Johnson v. Paradise Valley Unified School Dist.

• Decision Date: 24 May 2001
• Docket Number: PLAINTIFF-APPELLANT,DEFENDANT-APPELLEE,No. 99-17530,99-17530
• Citation: 251 F.3d 1222
• Parties: (9th Cir. 2001) LINDA JOHNSON,, v. PARADISE VALLEY UNIFIED SCHOOL DISTRICT,
• Court: U.S. Court of Appeals — Ninth Circuit

Page 1222

251 F.3d 1222 (9th Cir. 2001)

LINDA JOHNSON, PLAINTIFF-APPELLANT, v. PARADISE VALLEY UNIFIED SCHOOL DISTRICT, DEFENDANT-APPELLEE.

No. 99-17530

UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS FOR THE NINTH CIRCUIT

Argued and Submitted November 15, 2000

Filed May 24, 2001

Rosemary Cook, Phoenix, Arizona, for the plaintiff-appellant.

Gary L. Lassen and Kimberly J. Cilke, Jennings, Strouss & Salmon, Phoenix, Arizona, for the defendant-appellee.

Appeal from the United States District Court for the District of Arizona John W. Sedwick^*, District Judge, Presiding. D.C. No. CV-97-00823-JWS

Before: Alex Kozinski, Michael Daly Hawkins, and Marsha S. Berzon, Circuit Judges.

Berzon, Circuit Judge

After prevailing in a jury trial on her claim under the Americans with Disabilities Act ("ADA"), 42 U.S.C.§§ 12101-12213, against Paradise Valley School District ("District"), Linda Johnson appeals from the district court's order granting judgment as a matter of law to the District and conditionally granting the District's motion for a new trial. We reverse.

BACKGROUND

A. The Evidence Favorable to Johnson

The jury heard the following evidence at trial, some of which was contradicted by other evidence and some of which was not:

Linda Johnson was employed by the District from August 1982 to May 1996. From her date of hire to July 27, 1987, Johnson held the position of Custodian I. She was promoted to Groundskeeper I and served in that capacity from July 27, 1987 to April 13, 1989. Johnson was then promoted to Groundskeeper II, a position she held until her resignation on May 14, 1996.

Johnson was severely injured on the job on July 9, 1995. A golf cart crushed Johnson's leg, and she suffered a "degloving" injury -- that is, an injury in which skin, muscle, and nerve tissue on the leg were pulled away from the bone. Johnson underwent surgery to repair the damaged nerve tissue, connective tissue, and skin, and was able to return to work from September 1995 to December 1995. In December, Johnson's doctor placed her on "no work" status because she was suffering persistent pain and swelling in her injured leg.

Johnson thereupon met with the District's Director of Employment, Dr. Teri Traaen, and presented her with her doctor's note. Johnson's leg injury was visible during this meeting because Johnson was wearing shorts. Johnson described the injury to Traaen, telling her that:"the electric cart crushed my leg and tore the skin, muscle, and all the tissue off my leg. I [am] on crutches . . . to keep weight off my foot because it was swelling." Johnson told Traaen that she was in constant pain, and that due to her injury, she did not know "if and when" she would ever be able to return to work.

Traaen testified at trial that Johnson "truly did look like she was in constant pain," that Johnson had indicated that she did not know if she could ever work again, and that Traaen had no reason to doubt Johnson's statement regarding her future work prospects.

On February 5, 1996, Johnson received a release from her doctor that allowed her to return to work with the following restrictions: "No prolonged standing, no prolonged walking, allow frequent changes in position." Johnson met with Traaen and gave her the limited release. Johnson testified that Traaen told her that she could not return to work under the limited release, because "we don't take limited releases. " Traaen denied ever having told any employees, including Johnson, that they would be terminated if they could not obtain a full release, but the jury heard from two other District employees, Dan Gallagher and Jay Brewer, each of whom testified that they had suffered injuries, and that Traaen had refused to permit them to return to work with limited releases and told them that unless they could obtain full releases they would be terminated.

District policy permitted Johnson 100 days of unpaid leave, commencing after her last day of work. On May 13, 1996, after Johnson's 100 days had expired, Johnson met with Traaen and Eileen Holusha, the benefits administrator for the District, and, according to Johnson, was told that she had to choose between resigning or being fired. At that time, Johnson testified, she asked for a one-year leave of absence to recuperate from her injury, or, in the alternative, for permission to use her approximately 23 days of unused vacation and sick leave to defer her date of decision in hope of obtaining a full release from her doctor. Although District policy dictated that the latter request should have been granted, Traaen denied both requests and encouraged Johnson to resign, suggesting that a resignation might look better on her resume than a termination. Traaen stated that if Johnson obtained a full release after resigning, she could apply for another job, and offered to write a recommendation letter for Johnson if she resigned.

