Frey v. Ramsey County Community Human Services

• Decision Date: 07 June 1994
• Docket Number: No. C9-93-2474,C9-93-2474
• Parties: 3 A.D. Cases 489, 5 NDLR P 162 Cynthia FREY, Appellant, v. RAMSEY COUNTY COMMUNITY HUMAN SERVICES, et al., Respondents.
• Court: Minnesota Court of Appeals

Page 591

517 N.W.2d 591

3 A.D. Cases 489, 5 NDLR P 162

Cynthia FREY, Appellant, v. RAMSEY COUNTY COMMUNITY HUMAN SERVICES, et al., Respondents.

No. C9-93-2474.

Court of Appeals of Minnesota.

June 7, 1994.

Syllabus by the Court

Where evidence acquired during discovery establishes that an employee alleging employment discrimination was not qualified for employment and would not have been hired if the employer knew of the disqualification, the employer can rely on the evidence of disqualification to establish the employee's lack of standing to pursue a discrimination claim. This lack of standing will also defeat the employee's establishment of a prima facie case of employment discrimination under the McDonnell Douglas analysis.

Stephen W. Cooper, Kathryn J. Cima, The Cooper Law Firm, Minneapolis, for appellant.

Tom Foley, Ramsey County Atty., Kristine Legler Kaplan, Asst. County Atty., St. Paul, for respondent.

Considered and decided by PARKER, P.J., and HUSPENI and MULALLY ^*, JJ.

OPINION

HUSPENI, Judge.

Cynthia Frey challenges the trial court's summary judgment holding that Frey cannot pursue her claim for discriminatory refusal to renew a contract for provision of emergency shelter care because evidence acquired after the nonrenewal shows Frey was not qualified to be an emergency shelter care provider. We affirm.

FACTS

Cynthia Frey became a licensed foster care provider in Ramsey County (the county) in August of 1987. After initially providing respite care, Frey began providing substitute emergency shelter care in 1989. In 1990 and 1991, Frey entered into contracts with the county to provide emergency shelter care for children.

County contracts with emergency shelter care providers who provide short-term (under 30 days) placement of children of various ages in the shelter care providers' homes. The contracts are annual, running from January 1 until December 31 of the contract year. Because this is emergency placement, the shelter care providers must be ready to accept children on very short notice and at any hour of the day or night. Frey was aware of the nature of the responsibilities involved, having grown up in a home in which shelter care was provided. Frey's parents were, and still are, shelter care providers.

Before Frey could be licensed to provide respite care and emergency shelter care, her home had to meet requirements of state regulation. Therefore, Frey and her husband built bedroom space in the downstairs area of their house. The modifications, which also included fire alarm and security measures, cost approximately $10,000. Frey also bought a $20,000 van to enable her to carry out her shelter care duties.

One of the duties imposed on Frey by the contract with the county was to report to the supervising agency any serious family illness. Frey was also required to comply with the licensing requirements of the Minnesota Department of Human Services and to be available for placement of children 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, for 11 months of the year. ¹

In October 1989, Frey was diagnosed with gestational diabetes. Frey's emergency shelter care provider contract was renewed effective January 1, 1990; Frey's third child was born in February of 1990. The birth of Frey's third child did not resolve her diabetes, and in June of 1990 Frey was diagnosed as having type I insulin-dependent diabetes mellitus. She was hospitalized for two days for education and insulin regulation. Frey informed the county of the diagnosis.

Frey began treatment with Dr. Victoria Buoen, a licensed psychiatrist, in June of 1990, and on July 3, 1990, was hospitalized for a psychiatric consultation to evaluate her anxiety over her diabetes diagnosis. Hospital records indicate that Frey was checking her blood sugar up to 60 times a day and fearful that she would develop all of the long-term complications of diabetes, including amputations and visual problems. In addition to her concern about diabetes, Frey's ten-year history of sexual abuse surfaced during her July 1990 hospitalization. She exhibited symptoms of posttraumatic stress disorder in addition, her panic disorder, for which she had received treatment since 1987, worsened. In July and August of 1990, Frey did not do any shelter work. Frey's contract with the county was renewed for 1991. ²

In March of 1991, Mary Jo Hassel became shelter care coordinator for the county, replacing Cannon. During 1991, Hassel had concerns about Frey's ability to continue to provide emergency shelter care. She met with Frey and her husband and advised them that their shelter care contract would not be renewed for 1992. During a meeting on October 2, 1991, Hassel offered to allow Frey and her husband to continue as foster care providers in a less stressful program. The Freys did not accept this offer.

