Hooper v. Proctor Health Care Inc.

• Decision Date: 26 October 2015
• Docket Number: No. 14–2344.,14–2344.
• Citation: 804 F.3d 846,32 A.D. Cases 293
• Court: U.S. Court of Appeals — Seventh Circuit
• Parties: Larry HOOPER, M.D., Plaintiff–Appellant, v. PROCTOR HEALTH CARE INC., Defendant–Appellee.

804 F.3d 846

32 A.D. Cases 293

Larry HOOPER, M.D., Plaintiff–Appellant

v.PROCTOR HEALTH CARE INC., Defendant–Appellee.

No. 14–2344.

United States Court of Appeals, Seventh Circuit.

Argued May 18, 2015.

Decided Oct. 26, 2015.

Richard L. Steagall, Nicoara & Steagall, Peoria, IL, for Plaintiff–Appellant.

Roy G. Davis, Abby J. Clark, Davis & Campbell L.L.C., Peoria, IL, for Defendant–Appellee.

Before KANNE and SYKES, Circuit Judges, and ELLIS, District Judge.^*

Opinion

ELLIS, District Judge.

Proctor Health Care, Inc. (“Proctor”) terminated Larry Hooper, M.D. in response to Hooper's non-action after he was cleared by a psychiatrist to return to work, repeatedly told that the psychiatrist had cleared him, and warned that if he did not contact Proctor by a certain date regarding his return to work, he would be fired. Hooper sued Proctor under the Americans with Disabilities Act (“ADA”), 42 U.S.C. § 12101 et seq., and the district court granted summary judgment to Proctor, finding that Hooper had not asserted a failure to accommodate claim in his complaint and that there was no genuine issue of fact on his disability discrimination claim. Hooper appeals, arguing that the district court should have considered his failure to accommodate claim on the merits and that it ignored disputed facts in the evidence on his discrimination claim. But Hooper's complaint failed to mention any facts to put Proctor on notice that he was pursuing a failure to accommodate claim, which fails even when considered on the merits because Hooper did not require accommodations. Additionally, the district court properly granted summary judgment on the disability discrimination claim regardless of the method under which the claim is examined, because Hooper failed to create an issue of fact that would raise an inference of disability discrimination. Accordingly, we affirm.

I. BACKGROUND

Because this is an appeal of the district court's summary judgment decision, we summarize the facts in the light most favorable to Hooper, who was the non-moving party, and draw all reasonable inferences in his favor. Malin v. Hospira, Inc., 762 F.3d 552, 554 (7th Cir.2014).

Hooper, a family practice physician, received a diagnosis of bipolar disorder

in 2000. He must regularly see a psychologist to maintain his medical license in Illinois. In 2009, Proctor hired Hooper to work in its First Care outpatient clinics in Peoria, which provide urgent and primary care to walk-in patients and those with appointments.

On April 16, 2010, Hooper arranged to meet with Mandy Carballido, Proctor's Director of Human Resources. The meeting was prompted by an incident Hooper had with a neighbor about where he had parked his car, during which Hooper made derogatory comments and yelled at the police. Because he did not want a similar incident to occur at work, Hooper thought he needed time off from work. In the meeting, Hooper revealed his bipolar disorder

for the first time to anyone at Proctor. According to Hooper, Carballido remarked in response that she had a contentious relationship with her bipolar mother-in-law. Hooper inquired about Proctor's long term disability benefit, and the two discussed the possibility of a medical leave of absence.

After meeting with Hooper, Carballido informed her supervisor, Linda Buck, Proctor's Vice President of Human Resources, of the conversation. Carballido and Buck decided to place Hooper on an immediate paid medical leave of absence and to help him apply for long term disability benefits. Carballido immediately told Hooper of the decision. Hooper determined he was not eligible for long term disability, however, because his condition was a preexisting one.

On April 20, 2010, Hooper met with his psychiatrist, Dr. Karen Kyle. She agreed that Hooper should be placed on leave and wrote him a note to be off work for medical reasons. On May 14, 2010, Dr. Kyle determined that Hooper could return to work and wrote him another note to that end. But Proctor determined that Hooper should continue on paid leave until an independent medical examination confirmed Hooper was fit to return to work. Dr. James Cavanaugh, a psychiatrist at Rush University Medical Center, conducted that examination on August 2 and 3, 2010. Hooper left the examination believing he would not be able to return to work until Proctor received Dr. Cavanaugh's report, which Hooper thought would take three or four weeks. But on August 4, Dr. Cavanaugh orally informed Carballido that Hooper could return to work, indicating that a written report would be issued by August 19. Dr. Cavanaugh completed his report on August 18. Although Dr. Cavanaugh found Hooper fit to return to work without any specific restrictions, he also suggested Proctor could make certain accommodations to decrease Hooper's stress level and potentially improve Hooper's performance in the workplace. These included modifying Hooper's work hours to include more regular weekday hours so that Hooper did not feel as isolated, allowing Hooper to establish continuous contact with patients instead of only assigning him to walk-in patients, establishing regular evaluation sessions to provide Hooper with feedback on his performance, allowing Hooper to take sick days as medically indicated in a way that did not make him feel ostracized, and ensuring that Hooper had a supportive supervisor.

