Eckles v. Consolidated Rail Corp.

• Decision Date: 14 August 1996
• Docket Number: No. 95-2856,95-2856
• Citation: 94 F.3d 1041
• Parties: 155 L.R.R.M. (BNA) 2653, 65 USLW 2130, 5 A.D. Cases 1367, 6 A.D. Cases 374, 18 A.D.D. 271, 8 NDLR P 252 Terry J. ECKLES, Plaintiff-Appellant, v. CONSOLIDATED RAIL CORPORATION, United Transportation Union International, and United Transportation Union Local 1963, Defendants-Appellees.
• Court: U.S. Court of Appeals — Seventh Circuit

Page 1041

94 F.3d 1041

155 L.R.R.M. (BNA) 2653, 65 USLW 2130,

5 A.D. Cases 1367,

6 A.D. Cases 374, 18 A.D.D. 271, 8

NDLR P 252

Terry J. ECKLES, Plaintiff-Appellant, v. CONSOLIDATED RAIL CORPORATION, United Transportation Union International, and United Transportation Union Local 1963, Defendants-Appellees.

No. 95-2856.

United States Court of Appeals Seventh Circuit.

Argued April 5, 1996.

Decided Aug. 14, 1996.

T. Russell Strunk (argued), Warsco, Brogan & Strunk, Fort Wayne, IN, Lisa L. Schneider, Kuss & Schneider, Indianapolis, IN, for Terry J. Eckles.

Nicholas C. Nizamoff (argued), Cynthia L. Wodock, White & Raub, Indianapolis, IN, for Consolidated Rail Corporation.

Frederick W. Dennerline, III, Fillenwarth, Dennerline, Groth & Towe, Indianapolis, IN, Kevin C. Brodar (argued), United Transportation Union, Cleveland, OH, for United Transportation Union International, United Transportation Union Local 1963.

Vicki Laden, Claudia Center, Jennifer Middleton, Employment Law Center, San Francisco, CA, Arlene Mayerson, Berkeley, CA, for Amici Curiae, Employment Law Center, Disability Rights Education and Defense Fund, Inc., Epilepsy Foundation of America, The ARC, Judge David L. Bazelon Center for Mental Health Law, National Association of the Deaf, National Association of

Protection and Advocacy Systems, National Multiple, National Parent Network on Disabilities, World Institute on Disability.

Sally Dunaway, Michael R. Schuster, American Association of Retired Persons, Washington, DC, for Amicus Curiae, American Association of Retired Persons.

Ronald S. Honberg, National Alliance for the Mentally Ill, Arlington, VA, for Amicus Curiae, National Alliance for the Mentally Ill.

Catherine A. Hanssens, Lambda Legal Defense and Education Fund, New York City, for Amicus Curiae, Lambda Legal Defense & Education Fund, Inc.

Gwendolyn Young Reams, Carolyn L. Wheeler, Dori K. Bernstein (argued), C. Gregory Stewart, Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, Washington, DC, for Amicus Curiae, Equal Employment Opportunity Commission.

Joseph L. Manson, III, Verner, Liipfert, Bernhard, McPherson & Hand, Washington, DC, for Amicus Curiae, National Railway Labor Conference.

Douglas S. McDowell, Ann Elizabeth Reesman, Mary Chlopecki, McGuiness & Williams, Washington, DC, for Amicus Curiae, Equal Employment Advisory Council.

Thomas A. Woodley, Mulholland & Hickey, Washington, DC, for Amicus Curiae, International Association of Fire Fighters, AFL-CIO, CLC.

Before BAUER, CUDAHY, and FLAUM, Circuit Judges.

FLAUM, Circuit Judge.

Terry Eckles filed suit against his employer, Consolidated Rail Corporation ("Conrail"), and the local and national offices of his union, United Transportation Union ("the Union"), alleging violations of the Americans with Disabilities Act ("ADA"), 42 U.S.C. § 12101, et seq. Eckles demanded certain "reasonable accommodations" under the ADA for his epilepsy, which the parties agree would have required infringement of the seniority rights of other employees under the collective bargaining agreement between Conrail and the Union. The district court granted summary judgment for the defendants, finding that the ADA did not require as a "reasonable accommodation" actions that would violate a bona fide seniority system at the expense of other employees. While we recognize the difficulty of the task of integrating the requirements of the ADA with seniority rights under a collective bargaining agreement, we agree with the conclusions of the district court's careful and thoughtful opinion, and we affirm.

I.

The parties properly acknowledge that the legal question at issue has little to do with the specific facts of this case. Consequently, for the purposes of this appeal, the parties have agreed to accept the district court's characterization of the underlying facts. See Eckles v. Consol. Rail Corp., 890 F.Supp. 1391, 1394-97 (S.D.Ind.1995). We refer the reader to this opinion for a fuller statement of the factual context of this case and here provide only a brief summary of the relevant facts.