Because the 1991 contract was still in effect, the county continued to place children in the Frey home. In mid-November of 1991, Frey was again hospitalized because of her anxiety and panic disorder. As a result of the worsening of her panic disorder and anxiety, Frey's diabetes became more difficult to control. Dr. Buoen stated that the county's refusal to renew Frey's contract resulted in serious emotional injury and hospitalization to Frey. ³ Frey did not tell the county of her November 1991 hospitalization, during which time the county continued to place children in Frey's home. It was not until December 26, 1991, that Hassel learned Frey had been hospitalized. Hassel suspended all referrals upon learning this.

Frey sued the county over the nonrenewal of her emergency shelter care contract, alleging disability discrimination, reprisal discrimination and public service disability discrimination in violation of Minn.Stat. Sec. 363.03, subds. 4, 7 (1992). ⁴ The complaint also asserted claims for promissory estoppel and intentional infliction of emotional distress. In the course of discovery, the county examined Frey's social security disability file.

In an application for social security disability benefits on October 18, 1991, Frey stated that she became unable to work because of her disabling condition on October 15, 1989. In obtaining information for the Social Security Administration to evaluate Frey's application for disability benefits, Carl Quella, a disability specialist for the Minnesota Department of Disability Services, interviewed Frey, Frey's mother, Veronica Sletten, and Dr. Buoen. Frey stated to Quella that she became disabled in October of 1989 "because that is when her panic attacks and depression began to get worse. And that is when she switched from being a respite care worker to operating an emergency shelter."

According to the information submitted to the Social Security Administration, Frey was unable to take care of herself or her children; the child care responsibilities fell on other family members; Tim Frey quit his job in October of 1989 in order to help Frey with the foster care work; Tim Frey spent at least 24 hours per week helping with the foster care work; when he was not home, Frey took the foster care children to her mother's house and her mother helped care for the foster children with Frey; Frey's father and sisters also helped her.

The social security disability records also indicated that Frey had been on antidepressants since 1990, has had panic attacks during which she becomes nonfunctional and "goes to pieces" two to three times a week since 1989 or 1990, and has been hospitalized for these panic attacks on an inpatient or emergency room basis. Although stress definitely triggers the panic attacks, sometimes they simply come "right out of the blue." In addition, having to deal with children, her own or foster children, triggers panic attacks. Before her hospitalization in October of 1991, Frey was unable to function well enough to care for the foster children who were sent to her and had to refuse to accept them. She would go a week at a time without bathing or changing clothes. During the time she was providing foster care, Frey was weeping a lot; she spent a lot of her time in bed, feeling despair and wishing she were dead.

Dr. Buoen's statements to Quella indicated that Frey should have been in day treatment long ago, that she had required inpatient psychiatric hospitalization three times in 1991 and that Frey has had suicidal ideation in the past. Dr. Buoen also noted that Frey's behavior has been severely affected by her anxiety, depression and tendency toward panic. According to Buoen's statements to Quella, "Currently, her condition is such that she would not be able to tolerate the ordinary day-to-day stress of working." Finally, Dr. Buoen noted that Frey's "condition and general level of functioning have been about pretty much the same since [June of 1990]."

According to Veronica Sletten, Frey was unable to continue working as of October 1989. Frey had been working as a home care giver for the county "and had been able to make a living at it up until [October 1989] although it was becoming more and more difficult for her." Sletten first noticed Frey's mental or emotional problems surfacing around 1984 or before. By late 1989, Sletten and Frey's two sisters were doing much of Frey's foster care work for her. In Sletten's mind, there was no question that Frey was unable to do her foster care work in October of 1989.

The Social Security Administration initially determined that Frey had been unable to work beginning June 1, 1990, but after Quella talked with Dr. Buoen and Veronica Sletten, the date of disability was revised to October 15, 1989. Frey received disability benefits from that date.

Based on documents from Frey's social security disability file, the county moved for summary judgment. Three days before hearing the county submitted additional documents from this file in support of the motion. The trial court considered the additional documents over Frey's objection that they were untimely. ⁵

In granting the...