Burns v. Coca-Cola

• Decision Date: 25 April 2000
• Docket Number: No. 98-6535,98-6535
• Citation: 222 F.3d 247
• Parties: (6th Cir. 2000) Melvin Burns, Plaintiff-Appellant, v. Coca-Cola Enterprises, Inc.; Knoxville Coca-Cola Bottling Company, Inc., Defendants-Appellees. Submitted:
• Court: U.S. Court of Appeals — Sixth Circuit

Page 247

222 F.3d 247 (6th Cir. 2000)

Melvin Burns, Plaintiff-Appellant, v. Coca-Cola Enterprises, Inc.; Knoxville Coca-Cola Bottling Company, Inc., Defendants-Appellees.

No. 98-6535

UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS FOR THE SIXTH CIRCUIT

Submitted: April 25, 2000

Decided and Filed: July 24, 2000

Appeal from the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Tennessee at Knoxville. No. 97-00746--Robert P. Murrian, Magistrate Judge.

Richard Baker, BAKER & OLDHAM, Knoxville, Tennessee, for Appellant.

John R. Bode, T. Harold Pinkley, John Y. Elliott, III, MILLER & MARTIN LLP, Chattanooga, Tennesee, for Appellees.

Before: BOGGS and SILER, Circuit Judges; and DUGGAN, District Judge^*.

OPINION

BOGGS, Circuit Judge.

Appellant Melvin Burns is a former employee of defendants Coca-Cola Enterprises and Knoxville Coca-Cola Bottling Company (KCC or the Company) who was constructively discharged from his position as a product deliverer after he suffered a serious on-the-job back injury in the summer of 1996. In October 1997, Burns sued KCC in the district court, alleging that the Company's failure reasonably to accommodate his disability by providing him with a light duty job after he suffered his back injury, and its decision subsequently to terminate him, violated his rights under the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), 42 U.S.C. § 12101 et seq., and the Tennessee Handicap Act (THA), § 8-5-103. For the reasons set forth below, we affirm the district court's order granting summary judgment for KCC.

I

Burns began working for KCC in May 1995 and, approximately one year later, on May 23, 1996, sustained an on-the-job injury to multiple levels of his back and spine. Burns underwent surgery for his condition on October 15, 1996, but claims that his back injury continues to impose substantial limitations on his major life activities. Burns's doctor certified him to return to work on January 9, 1997, with a lifting restriction of 23 pounds, which precluded him from returning to his former position as a product deliverer. Burns contends that when he returned to work in January 1997, KCC refused to accommodate his injury and failed to reassign him to an alternate position even though he asked the Company to transfer him to some job within his restrictions. Specifically, Burns alleges that the Company ignored his request for accommodation and never contacted him about an alternate position except on one occasion when it arranged for a job interview that Burns attended, but that did not result in reassignment.

Although KCC never gave Burns a layoff slip or other indication that his employment was terminated, Burns contends that he was constructively discharged as of January 1997 even though KCC had job openings for positions that Burns alleges he was qualified to perform. Burns contends that he knew about these jobs because KCC posted information about vacancies on employee bulletin boards, but that KCC never made these positions available to him. As a result of KCC's alleged failure to accommodate his disability, Burns claims that he sustained loss of income, benefits, and employment in violation of the ADA.

The following facts, relied upon by the district court, are undisputed:

Defendant [KCC] bottles and distributes Coca-Cola and Coca-Cola products in and around the Knoxville area. In early May, 1995, [Burns] applied for and was hired into a position where he was responsible for delivering product for the Company. [Burns]'s job duties included making anywhere from 20 to 30 deliveries per day, depending on each individual customer's order. When transferring the product from the delivery truck to a customer's store, [Burns] had to lift a variety of drink containers, one of which weighed approximately fifty-five pounds (the "bag-in-a-box").

In May of 1996, [Burns] was making a delivery to a store in Gatlinburg. In order to reach the product he was unloading, he had to step onto his truck, reach above him, grab the product, and pull it off the truck. Unfortunately, one case got away from him and, when [Burns] tried to catch the product before it hit the ground, he hurt his back. Thereafter, [Burns] went inside the store, told the customer he wasn't going to be able to deliver the product, and called one of his supervisors, Mike French.

