Martin v. Pga Tour, Inc., 97-6309-TC.

• Decision Date: 19 February 1998
• Docket Number: No. 97-6309-TC.,97-6309-TC.
• Citation: 994 F.Supp. 1242
• Parties: Casey MARTIN, Plaintiff, v. PGA TOUR, INC., a Maryland corporation, Defendant.
• Court: U.S. District Court — District of Oregon

994 F.Supp. 1242

Casey MARTIN, Plaintiff, v. PGA TOUR, INC., a Maryland corporation, Defendant.

No. 97-6309-TC.

United States District Court, D. Oregon.

February 19, 1998.

Martha Lee Walters, Walters Romm & Chanti, Eugene, OR, William H. Wiswall, Wiswall & Walsh PC, Eugene, OR, for Plaintiff.

George J. Cooper, III, Dunn Carney Allen Higgins & Tongue, Portland, OR, William J. Maledon, Scott W. Rodgers, Osborn Maledon PA, Phoenix, AZ, for Defendant.

Garr M. King, Kennedy Watts Arellano & Ricks LLP, Portland, OR, for Amicus.

FINDINGS OF FACT AND CONCLUSIONS OF LAW

COFFIN, United States Magistrate Judge.

This case presents profound questions regarding the application of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA). Does the ADA apply to athletic events or sports organizations? If so, are the most elite events and organizations, such as those at the professional level, somehow exempt from coverage? If the ADA is applicable, may a rule of competition be modified to accommodate a disabled competitor, or are the rules untouchable because any alteration of any rule would fundamentally alter the nature of the competitions?

Casey Martin is a disabled professional golfer. He can do everything well in the game of golf except walk to and from his shots. Because of a congenital deformity, his right leg is severely atrophied and weakened. He is placed at significant risk of fracturing his tibia by the simple act of walking, because of the increasing loss of bone stock and weakening of this bone that has occurred over the lifetime of this disorder. According to the medical testimony, walking also places Martin at significant risk of hemorrhaging as well, and creates an increased chance of developing deep venous thrombosis (blood clots).

The condition plaintiff suffers from causes him severe pain and discomfort. The slightest touching of his right leg at or below the knee is extremely painful. Beyond this, the condition causes him pain while playing golf, pain while carrying on daily activities and pain even while he is at rest.

A video of plaintiff's condition introduced into evidence at the trial, provides compelling evidence of the nature and extent of his disability:¹ The right leg appears to be about half the size of plaintiff's left leg. When plaintiff removes his double set of support stockings and stands upright, the leg immediately discolors and swells in size because the circulatory condition with which he is afflicted prevents the blood from flowing through his veins back to the heart. Instead, gravity, combined with "incompetent" valves which fail to close properly, pulls the blood back down his leg. The leg becomes engorged in blood because the arteries pump blood to his leg but the veins fail to circulate blood back to the heart. To relieve this situation, plaintiff must lie down and elevate the leg.

A double set of support or compression stockings provides plaintiff with enough venous pressure to allow him to remain upright for periods of time. As he has gotten older (he is now 25 years of age), his leg has steadily worsened because of his disability. Whereas he used to be able to walk a golf course (albeit with difficulty), he can no longer do so. As noted, he is at substantial risk of serious physical harm by the mere act of walking.

Dr. Donald Jones, plaintiff's treating physician, counsels that it is medically necessary for Casey Martin to be permitted a cart it he is to play the game of golf. As he summarized plaintiff's condition:

[T]he medical records reflect a 25-year old male with a rare congenital vascular malformation of the right lower extremity which has led to, number one, chronic pain secondary to vascular engorgement and progressive loss of bone stock, pain so severe that he has at least considered to explore the use of time contingent narcotics; number two, a documented sleep disorder secondary to chronic pain which leads, according to Dr. Holmes, to an exhaustion syndrome; number three, the need to wear two compression stockings at all times; number four, it has resulted in marked muscular atrophy and weakness in his right calf; number five, it has affected his knee through multiple intra-articular bleeds, causing abnormalities which are painful; and number six, and most important from the orthopedic aspect, it has resulted in a weakened tibia which is at risk for fracture and potential limb loss and/or serious post-fracture complications.

Transcript (#) at pp. 99-100.

