Hawkins v. Schwan's Home Serv., Inc.
| Decision Date | 19 February 2015 |
| Docket Number | No. 13–6149.,13–6149. |
| Parties | David HAWKINS, Plaintiff–Appellant, v. SCHWAN'S HOME SERVICE, INC., Defendant–Appellee. |
| Court | U.S. Court of Appeals — Tenth Circuit |
Mark E. Hammons (Amber L. Hurst with him on the briefs), Hammons, Gowens, Hurst & Associates, Oklahoma City, OK, for Plaintiff–Appellant.
Alan L. Rupe (Jason M. Janoski with him on the brief), Kutak Rock LLP, Wichita, KS, for Defendant–Appellee.
Before KELLY, LUCERO, and HOLMES, Circuit Judges.
David Hawkins filed claims against his former employer, Schwan's Home Service, Inc. (“SHS”), alleging violations of the Americans with Disabilities Act as amended (“ADAAA”)1 and Oklahoma law. The district court granted summary judgment in favor of SHS. Exercising jurisdiction under 28 U.S.C. § 1291, we affirm.
In 1987, Mr. Hawkins began working for SHS, a company that sells and delivers frozen food products throughout the United States. He became a facility supervisor at SHS's Alva, Oklahoma, sales and distribution depot in 2003 and, at all times relevant to these proceedings, reported to Jim Hillaker, the depot's territory sales leader. Mr. Hawkins has described his chief responsibilities as “ordering products to be delivered by [SHS's] delivery drivers, scheduling, and loading trucks with products.” Aplt.App. at 3.
SHS has an official written description for the facility-supervisor position. That document indicates that a facility supervisor serves the purpose of “supervising the depot material handlers and coordinat[ing] the product receiving and material handling activities necessary to fulfill the sales activities at assigned depot(s).” Id. at 594 (Position Description, dated Apr. 2005). The job description's “Duties and Responsibilities” section provides, in pertinent part, that a facility supervisor “[e]xecutes the company's Good Warehouse Practices (GWP) and follows any government regulations” and manages the company's fleet of delivery trucks, “which includes maintaining Department of Transportation (DOT) compliance files ..., vehicle registration and license, and periodic fleet safety inspections.” Id.
According to Mr. Hillaker, who supervised truck operations as part of his leadership duties, fleet management often included driving company trucks to service appointments or otherwise “[s]huttling trucks to salespeople” to ensure product delivery. Id. at 603 (Hillaker Dep., dated Jan. 22, 2013). Mr. Hillaker's observation that the facility-supervisor position involved driving is bolstered by the “Qualifications” section of SHS's facility-supervisor job description, which indicates that an “excellent driving record” is required. Id. at 594 (capitalization altered). The job description further specifies that “meet[ing] the Federal Department of Transportation eligibility requirements, including appropriate driver's license and corresponding medical certification,” is a “condition of employment for this position.” Id. Additionally, it lists several “essential abilities and functions” that directly implicate health and physical abilities, such as seeing, balancing, moving continuously, lifting and pulling up to fifty pounds, and using precise hand movements. Id. at 596 (capitalization altered).
In 2007, when the Alva depot “shut ... down for a period of time,” SHS “had [Mr. Hawkins] drive [company] trucks from Alva to Enid to load and drive the truck back from Enid to Alva, and then do the same in Woodward ... [and] Laverne.” Id. at 632 (Hawkins Dep., dated Dec. 5, 2012). Doing so required Mr. Hawkins to be “DOT-qualified and have a Medical Examiner's Certificate.” Id. at 834 (Valade Decl., dated Mar. 23, 2013). Matthew Valade, who was a facility supervisor at the Alva depot in 2011, explained that these were run-of-the-mill requirements. Indeed, during Mr. Valade's interview, Mr. Hillaker indicated that Mr. Valade “m[ight] have to drive a Schwan's route truck as part of [the] job.” Id. For his part, Mr. Hawkins has acknowledged that SHS mandated a DOT medical certification, and he has offered documentation to corroborate his prior compliance with that requirement.
Mr. Hawkins suffers from several health conditions that came to a head in 2010. Beginning in March of that year, he was “in and out of the hospital ... with heart problems and fainting spells and very high blood pressure.” Id. at 540 (). Mr. Hawkins experienced a minor stroke in June of 2010, but he resumed working soon afterward. In order to manage his symptoms, Mr. Hawkins had a pacemaker implanted and followed a comprehensive medication regimen. During this time period, several of Mr. Hawkins's coworkers communicated to him that they were concerned about his health.
