Boswell v. Skywest Airlines, Inc.
| Decision Date | 22 August 2002 |
| Docket Number | No. 200CV00950PGC.,200CV00950PGC. |
| Citation | 217 F.Supp.2d 1212 |
| Parties | Susan BOSWELL, Plaintiff, v. SKYWEST AIRLINES, INC., a Utah corporation, Defendant. |
| Court | U.S. District Court — District of Utah |
Carl Boyd, Jr., Cedar City, UT, Paul A. Curtis, Salt Lake City Prosecutors Office, Robert B. Denton, John Pace, Salt Lake City, UT, for Plaintiff.
Heidi E. Leithead, Parr Waddoups Brown Gee & Loveless, Darren K. Nelson, Parr Waddoups Brown Gee & Loveless, Salt Lake City, UT, for Defendant.
Plaintiff Susan Boswell ("Boswell") filed this action against defendant SkyWest Airlines, Inc. ("SkyWest") under section 507 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973, as amended, and the Air Carrier Access Act seeking to require SkyWest to provide medical oxygen for her use on its flights between St. George, Utah and Salt Lake City, Utah. The Court concludes that Boswell's claims must be dismissed because (1) SkyWest does not receive federal financial assistance either as a whole or with respect to its flights between St. George and Salt Lake City and thus is not subject to the requirements of section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act ("Section 504") and (2) the Air Carrier Access Act does not require SkyWest Airlines to provide oxygen for medical use by its passengers.
The facts are not in dispute. Plaintiff Boswell resides in Southern Utah. Due to a lung disease, she has difficulty breathing.1 Boswell has requested that SkyWest provide supplemental medical oxygen for her personal use during flights between St. George, Utah and Salt Lake City, Utah. SkyWest has refused that request.
Defendant SkyWest is incorporated under the laws of Utah. SkyWest provides approximately 1000 daily flights to 66 cities in 14 western states and Canada. It is an air carrier "certified" by the U.S. Department of Transportation, Federal Aviation Administration, that operates daily flights in Utah and elsewhere and thus is subject to the legal requirements imposed by the Air Carrier Access Act ("ACAA")2 and regulations promulgated to enforce the ACAA.3 As of March 2001, SkyWest was receiving approximately $1.9 million in financial assistance from the United States Department of Transportation to participate in the federal Essential Air Service Program ("EAS Program").4 Further details about the program will be discussed later in this opinion.
SkyWest operates two different planes, an Embraer-120 Brasilia and a Canadair Regional Jet. Both these planes are powered by turbine engines, have pressurized cabins, and are certified to operate at flight altitudes up to and including flight level 250. SkyWest primarily uses an Embraer-120 Brasilia on its flights between St. George and Salt Lake City. On this flight, SkyWest operates the airplane at altitudes in excess of 10,000 feet.
SkyWest provides supplemental oxygen for use in the event of cabin depressurization and for first aid or other emergency, as directed in regulations promulgated by the Federal Aviation Administration.5 SkyWest does not provide medical oxygen for use by passengers.6 In the event of an unexpected medical emergency, SkyWest may use the supplemental oxygen intended for cabin depressurization and first aid to assist a passenger.7
Boswell argues that applicable federal laws and regulations require SkyWest to provide her with medical oxygen for her use during its flights between St. George, Utah and Salt Lake City, Utah. To support her claim, Boswell relies both on the requirements of Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act and on the Air Carrier Access Act. Boswell's claim fails for two reasons. First, Section 504 does not apply to SkyWest's flights between St. George and Salt Lake City because SkyWest receives neither financial assistance as a whole nor financial assistance on this particular route. Thus, SkyWest has no obligation to accommodate Boswell's request for medical oxygen under Section 504.
Second, the Air Carrier Access Act does not require an air carrier to provide medical oxygen to its passengers. Instead, the Act only allows the provision of such oxygen under a program specifically approved by the Federal Aviation Administration. Because SkyWest does not have such an approved program, and therefore does not supply medical oxygen for passenger use during flights, it is not obligated to provide such oxygen to Boswell.