Defendant PGA Tour does not contest that plaintiff has a disability within the meaning of the ADA, nor does it contest that his disability prevents him from walking the course during a round of golf. However, prior to this trial, defendant did not review plaintiff's medical records nor view the videotaped presentation of his condition. The PGA's position in this case has been twofold:

First, it asserts that the ADA does not apply to its professional golf tournaments; and

Second, the PGA asserts that the requirement of walking is a substantive rule of its competition and that a waiver of the rule would, accordingly, result in a fundamental alteration of its competitions, which the ADA does not require.

The first defense raised by the PGA — that the ADA is inapplicable to its tournaments — has been extensively discussed in this court's order dated January 30, 1998(# 69), wherein I found that the PGA Tour was not exempt, as a "private club," from ADA coverage and also found that its tournaments were conducted at places — i.e., golf courses — that were specifically included within the definition of places of "public accommodation" subject to the ADA.

The second defense encompasses the concept that the ADA does not require a covered entity to work a fundamental alteration of the nature of its business or programs in order to accommodate the disabled, nor need the entity accommodate if to do so would result in an undue hardship to the entity.

A few examples suffice to illustrate this point: Suppose a bookstore normally does not stock books in braille. A blind customer demands the accommodation of a supply of such books. The bookstore need not comply with the request, as such an accommodation would fundamentally alter the nature of its business. See 28 C.F.R. Ch. 1 Pt. 36, App. B at p. 632 (July 1, 1997 edition).² Or, to use another example cited by the PGA, a day care center normally does not provide individualized care (i.e., one attendant for each child) to its customers. A disabled child, in need of individualized attention, requests such an accommodation. The day care center need not comply because such would fundamentally alter the nature of the service the center provides.

There are few reported cases wherein the ADA has been applied to sports programs:

The Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals applied the ADA to the Michigan High School Athletic Association on two separate occasions regarding eligibility requirements. In McPherson v. MHSAA, 119 F.3d 453 (6th Cir.1997) the court considered whether the MHSAA's eight semester rule³ violated the ADA when applied to a student with a learning disability which prevented him from completing high school in eight semesters. The court initially noted that the simple fact that the MHSAA labeled the rule necessary did not make it so, but that the court had an independent responsibility to determine whether the rule is in fact necessary. Id. at 461. The court determined the rule was necessary.⁴ The court then found that requiring the MHSAA to waive the rule would work a fundamental alteration in its sports programs and would impose an immense financial and administrative burden on the MHSAA by forcing it to make "near impossible determinations" about a particular student's physical and athletic maturity.

Two years prior the court similarly found that waiver of an age regulation in high school sports fundamentally altered the program. See Sandison v. MHSAA, 64 F.3d 1026 (6th Cir.1995). The court noted, as it did in McPherson, that individually determining whether each older student possessed an unfair competitive advantage was not a reasonable accommodation. Id. at 1037.

The Eighth Circuit was confronted with a similar age eligibility rule of the Missouri State High School Athletic Association. See Pottgen v. MSHSAA, 40 F.3d 926 (8th Cir. 1994). In Pottgen the court found that the age requirement was essential to the high school athletic program and that an individualized inquiry into the necessity of the requirement in the plaintiff's case was inappropriate. Id. at 930.⁵

The District Court for the District of New Jersey found that complete abandonment of the "core course" requirement would fundamentally alter the nature of NCAA athletic programs. Bowers v. National Collegiate Athletic Assoc., 974 F.Supp. 459 (D.N.J. 1997). The Bowers court found the "core course" requirement essential because it was reasonably necessary to accomplish the purpose of the NCAA program. However, the court also noted that the rule authorized waiver of the requirement on a case-by-case basis for individualized consideration and as such was adequate to reasonably accommodate students with learning disabilities. Id. at 467.

From this rather limited background of athletic ADA case law, the PGA asserts that the court should focus on whether an athletic rule is "substantive" — i.e., a rule which defines who is eligible to compete or a rule which governs how the game is played. If it is, according to the PGA's argument, the rule cannot be modified without working a fundamental alteration of the competition, and the ADA consequently does not require any modification to accommodate the disabled.

I note, however, that even in those cases most heavily relied upon by the PGA the courts examined the purpose of each of the rules in question to determine if the requested modification was reasonable.

In Sandison and McPherson, the eligibility requirements imposed were closely fitted with the purpose of...