On June 14, 2010, Mr. Hawkins emailed human-resources manager Jeff Booth to report that Mr. Hillaker wanted him “to drive trucks back and [forth] to” a mechanic in Enid, Oklahoma, as well as “to drivers on routes” in Woodward, Oklahoma. Id. At a subsequent deposition, Mr. Hawkins explained that these requests had taken place in May and June of 2010—when his health issues were escalating—and that Mr. Hillaker was “telling everyone in Enid” that Mr. Hawkins was “a liability.” Id. at 632 (internal quotation marks omitted). He further suggested that SHS typically did not require facility supervisors to drive trucks to the mechanic, see id. at 631–32, and that he believed Mr. Hillaker had begun asking him to do so in order to “force[ ] [him] to quit,” id. at 631. Melvin Casion, who worked in operations at SHS, offered similar testimony—viz., that Mr. Hillaker had expressed that he was “very upset about [Mr. Hawkins] being in the hospital ... [and] wanted him gone.” Id. at 263 (Casion Dep., dated Sept. 19, 2012).
On June 21, 2010, Mr. Hawkins failed a routine DOT medical evaluation. See id. at 478 (Med. Examination Report, dated June 21, 2010) (marked “based on health history above[,] not able to pass” (capitalization altered)). He therefore did not receive the medical certification SHS demanded of all facility supervisors. The next day, SHS gave Mr. Hawkins a letter notifying him that he had “been placed on a 30 day company requested unpaid leave, effective June 21, 2010, because [he] did not pass [his] DOT recertification.” Id. at 229 (). The letter informed Mr. Hawkins that he had thirty days to obtain this certification or “to find a non-DOT position.” Id. Mr. Hawkins subsequently testified that he perused job listings on SHS's public website. However, he “did not apply for any jobs.” Id. at 1053.
On June 23, 2010, Mr. Hawkins signed a termination form that stated, in relevant part, as follows:
I, David Hawkins, hereby voluntarily resign from my position as Facility Manager[ ] with Schwan's, Inc.[,] a subsidiary corporation of The Schwan Food Company. In voluntarily resigning my employment, I acknowledge that I am taking this action for the following reason(s)[,] ... which is unrelated to any action or statement(s) made in conjunction with, by, or on behalf of my employer, or any representation of my employer.
Id. at 230 (Termination Form, dated June 23, 2010) (capitalization altered). Despite the foregoing language indicating that his resignation was voluntary, Mr. Hawkins wrote on the form that the reason for his action was: “Force[d] to quit for medical reason.” Id. (capitalization altered).
Before his separation from SHS, Mr. Hawkins began the process of seeking Social Security Disability Insurance (“SSDI”) benefits from the Social Security Administration (“SSA”). In his SSDI application, which he signed on April 6, 2010, he stated that he was unable to work and had “not been able to work for 5 weeks.” Id. at 1002 (SSDI Appl., dated Apr. 6, 2010) (capitalization altered). He also indicated that one of his daily activities was to “transport trucks.” Id. at 997 (capitalization altered). The SSA denied Mr. Hawkins's claim “initially on October 14, 2010, and upon reconsideration on January 10, 2011.” Id. at 925 (SSA Decision, dated Nov. 4, 2011). After a September 2011 hearing, an administrative law judge determined that Mr. Hawkins was not disabled.
In a brief submitted to the SSA Appeals Council through his claims representative, Mr. Hawkins alleged that the “record [would] show that Mr. Hawkins would have difficulty with sustained work.”Id. at 822 (Appeal Br., dated Dec. 21, 2011). He characterized his physical status as “less than sedentary” and claimed that he was incapable of participating in “any type of substantial gainful activity.” Id. at 823 (emphasis added). However, Mr. Hawkins also represented that, “had he been offered a job during the time of receiving unemployment, he was willing to at least try to do the work.” Id. His SSDI application remained on appeal at the time the district court issued the ruling that we review.
Mr. Hawkins filed his complaint in the United States District Court for the Western District of Oklahoma on January 25, 2012,2 bringing claims under the ADAAA and the Oklahoma Anti–Discrimination Act (“OADA”), and asserting a Burk tort.3 In March 2013, he sought partial summary judgment on his ADAAA discrimination claim. Shortly thereafter, SHS filed its own cross-motion for summary judgment on all claims. The district court resolved these motions in SHS's favor on May 28, 2013.
In its summary-judgment order, the district court rejected Mr. Hawkins's ADAAA discrimination claim, concluding that Mr. Hawkins was not a qualified individual with a disability because he could not perform the essential function of securing DOT certification for driving SHS's vehicles. Moreover, “[e]ven if ... being DOT qualified was not an essential function,” the court continued, Mr. Hawkins's ADAAA discrimination claim “would nonetheless fail on the basis of estoppel” due to his conflicting representations to the SSA. Id. at 1064. The district court then...
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