Three witnesses corroborated Johnson's story. All three testified that Johnson had tearfully told them on May 13, 1996, that she had just spoken with Traaen and had been told that she had to resign or be fired.

The day after the May 13, 1996 meeting, Johnson submitted a letter of resignation. Three weeks later, on June 3, 1996, Johnson received a full release from her doctor. On July 10, 1996, Johnson applied for an open position of Groundskeeper I and was not hired. In the succeeding several months, Johnson applied for 12 more open positions and was not interviewed or hired for any of them. Each of Johnson's applications was marked "DNP," an acronym for"do not process," by a District administrator.

Traaen testified that she was involved in the decision to mark Johnson's applications DNP, and that they were so marked because of an incident in which Johnson came to Traaen's office angry over not being hired for a position (the "rage incident"), and because Johnson had had attendance problems during her fourteen years with the district.

Johnson's account of her meeting with Traaen on the day of the alleged rage incident was very different from Traaen's. Johnson testified that she went to meet Traaen, waited for about 90 minutes in the reception area, and was then called into Traaen's office and left alone for several minutes. When Traaen returned, according to Johnson, she told Johnson, "This meeting is over. Leave." Johnson left. Moreover, Traaen conceded on cross-examination that the rage incident postdated Johnson's first application, which, like the later ones, was marked DNP. Traaen also conceded that Johnson had never been disciplined for her attendance "problems," and that her performance evaluations were uniformly positive in all categories other than attendance. The jury also saw Johnson's fourteen annual performance evaluation forms, which revealed that the attendance issue was discussed on the two evaluations immediately preceding Johnson's two promotions, in 1987 and 1989.

B. Proceedings below

Johnson filed this ADA case in February 1997, alleging that the District discriminated against her because she was disabled, in violation of 42 U.S.C. § 12102(2)(A), and because the District regarded her as disabled, in violation of 42 U.S.C. § 12102(2)(C).¹ District Judge Bruce M. Van Sickle granted summary judgment on Johnson's § 12102(2)(A) claim, finding that Johnson did not, as a matter of law, suffer from a physical impairment that substantially limited her in any major life activity. Judge Van Sickle denied the District's motion for summary judgment as to the § 12102(2)(C) claim, however, finding that there was sufficient evidence to proceed to trial on Johnson's claim that the District discriminated against her because it regarded her as disabled. This claim was tried to a jury before Judge Van Sickle in February 1999.

At trial, Johnson challenged four distinct adverse actions by the District, all of which, she alleged, had occurred because the District regarded her as disabled: the refusal to allow Johnson to return to work without a full release; her forced resignation; the refusal to allow her to extend her leave of absence by using her accumulated vacation and sick time, in alleged violation of District policy; and the failure to consider her subsequent applications for open positions.

At the close of plaintiff's case, the District moved for judgment as a matter of law, arguing that Johnson had introduced no evidence in support of her claim that the District regarded her as disabled. Judge Van Sickle denied the motion. After deliberation, the jury returned a verdict in Johnson's favor and awarded her $237,345.

After the verdict, the District filed a renewed motion for judgment as a matter of law.² Judge Van Sickle thereupon determined that he was unable to continue to preside over the case, and the case was reassigned to a different district judge, Judge John W. Sedwick. Judge Sedwick proceeded to hear, and then granted, the District's renewed motion for judgment as a matter of law, and also heard and conditionally granted the District's alternative motion for a new trial. Johnson appeals Judge Sedwick's grant of judgment as a matter of law on her "regarded as disabled" claim, arguing that there was sufficient evidence for the jury to conclude that the District regarded her as disabled, and his conditional grant of a new trial, arguing that Judge Sedwick abused his discretion because the jury's verdict was not against the overwhelming weight of the evidence. We agree on both issues.

DISCUSSION

A. Legal framework

"There are two apparent ways in which individuals may fall within [the "regarded as disabled" provision of the ADA]: (1) a covered entity mistakenly believes that a person has a physical impairment that substantially limits one or more major life activities, or (2) a covered entity mistakenly believes that an actual, nonlimiting impairment substantially limits one or more major life activities." Sutton v. United Airlines, 527 U.S. 471, 489 (1999). Here, Johnson's claim was that the...