that the climate in Houston was of better quality than in Chattanooga, Suttles requested a voluntary transfer back to Houston. The transfer was effective January 17, 1987. Suttles again was required to relinquish his seniority.

Suttles was assigned to the Eastwood station as a letter carrier. His letter carrier duties remained unchanged. On average, Suttles would case mail for five hours and deliver mail for five or more hours each day. Suttles' health, however, did not improve. In April 1987, Suttles was placed in intensive care and hospitalized for a week with life-threatening asthma, at which time he met his current physician, Dr. Cartrell J. Cross ("Dr. Cross"). Upon the completion of his hospitalization, Dr. Cross released Suttles to return to work and prescribed a standard regimen of medication. Although Suttles told Dr. Cross that he worked around dust, Dr. Cross did not advise Suttles to wear a dust mask at that time.

Suttles continued to have health problems. He did not have a personal physician and did not see Dr. Cross on a regular basis. Instead, when Suttles became ill, he went to various clinics, the emergency room, or tried to wait through an attack until it had passed. Suttles was hospitalized for asthma twice in 1988, once in 1989, and made three to five visits to the emergency room each year. At the time, Suttles was not aware that exposure to dust aggravated his asthma, and he continued to go outside and do his job.

In May 1990, Suttles was hospitalized for five to seven days and was treated by Dr. Jacques Goldberg ("Dr. Goldberg"). Dr. Goldberg had previously attended to Suttles on prior visits to the emergency room. Dr. Goldberg released Suttles from the hospital without restrictions with the knowledge that Suttles worked at the post office as a letter carrier. After Suttles' May hospitalization, Dr. Goldberg administered an allergy test which determined that Suttles was allergic to dust, pollen, perfumes, soap, cooking odors, smoke, gasoline, etc. Suttles' allergies were found to be affected when it rained due to an increase in mold spores to which he was allergic.

Suttles returned to the emergency room on June 18, 1990, and was treated by the doctor on call. On July 2, 1990, while out delivering mail, Suttles began having trouble breathing. He returned to the station and the station manager, Mike Guerrero ("Guerrero"), and his supervisor, Shawn Herrera ("Herrera"), drove him to the emergency room. Suttles was rushed to intensive care and intubated due to respiratory arrest. Suttles was diagnosed with status asthmaticus/respiratory failure. He was released from the hospital eleven days later, four of which he spent in intensive care. Suttles remained off work for approximately one month.

Prior to returning to work, Suttles visited the Eastwood station on August 3, 1990, and submitted a Form 13 to Guerrero, requesting reassignment away from letter carrier duties. According to Suttles, a "Form 13" is the standard procedure used by an employee to reach the union or attempt to obtain some type of redress for a problem. Suttles requested an inside job away from the letter cases. According to Suttles, Guerrero told him that he would call once he found something. Suttles claims that he remained off work an additional three weeks because Guerrero ignored his request and did not take any action.

Suttles returned to the Eastwood station with a work restriction from Dr. Goldberg. On September 7, 1990, Suttles provided Guerrero a copy of this restriction which stated that Suttles needed more ventilation in the vehicle and recommended he supply his own transportation. The restriction further provided that Suttles should not be outdoors more than four and a half hours a day. Guerrero allowed Suttles to use his own pickup truck on the route. The truck, however, was not as well suited for the route as the jeep the post office provided. The pick-up truck was difficult to park, and there was a security problem with the mail because all of it did not fit in the cab of the truck.

While at the Eastwood station, Suttles was not ordered to work outside more than four and a half hours a day. Because the average time on the street for any mail route is five to six and a half hours, Suttles cased another route in order to compensate for the time he was not on the street. The restriction from Dr. Goldberg did not mention staying away from dust or wearing a dust mask. Suttles, however, wore a dust mask while he did the casing, sometimes four masks at a time, which improved the situation. The masks did not provide protection from fumes, detergents, and colognes, however, samples of which mail carriers handle daily. Suttles received weekly injections and occasionally took Prednisone for minor flare-ups, but he was not hospitalized or visit the emergency room. Because Suttles had lost seniority when he voluntarily transferred to Chattanooga and again back to Houston, he was categorized as a "part-time flexible" employee and only guaranteed four hours of work a day. In May 1991, Suttles became a regular, as opposed to a part-time flexible, employee.

Suttles bid to a route at the Roy Royall station on June 1, 1990. At the Roy Royall station, Suttles' route initially was a park and loop route — the carrier parks the truck at specific points and walks the route. Later, the entire station changed to mounted routes — the carrier delivers mail from the jeep unless he has accountable mail requiring a signature. Linda Robertson ("Robertson") was the station manager when Suttles transferred. It is disputed whether Suttles informed his new supervisors at the Roy Royall station of his four and a half hour outdoor restriction. Although Suttles claims he gave his new supervisors a copy of his medical file, Robertson contends that he did not. Suttles alleges that he filed a Form 13 and requested to see an EEO counselor to obtain a dust mask. Before he was interviewed by an EEO counselor, Robertson provided Suttles with a mask, and he dismissed his "EEO" claim. Suttles contends, however, that the masks provided were "in violation of OSHA and inadequate for the exposures plaintiff incurred."

On October 27, 1990, Suttles applied for disability retirement. Suttles' application ultimately was denied. In November 1990, Suttles filed for federal workers' compensation, claiming that he suffered from asthma and allergic rhinitis as a result of exposure to irritants in the workplace. Suttles received workers' compensation for several months because the Office of Workers Compensation ("OWCP") found that employment factors aggravated his physical condition. As reflected, however, in a OWCP memorandum by Carolyn Dempsey ("Dempsey"), a Senior Claims Examiner, to the Director of the OWCP, dated April 27, 1992, the physician who examined Suttles for the OWCP on December 20, 1991, Dr. Ernest...

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