Eckles began working for Conrail in 1992 as a yardmaster at its rail yard in Avon, Indiana. He was a member of the Union and was covered by the collective bargaining agreement in effect at the time between Conrail and the Union. His position required him to work varying shifts, including the third shift (11:00 p.m. to 7:00 a.m.), ¹ and to work in a tower office that could be accessed only by climbing two to three flights of open, outdoor, metal stairs. Eckles was generally alone in the tower during his entire shift. During May of 1992, Eckles had a seizure and was diagnosed with epilepsy. Eckles' doctor released him to return to work in July, but advised that he should not work at heights because of the possibility of having a seizure and falling, and that he should not work the night shift because of the need for a regular sleep schedule.

Because his position at Avon did not satisfy either requirement, Eckles notified Conrail that he wished to invoke Rule 2-H-1 of the collective bargaining agreement, which would potentially allow him to displace a more senior employee and obtain a job meeting his new restrictions. (There were no suitable jobs available to Eckles through the exercise of his seniority.) Rule 2-H-1 provides that upon written agreement by Conrail and the Union, a disabled employee may be allowed to take the position of, i.e., "bump," a more senior employee, in order to accommodate the disabled employee's job limitations. ² By the end of July, Conrail and the Union agreed, under Rule 2-H-1, to allow Eckles to bump an employee on the second shift at Hawthorne Yard in Indianapolis--where the yardmaster office was at ground level. The bumped employee was more than thirty spots ahead of Eckles on the yardmaster seniority roster. In October, however, the Union rescinded its agreement to Eckles' placement under Rule 2-H-1, and by mid-November Eckles was bumped from his position at Hawthorne by a more senior employee.

Eckles then went on involuntary sick leave until April of 1993, when he exercised his seniority to obtain a newly opened position at Hawthorne. During June of that year, he had a seizure on the job and went back on involuntary sick leave. Eckles was cleared to return to work in September, with his original restrictions, but again the Union refused to agree to a special placement under Rule 2-H-1. By late October Eckles was able to bid for and obtain a position at Hawthorne, when the restriction on his working the third shift was relaxed. Eckles has held this position since October 1993, but because he holds the position via his seniority, rather than under Rule 2-H-1, he has no protection against being bumped from the job by a more senior employee.

In May of 1993, Eckles sued Conrail and the Union under the ADA, claiming that they had discriminated against him by refusing to provide reasonable accommodation for his disability--specifically, a yardmaster position at Hawthorne Yard. ³ The district court found that genuine issues of fact remained regarding whether Eckles was an "individual with a disability" under the ADA and whether he was offered another form of reasonable accommodation that he refused. The court concluded, however, that because the ADA did not require Conrail and the Union to violate the bona fide seniority rights of other employees under their collective bargaining agreement, summary judgment for Conrail and the Union was proper nonetheless. ⁴

II.

We review the district court's grant of summary judgment de novo. Hedberg v. Indiana Bell Tel. Co., 47 F.3d 928, 931 (7th Cir.1995). We will affirm the award of summary judgment only if the record, taken in the light most favorable to the non-moving party, reveals that there is no genuine issue as to any material fact and that the moving party is entitled to judgment as a matter of law. FED. R. CIV. P. 56(c); Anderson v. Liberty Lobby, Inc., 477 U.S. 242, 250, 106 S.Ct. 2505, 2511, 91 L.Ed.2d 202 (1986); Celotex Corp. v. Catrett, 477 U.S. 317, 322, 106 S.Ct. 2548, 2552, 91 L.Ed.2d 265 (1986). A factual dispute that does not affect the suit's outcome under governing substantive law, however, does not preclude summary judgment. Anderson, 477 U.S. at 248, 106 S.Ct. at 2510; Clifton v. Schafer, 969 F.2d 278, 281 (7th Cir.1992). Thus in this case, if the ADA never requires that the legitimate seniority rights of other employees under a collective bargaining agreement be sacrificed in order to "reasonably accommodate" a disabled employee, other factual disputes between the parties will not forestall the granting of summary judgment for the defendants.

Eckles maintains that in order to reasonably accommodate his epilepsy, the defendants were required to allow his transfer to the ground floor office at Hawthorne Yard and to provide him a preference in scheduling. Eckles acknowledges that in order to guarantee the position at Hawthorne necessary to comply with his medical restrictions-and Eckles argues that the ADA requires this guarantee as a "reasonable accommodation" of his disability--Conrail and the Union initially had to give him the right to bump a more senior employee from the desired job and now have to provide him with special protection from the normal operation of the seniority system, i.e., protect him from being bumped from his current job. Thus Eckles' position raises a potential conflict between the purported requirements of the ADA and the traditional operation of collectively bargained seniority systems under the Railway Labor Act ("RLA"), which governs the agreement between Conrail and the Union. ⁵

The ADA prohibits employment discrimination against qualified individuals with disabilities. 42 U.S.C. § 12112(a). Under the ADA prohibited "discrimination" includes "not making reasonable accommodations to the known physical or mental limitations of an otherwise qualified individual with a disability...." 42 U.S.C. §...