Riechmann v. Cutler-Hammer, Inc.

• Decision Date: 12 September 2001
• Docket Number: No. CIV. A. 99-2052-CM.,CIV. A. 99-2052-CM.
• Citation: 183 F.Supp.2d 1292
• Parties: Sandra RIECHMANN, Plaintiff, v. CUTLER-HAMMER, INC. and Eaton Corporation, Defendants.
• Court: U.S. District Court — District of Kansas

183 F.Supp.2d 1292

Sandra RIECHMANN, Plaintiff, v. CUTLER-HAMMER, INC. and Eaton Corporation, Defendants.

No. CIV. A. 99-2052-CM.

United States District Court, D. Kansas.

September 12, 2001.

COPYRIGHT MATERIAL OMITTED

Steven D. Horak, Overland Park, KS, for plaintiff.

Jack L. Whitacre, Spencer, Fane, Britt & Browne, Kansas City, MO, John J. Doyle, Jr., Jill S. Stricklin, Constangy, Brooks & Smith, L.L.C., Winston-Salem, NC, Michael L. Blumenthal, Constangy, Brooks & Smith, L.L.C., Kansas City, MO, for defendants.

MEMORANDUM AND ORDER

MURGUIA, District Judge.

Pending before the court is plaintiff Sandra Riechmann's motion for judgment as a matter of law (Doc. 90). Plaintiff asserts that, as a matter of law, defendants have failed to establish that medical inquiries made of plaintiff were job-related and consistent with business necessity. Accordingly, plaintiff asserts she is entitled to judgment as a matter of law on her Americans with Disabilities Act medical inquiry claim. In addition, plaintiff seeks the court to award her a new trial and grant her injunctive relief. For the reasons set forth below, plaintiff's motion is denied.

• Background

Plaintiff filed suit against defendants Cutler-Hammer, Inc. and Eaton Corporation alleging that defendants discriminated against her on the basis of her disability, failed to accommodate her disability and subjected her to disability-based harassment, all in violation of the Americans with Disabilities Act ("ADA"), 42 U.S.C. § 12101 et seq. Plaintiff further asserted that defendants made improper medical inquiries regarding her medical condition in violation of the ADA and that defendants retaliated against her when she requested an accommodation under the ADA. Upon motion by defendants, the court granted summary judgment to defendants on all but one of plaintiff's claims. Plaintiff's ADA improper medical inquiry claim proceeded to trial. Following trial on the merits, the jury rendered a verdict in defendants' favor. Specifically, upon special questions, the jury determined that defendants "made medical inquiries" of plaintiff. However, the jury further determined that the medical inquiries made "were job related and consistent with business necessity."

At the close of defendant's evidence, plaintiff sought judgment as a matter of law under Fed.R.Civ.P. 50 asserting that defendants had failed to meet their burden to establish that the medical inquiries made of plaintiff were job related and consistent with business necessity. The court took plaintiff's motion under advisement. However, upon the jury's verdict rendering a decision for defendant, the court found plaintiff's motion to be moot. Plaintiff now renews her motion for judgment as a matter of law.

• Judgment as a Matter of Law

• Standard

Judgment as a matter of law "should be cautiously and sparingly granted."

Fed.R.Civ.P. 50(b); Zuchel v. City & County of Denver, 997 F.2d 730, 734 (10th Cir.1993). Judgment as a matter of law is appropriate "only if the evidence, viewed in the light most favorable to the nonmoving party, points but one way and is susceptible to no reasonable inferences supporting the nonmoving party." Riggs v. Scrivner, Inc., 927 F.2d 1146, 1149 (10th Cir.1991). Such judgment is proper only when "the evidence so strongly supports an issue that reasonable minds could not differ." Ryder v. City of Topeka, 814 F.2d 1412, 1418 (10th Cir.1987). In determining whether judgment as a matter of law is proper, the court may not weigh the evidence, consider the credibility of witnesses, or substitute its judgment for that of the jury. See Lucas v. Dover Corp., 857 F.2d 1397, 1400 (10th Cir.1988). Nevertheless, the court must find more than a mere scintilla of evidence favoring the nonmovant; the court must find that "evidence was before the jury upon which it could properly find against the movant." Cooper v. Asplundh Tree Expert Co., 836 F.2d 1544, 1547 (10th Cir.1988).

• Discussion

Plaintiff seeks judgment as a matter of law under Fed.R.Civ.P. 50 asserting that defendants have failed to meet their burden to establish that the medical inquiries made of plaintiff were job related and consistent with business necessity.