Upon receiving Dr. Cavanaugh's oral report that Hooper was fit to return to work, Diane Kurtz, Proctor First Care's administrative assistant, left Hooper two messages on August 4 or 5 indicating he should return to work the following day. Kurtz left him an additional message and tried to leave a fourth message but Hooper's voicemail box was full by that time. Proctor also tried contacting Hooper by phone the week of August 9. Hooper did not respond or report for work despite being in the Peoria area from August 4 through 13. Hooper's mother died on August 12, and so Hooper traveled to Marquette, Michigan on August 13 to attend the funeral and to her affairs, remaining there until August 18. Hooper testified that he thought he left a message that his mother had passed away and he was out of town attending the funeral with Kurtz or Todd Baker, Proctor's Executive Director of Ambulatory Care Services, but he acknowledged that he was not sure whether that call actually occurred. Hooper did not introduce any concrete evidence to substantiate this call.

On August 16, Baker sent Hooper a letter stating that Hooper had been cleared for work as of August 5, that human resources had been contacting him since then but had not heard from him, and that his employment would be terminated if he did not contact Proctor by the close of business on Friday, August 20. Because Proctor had not heard from Hooper by August 20, Proctor terminated Hooper's employment on August 23, effective August 20, and sent him a termination notice to that effect.

Despite having returned to Peoria on August 18, Hooper only retrieved Baker's August 16 letter on August 24. He then tried to contact Baker and Kurtz. Kurtz passed Hooper's message on to Proctor's Human Resources Department. On October 7, 2010, Hooper filed a request that his termination be reviewed. But that request was denied on October 12 because it was not made within seven days of his termination, as required by Proctor policy.

After filing an administrative charge alleging disability discrimination and retaliation, Hooper filed suit against Proctor in the Central District of Illinois. In his complaint, Hooper claimed that the August 16, 2010 letter was pretext to terminate his employment because he was a qualified individual with a disability under 42 U.S.C. § 12111(8) and the Illinois Human Rights Act (“IHRA”), 775 Ill. Comp. Stat. 5/1–102. The district court granted summary judgment for Proctor, finding that Hooper's disability discrimination claim failed, that his IHRA claim was waived, and that he had not asserted a failure to accommodate claim in his complaint. Hooper does not challenge the decision with respect to the IHRA claim.

II. ANALYSIS

We review a district court's grant of summary judgment de novo. Taylor–Novotny v. Health All. Med. Plans, Inc., 772 F.3d 478, 488 (7th Cir.2014). Summary judgment is appropriate when there is no genuine issue as to any material fact and the moving party is entitled to judgment as a matter of law. Fed.R.Civ.P. 56(a).

A. Failure to Accommodate Claim

In his complaint, Hooper generally alleged disability discrimination under the ADA. Then, in response to Proctor's motion for summary judgment, Hooper argued that Proctor failed to reasonably accommodate his disability, citing 42 U.S.C. § 12112(b)(5)(A). He claimed that Proctor should have discussed with him Dr. Cavanaugh's suggestions of accommodations that would improve Hooper's work environment rather than terminating him. The district court found that Hooper had not raised a failure to accommodate claim in his complaint, having failed to cite to 42 U.S.C. § 12112(b)(5) or allege any facts that would give rise to such a claim. The court further stated that even if Proctor was required to make the accommodations recommended by Dr. Cavanaugh, Proctor could not because Hooper never reported to work after those recommendations were made. Thus, regardless of whether Hooper waived the claim, the court would have found for Proctor.

On appeal, Hooper argues that the district court erred in finding the claim waived. He contends that the complaint alleged that he was a qualified individual with a disability and therefore included a failure to accommodate claim because the definition of a qualified individual is one who, “with or without reasonable accommodation, can perform the essential functions of the employment position that such individual holds.” 42 U.S.C. § 12111(8) (emphasis added).

Although Hooper need not have pleaded legal theories in his complaint, he was required to plead sufficient facts to put Proctor on notice of his claim. Reeves ex rel....