Rivera-Flores v. Bristol-Myers Squibb Caribbean

• Decision Date: 11 April 1997
• Docket Number: BRISTOL-MYERS,P,RIVERA-FLORE,No. 96-1885,96-1885
• Citation: 112 F.3d 9
• Parties: , 6 A.D. Cases 1025, 6 A.D. Cases 1154, 10 NDLR P 23 Gidellaintiff, Appellant, v.SQUIBB CARIBBEAN, et al., Defendants, Appellees. . Heard
• Court: U.S. Court of Appeals — First Circuit

Page 9

112 F.3d 9

65 USLW 2719, 6 A.D. Cases 1025, 6

A.D. Cases 1154, 10 NDLR P 23

Gidel RIVERA-FLORES, Plaintiff, Appellant, v. BRISTOL-MYERS SQUIBB CARIBBEAN, et al., Defendants, Appellees.

No. 96-1885.

United States Court of Appeals First Circuit.

Heard April 11, 1997.

Decided April 25, 1997.

Octavio A. Diaz-Negron, Humacao, PR, Idalia M. Diaz and Peter J. Porrata, Hato Rey, PR, for plaintiff, appellant.

Carl Schuster, with whom Maria Santiago de Vidal, Maria Maldonado-Nieves and Schuster Usera Aguilo & Santiago, Hato Rey, PR, were on brief for defendants, appellees.

Jay A. Garcia-Gregory and Fiddler, Gonzalez & Rodriguez, San Juan, on brief for appellee, Prudential Insurance Company.

Before SELYA, Circuit Judge, ALDRICH, Senior Circuit Judge, and LYNCH, Circuit Judge.

LYNCH, Circuit Judge.

Gidel Rivera-Flores worked first as a machine cleaner and later as a line operator for Squibb Manufacturing Inc. ("SMI") in Humacao, Puerto Rico. Some two years after his employment was terminated under a severance program, Rivera, who wore a prosthetic device in place of his lower left leg, sued SMI and its insurer, Prudential Insurance Co., under the Americans with Disabilities Act ("ADA"), 42 U.S.C. § 12101 et seq., the Employee Retirement Income Security Act ("ERISA"), 29 U.S.C. § 1001 et seq., and other federal and Puerto Rico employment statutes. The employer countered with a waiver and release which Rivera had executed when his employment terminated and for which he received certain benefits. Rivera responded that the release was invalid. On cross-motions for summary judgment, the district court entered summary judgment for the defendants. Rivera appeals. This case raises an issue of first impression in this circuit concerning the enforceability under the ADA of waivers and releases of claims by employees.

We hold that the general principles for evaluating such waivers and releases, enunciated by this court for claims arising under other employment statutes, apply to the ADA as well: ADA waivers and releases must be knowing and voluntary, as evidenced by the totality of the circumstances.

Whatever the merits of any claims Rivera had arising out of his employment, ¹ he presented no competent evidence that created a genuine issue of material fact as to whether his waiver and release were voluntarily and knowingly given, and whether he had the capacity to give such a release. We affirm.

I.

Rivera was born in 1953 and has a high school education. He began working for SMI in June 1984; before that he worked as a police officer for ten years. Rivera's left leg had been amputated below the knee after a motorcycle accident he suffered in 1982 when he was a police officer. His work assignments at SMI, despite his requests for accommodation (which were partially met), caused his stump to become irritated and bleed. In pain, he began exhibiting symptoms of, and eventually received a letter from a doctor diagnosing him with, post-traumatic stress disorder and an anxiety disorder.

Rivera left work due to disability in December 1992. In the spring of 1993, he received a letter inviting him to participate in a voluntary separation plan. He sent a letter accepting this invitation. He also applied for long-term disability benefits available through the employer and submitted a statement in support from his attending physician. The insurer denied the request for long-term disability benefits; Rivera sought reconsideration in September of 1993 and submitted further documentation to the insurer. Rivera pursued his claims for disability benefits throughout 1993 and thereafter. ²

In the fall of 1993, faced with the shutdown of certain of its operations, SMI sent Rivera and other employees a letter of dismissal stating that all employees who wished to receive voluntary separation benefits had to sign a waiver agreement. Under the terms of the Separation Agreement and General Release Form (the "Agreement"), dated October 18, 1993, the employee agreed that he would make no legal claims against the company or its insurer. ³ He received, in turn, certain benefits beyond those he was otherwise entitled to receive. The Agreement stated that the signatory acknowledged that he was signing the Agreement voluntarily, that he fully understood the Agreement, that he had been advised to consult with a legal representative, and that he had seven days to revoke his consent. On December 1, 1993, Rivera executed the Agreement. He never revoked his consent. He now claims that he signed the Agreement, which he did not read at the time, under duress and while he was suffering under a psychiatric disability.

II.