Boswell contends that, because SkyWest receives federal financial assistance under the EAS Program, it must provide medical oxygen for her use. Boswell concedes that SkyWest does not receive financial assistance directly for this particular route. She urges, however, that the EAS assistance provided on other routes creates a general obligation for SkyWest to follow Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act. Section 504 provides,
Nondiscrimination under Federal grants and programs
(a) Promulgation of rules and regulations. No otherwise qualified individual with a disability in the United States, as defined in section 7(20), shall, solely by reason of her or his disability, be excluded from participation in, be denied the benefits of, or be subjected to discrimination under any program or activity receiving Federal financial assistance or under any program or activity conducted by an Executive agency or by the United States Postal Service.
As relevant to this case, Section 504 defines the phrase "program or activity" as including the operations of
(3) (A) an entire corporation, partnership, or other private organization, or an entire sole proprietorship —
(i) if assistance is extended to such corporation, partnership, or sole proprietorship as a whole8; ...
Thus, the central issue in this case is whether the federal government has extended assistance to SkyWest "as a whole." Boswell bears the burdens of showing that SkyWest, as a whole, receives federal financial assistance.9
Congress enacted the Rehabilitation Act in 1973. At the time of its enactment, the statute stated that "[n]o otherwise qualified handicapped individual in the United States ... shall, solely by reason of his handicap, be excluded from the participation in, be denied the benefits of, or be subjected to discrimination under any program or activity receiving Federal financial assistance."10 The nondiscrimination language of Section 504 parroted language found in Title IX of the Education Amendments Act of 1972 and Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964.11 Nothing in that statute, however, defined the term "program or activity." Before 1984, courts and the executive branch had defined often "program or activity" broadly to include institution-wide coverage of any entity, including private entities, who received federal financial assistance for any part of its operations or activities.12 In Grove City College v. Bell,13 the United States Supreme Court rejected this institution-wide approach and held that the nondiscrimination language of Title IX of the Education Amendments of 1972 (and by analogy the nondiscrimination language of Section 504) only applied to the specific program or activity that received the federal financial assistance.14
In response to the Grove City decision, Congress enacted the Civil Rights Restoration Act of 1987.15 This Act added the definition of "program or activity" to— among other statutes—Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, Title IX of the Education Amendments Act of 1973, and— importantly for present purposes—Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act.16 In defining "program or activity," the Act distinguishes between public entities such as an "instrumentality of a State or of a local government" and private organizations.17 While the term "program or activity" includes all the operations of certain public entities, it does not include all operations of a private entity if that private entity receives federal funds for a specific and limited purpose. Therefore, with respect to private organizations such as SkyWest, the statutory definition of "program or activity" was not expanded to the pre-Grove City institution-wide definition. Instead, for private entities, Congress defined "program or activity" under Section 504 as including all of the operations of a corporation only "if [federal financial] assistance is extended to such corporation, partnership, private organization, or sole proprietorship as a whole ...."18
The legislative history of the amendment demonstrates the limited scope of section 504's coverage as it relates to corporations and other private entities. The legislative history reads:
The bill provides that a corporation, partnership, or other private organization or sole proprietorship will be covered in its entirety if it receives federal financial assistance which is extended to it as a whole or if it is principally engaged in certain kinds of activities [education, health care, housing, social services, or parks and recreation]. In all other instances, coverage will be limited to the geographically separate plant or facility which receives the federal funds. Federal financial assistance extended to a corporation or other entity "as a whole" refers to situations where the corporation receives general assistance that is not designated for a particular purpose. Federal financial assistance to the Chrysler Company for the purpose of preventing the company from going into bankruptcy would be an example of assistance to a corporation "as a whole." Federal aid which is limited in purpose, e.g., Job Training Partnership Act (JPTA) funds, is not considered aid to the corporation as a whole, even if it is used at several facilities and the corporation has the discretion to determine which of its facilities...
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