Generally, the ADA prohibits employers from making inquiries as to whether an employee is an individual with a disability or as to the nature and severity of any such disability. 42 U.S.C. § 12112(d)(4)(A); 29 C.F.R. § 1630.13(b). This prohibition was intended to prevent inquiries of employees that do not serve a legitimate business purpose. 29 C.F.R. Pt. 1630, App. § 1630.13(b). An employer is allowed, however, to make medical inquiries of employees as long as such inquiries are job related and consistent with business necessity. 42 U.S.C. § 12112(d)(4)(B); 29 C.F.R. § 1630.14(c). Specifically, the ADA "permits employers to make inquiries or require medical examinations necessary to the reasonable accommodation process...." 29 C.F.R. Pt. 1630, App. § 1630.14(c). As the court instructed the jury, determining whether a medical inquiry is job related and consistent with business necessity must be analyzed in an overall context rather than considering each individual inquiry in isolation. See e.g., Martin v. State of Kansas, 190 F.3d 1120, 1134 (10th Cir.1999) (examining legality of medical inquiries by employer of plaintiff in an overall context), overruled on other grounds as recognized in Isham v. Wilcox, No. 00-2177, 2001 WL 505235, at *1133-34 (10th Cir. May 14, 2001) (unpublished); EEOC v. Prevo's Family Mar., Inc., 135 F.3d 1089, 1093 (6th Cir.1998) (same).

• Disparate Impact Analysis

Plaintiff challenges the sufficiency of defendants' proof, asserting that the evidence was insufficient to support the verdict that the medical inquiries made of plaintiff were job related and consistent with business necessity. First, plaintiff asserts the court should examine the defendants' showing of job relatedness and consistency with business necessity by applying the legal principles applied in disparate impact claims. Plaintiff asserts that under the disparate impact principles defendants would be required to show that each of its medical inquiries served a "compelling need" and was of "great importance to job performance" to establish that the inquiries were job related and consistent with business necessity. The court disagrees.

The disparate impact theory of discrimination has been applied "where clearly identifiable employment practices or criteria, regardless of whether there was intent to discriminate, resulted in a less favorable impact upon a protected group." Coe v. Yellow Freight Sys., Inc., 646 F.2d 444, 450 (10th Cir.1981). In a disparate impact case, the employer bears the burden of proving that a given requirement is justified by business necessity. Williams v. Colorado Springs, 641 F.2d 835, 840 (10th Cir.1981). To accomplish this, the employer must show that the business purpose for the challenged practice or criteria is "sufficiently compelling to override any [discriminatory] impact," that the practice "effectively carr[ies] out the business purpose it is alleged to serve," and that there is no available "acceptable alternative policies or practices which would better accomplish the business purpose advanced, or accomplish it equally well with a lesser [discriminatory] impact." Id. at 840-41. Therefore, the court must employ a balancing test to determine whether the business purpose is sufficiently compelling to outweigh any discriminatory impact. Id.

In the ADA context, the disparate impact analysis is appropriate in claims involving improper qualification standards, tests or selection criteria, when "uniformly applied criteria have an adverse impact on an individual with a disability or a disproportionately negative impact on a class of individuals with disabilities." 42 U.S.C. § 12112(b)(6); 29 C.F.R. Pt. 1630.15, App. §§ 1630.15(b)-(c). It is a defense to such claims that the challenged standards, tests or criteria are job related and consistent with business necessity. 29 C.F.R. § 1630.15(b). According to the EEOC's Interpretative Guidance to the ADA, the concept of "business necessity" under Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973 should apply to claims of improper qualification standards, tests or selection criteria under the ADA. 29 C.F.R. Pt. 1630.10. In turn, the Analysis of Federal Regulations pertaining to the Rehabilitation Act provides that the Title VII disparate impact and business necessity principles set forth in Griggs v. Duke Power, 401 U.S. 424, 91 S.Ct. 849, 28 L.Ed.2d 158 (1971), should apply to analogous cases under the Rehabilitation Act in which employers used tests or other selection criteria that tended to screen out handicapped persons. 42 Fed.Reg. 22,688 (1977).

By contrast, as asserted by defendants, claims of improper medical inquiries under the ADA do not lend themselves to analysis under disparate impact principles, as such cases do not involve facially neutral practices or criteria which have a disproportionately negative impact upon qualified individuals with a disability. Unlike disparate impact claims, it is immaterial to plaintiff's improper medical inquiry claim whether the defendants' medical inquiries were facially neutral or whether they may have had a disparate impact upon disabled people. In a medical inquiry claim under the ADA, there is no disparate impact to be weighed or to be balanced against the employer's business objectives. Thus, the business necessity defense is not subject to the principles governing adverse impact claims.

Moreover, in this case plaintiff has not alleged that defendants engaged in a pattern or practice of discriminating against qualified individuals with a disability, nor has she presented any evidence suggesting that any such discriminatory pattern or practice existed. Further, there is no evidence indicating that defendants used the challenged medical assessment forms with...