Rivera challenges the validity of the release on three grounds: that enforcement of the release would be contrary to the policies animating the ADA, that the evidence raised a dispute as to whether the execution of the release was knowing and voluntary, and that he should have been permitted to take additional discovery. The first two issues are intertwined.

Courts have, in the employment law context, commonly upheld releases given in exchange for additional benefits. Such releases provide a means of voluntary resolution of potential and actual legal disputes, and mete out a type of industrial justice. Thus, releases of past claims have been honored under the laws prohibiting race and gender discrimination. Warnebold v. Union Pac. R.R., 963 F.2d 222, 223-24 (8th Cir.1992); cf. Alexander v. Gardner-Denver Co., 415 U.S. 36, 52, 94 S.Ct. 1011, 1021-22, 39 L.Ed.2d 147 (1974). Such releases have also been honored under the ADEA, which prohibits age discrimination in employment, e.g., Pierce v. Atchison T. & S.F. Ry. Co., 110 F.3d 431 (7th Cir.1997), as well as under ERISA, e.g. Smart v. Gillette Co. Long-Term Disability Plan, 70 F.3d 173, 181 (1st Cir.1995); Rodriguez-Abreu v. Chase Manhattan Bank, N.A., 986 F.2d 580, 587 (1st Cir.1993).

Where Congress has wanted to insure particular protections for the employees in the procedures for obtaining releases, it has done so, for example in the Older Workers Benefits Protection Act amendments to the ADEA. 29 U.S.C. § 626(f). No such special procedures are set forth in the ADA.

The protection Congress wished to afford to disabled workers is consistent, we believe, with permitting those workers to resolve their claims by executing a release in exchange for benefits they would not otherwise receive. The ADA clearly encourages private resolution of employment disputes, such as by requiring that employers attempt to make reasonable accommodations and that the EEOC try to settle disputes informally. See, e.g., Hodges, Mediation and the Americans with Disabilities Act, 30 Ga. L.Rev. 431, 437 (1996). The ADA also expressly provides that its enforcement procedures shall be the same as those for Title VII, 42 U.S.C. § 12117(a), and releases have long been accepted in that context. In addition, although claims concerning employment arise under Title I of the ADA, it is noteworthy that the EEOC Regulations under Title III of the ADA (public accommodations) expressly provide for settlement of disputes. 28 C.F.R. § 36.506.

Certainly there is nothing in the ADA prohibiting such releases. Indeed, as the district court pointed out, the report of the conference committee on the ADA evinces an intent to permit individuals to settle or waive claims under the ADA by express, voluntary agreement. H.R.Rep. No. 101-596 (1990), reprinted in 1990 U.S.C.C.A.N. 267, 598. Prohibiting such waivers under the ADA on policy grounds arguably would display the same stereotyping and patronizing attitudes toward the disabled which Congress hoped to remedy in enacting the ADA. We conclude that such releases are permissible under the ADA, and turn to whether the release at issue here was valid.

Waiver and release are affirmative defenses on which the employer bears the burden. Fed.R.Civ.P. 8(c); see Long v. Sears Roebuck & Co., 105 F.3d 1529, 1543 (3d Cir.1997). At a minimum, judicial review of such waivers and releases has been designed to ensure that they are "knowing and voluntary." Smart, 70 F.3d at 181. That analysis necessitates some focus on the rights being waived and the congressional intention to protect such rights. This court has endorsed a "totality of circumstances" approach to determining the validity of the waiver. Id. We have found helpful, but not exclusive, a set of six factors identified by the Second Circuit in Finz v. Schlesinger, 957 F.2d 78, 82 (2d Cir.1992). ⁴

And yet, a challenge to a release by a person who asserted to the employer that he was disabled at the time of execution of the release may, on particular facts, warrant heightened judicial scrutiny. ⁵ While certain claimed disabilities may inherently raise a question about whether the employee has the capacity to give a knowing and voluntary waiver, that is not the case here. It is not enough for an employee simply to assert that he was disabled at the time he executed the release and the employer knew it. The definition in the ADA of "disability" covers three categories, including the mere perception that someone is disabled. 42 U.S.C. § 12102(2); Soileau v. Guilford of Maine, Inc., 105 F.3d 12, 15 (1st Cir.1997). Nor is it enough to assert that the nature of the disability was psychiatric. Not all disabilities and not all psychiatric disabilities inherently involve a question about capacity to act knowingly and voluntarily. Cf. United States v. Schneider, 111 F.3d 197 (1st Cir.1997).

Thus, the operative question is whether there is a genuine issue as to whether Rivera had the capacity to execute the release knowingly and voluntarily. Summary judgment is appropriate where "the pleadings, depositions, answers to interrogatories, and admissions on file, together with the affidavits, if any, show that there is no genuine issue as to any material fact and that the moving party is entitled to judgment as a matter of law." Fed.R.Civ.P. 56(c...