Mr. French picked [Burns] up and drove him to see Dr. Reid Bell. Dr. Bell diagnosed a pulled muscle. Thereafter, [Burns] returned to work where he was assigned to light duty within the restrictions provided by Dr. Bell. Specifically, [Burns] helped his supervisor with paperwork, rode around checking stores, training other drivers, and the like. In late August, 1996, there being no further light duty available, [Burns] left work on worker's compensation.

While away from work, [Burns] continued to see doctors. Eventually, a disc problem was diagnosed and [Burns] was referred to Dr. Joel Ragland for disc surgery. After surgery, Dr. Ragland gave [Burns] a 50-pound lifting restriction. The 50-pound lifting restriction effectively prohibited [Burns] from returning to his original position. Shortly thereafter, Dr. Ragland reduced [Burns]'s lifting restriction to 23 pounds. At that point, [Burns] knew that if he was going to continue working for the Company, then he would have to transfer to another job.¹

(citations omitted in original).

KCC has an "Affirmative Action Program for Individuals with Disabilities, Special Disabled Veterans, and Veterans of the Vietnam Era" (hereinafter "the Plan"), designed by Coca-Cola Enterprises in Atlanta, that directs the company's Human Resource Managers reasonably to accommodate:

[T]he known physical or mental limitations of an otherwise qualified individual with a disability or special disabled veteran employee or applicant for employment unless the accommodation would impose undue hardship on the operation of [the Company's] business.

At KCC, Human Resources Director Edward Hinkle was primarily in charge of implementing the Plan, which defines "disability" and other terms in accordance with the ADA.

KCC also has a policy of posting all job openings within the company on bulletin boards so that employees may search for job vacancies at their leisure. If an employee desires to transfer from one position within the Company to another, the employee must initiate the transfer proceeding by filing a "Request for Transfer" form (Transfer Request) with his or her supervisor. If the employee is qualified for the position in which he or she is interested, the company will process the employee's Transfer Request and, if possible, effect the reassignment.

During the period that Burns was on leave and receiving workers' compensation, he reviewed the bulletin board postings and became aware of several vacant positions at KCC. He did not, however, apply for any of the positions at that time because he was still under medical supervision. After his doctor certified him to return to work, Burns notified Michael Taylor, KCC's Employee Relations Manager, that he would not be able to return to his original position as a product deliverer and would need to be accommodated or reassigned. Because Burns's lifting restriction precluded him from performing the essential functions of a product deliverer with or without accommodation, his request for accommodation was really a request only for reassignment. Taylor apparently referred Burns to Edward Hinkle, who subsequently opined that Burns's back condition did not render him disabled under KCC's Affirmative Action Plan or the ADA.

Burns contends that, although KCC advertised vacancies in many light duty jobs (such as route dispatcher) that he was qualified to perform both physically and in terms of his background and education, he was only considered for two positions before KCC terminated his employment. However, Burns filed only one Transfer Request before he was terminated by KCC. In the summer of 1996, after his back injury but before his surgery, Burns filled out a Transfer Request for a computer/clerical position. Although he submitted the Transfer Request to his supervisor, who signed it and sent it to Human Resources, the request was never processed because the Company determined that Burns lacked the requisite computer and office skills. Burns did not contest the Company's decision not to transfer him and admitted in his deposition that, although he had a personal computer, could type, and was familiar with Windows and basic accounting software, he had never done any spreadsheet work or held a job that primarily involved computer work.

The second job for which Burns was considered was a telephone sales (tel-sell) position. In January 1997, after his doctor certified him to return to work, KCC contacted Burns and asked him if he would like to interview for the tel-sell position, which would have required him to discuss Coca-Cola products with potential customers over the telephone. During his interview for the position, Burns was asked why he would like to work in telephone sales, and, according to KCC,² he replied that he didn't know if he would because he "wasn't sure [he] would like it, but [he] could try." Based on KCC's conclusion that Burns lacked the motivation and interpersonal skills to succeed in telephone sales, KCC hired another applicant for the position. Shortly after KCC rejected him for the tel-sell position, Burns started a contracting supply business, a partnership called Rocky Top Guttering, that sold gutters and gutter-related products to contractors. When Rocky Top went out of business approximately one year later, the partners started another business, named Preferred Gutters & Siding, for which Burns was doing sales work for approximately 30 hours per week at the time he gave his deposition testimony in this case.

On October 8, 1997, Burns filed suit against KCC in the district court, alleging that KCC's failure to reassign him violated the ADA. The case was submitted for...