Rodriguez v. Conagra Grocery Products Co.

• Decision Date: 10 January 2006
• Docket Number: No. 04-11473.,04-11473.
• Citation: 436 F.3d 468
• Parties: Rudy RODRIGUEZ, Plaintiff-Appellant, v. CONAGRA GROCERY PRODUCTS COMPANY, Defendant-Appellee.
• Court: U.S. Court of Appeals — Fifth Circuit

Page 468

436 F.3d 468

Rudy RODRIGUEZ, Plaintiff-Appellant, v. CONAGRA GROCERY PRODUCTS COMPANY, Defendant-Appellee.

No. 04-11473.

United States Court of Appeals, Fifth Circuit.

January 10, 2006.

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Donald Edward Uloth (argued), Uloth & Peavler, Dallas, TX, for Rodriguez.

Arthur Tracy Carter (argued), Haynes & Boone, Dallas, TX, Helen Liu Thigpen, Haynes & Boone, Richardson, TX, for ConAgra Grocery Products Co.

Gail S. Coleman (argued), EEOC, Washington, DC, for EEOC, Amicus Curiae.

Daniel B. Kohrman, AARP, Washington, DC, for AARP, Advocacy, Inc., Am. Diabetes Ass'n and Coalition of Texans with Disabilities, Amici Curiae.

Appeal from the United States District Court for the Northern District of Texas.

Before HIGGINBOTHAM, WIENER, and DENNIS, Circuit Judges.

WIENER, Circuit Judge:

Treating the Petition for Rehearing En Banc filed by ConAgra Grocery Products Co. as a Petition for Panel Rehearing, the Petition for Panel Rehearing is GRANTED, the prior panel opinion, Rodriguez v. ConAgra Grocery Products Co., No. 04-11473 (5th Cir. filed Nov. 14, 2005) is hereby withdrawn, and this opinion is substituted therefor. As no member of this panel, nor judge in regular active service of the court, has requested that the court be polled on rehearing en banc (Fed. R.App. P. and 5th Cir. R. 35), the Petition for Rehearing En Banc is DENIED.

Plaintiff-Appellant Rudy Rodriguez ("Rodriguez") brought this diversity action against Defendant-Appellee ConAgra Grocery Products Co. ("ConAgra") under the Texas Commission on Human Rights Act ("TCHRA") alleging disability discrimination on the basis of his diabetes. The district court denied Rodriguez's motion for partial summary judgment and granted ConAgra's. We reverse, grant partial summary judgment to Rodriguez, and remand to the district court for further proceedings consistent with this opinion.

I. FACTS AND PROCEEDINGS

Rodriguez was diagnosed with Type II diabetes in 1997. The general term "diabetes" encompasses a category of diseases, all of which are characterized by hyperglycemia — heightened blood sugar levels — resulting from the difficulty of the body to eliminate sugar (glucose) from the blood stream. A healthy body produces insulin at adequate levels and uses that insulin to move sugar from the blood stream to within the body's cells where the sugar is used for sustenance. A Type II diabetic like Rodriguez typically has both a reduced ability to produce insulin and a reduced ability to use the insulin that his body does produce. As a result, sugar builds up in the blood stream, leading to hyperglycemia, one of the most significant dangers Type II diabetics face. Hyperglycemia develops gradually, though, and is capable of detection by monitoring blood sugar levels.

ConAgra owns a plant in Fort Worth, Texas, at which it produces Ranch Style Beans. In January 2002, a temporary staffing agency placed Rodriguez at this plant where, until March of that year, he performed heavy manual labor, including unloading delivery trucks and lifting heavy sacks of beans.

Based on the quality of Rodriguez's work, a supervisor recommended to the plant's Human Resources Manager, Elza Zamora, that ConAgra offer Rodriguez a permanent position. In late February 2002, ConAgra offered Rodriguez a job as a "Production Utility" employee in the plant's production area. The offer was contingent on Rodriguez's passing a background check, a drug screen, and a physical exam.

The following month, with offer in hand, Rodriguez visited Occupational Health Solutions ("OHS"), a private clinic with which ConAgra had a standing contractual arrangement to perform all of its preemployment physical exams. OHS's Dr. Jerry Morris performed Rodriguez's physical exam. Pursuant to the OHS-ConAgra contract, Dr. Morris was to assess Rodriguez's medical qualification for the Production Utility position at ConAgra. Significantly, however, ConAgra had never provided Dr. Morris with any data or restrictions applicable to the position, and Dr. Morris admitted that when he examined Rodriguez he knew nothing of Rodriguez's job offer or the qualifications necessary for the Production Utility position.

Dr. Morris performed a urinalysis on Rodriguez, which showed an elevated concentration of glucose in his urine. Based on Rodriguez's concentrated level of glucose and the fact that Rodriguez could not remember the name of his treating physician or the name of the medication he was taking to control his diabetes, Dr. Morris concluded that Rodriguez's diabetes was "uncontrolled." On the medical form that Dr. Morris submitted to ConAgra, he wrote that Rodriguez was "[n]ot medically qualified" for the position at the plant because of "uncontrolled diabetes." Dr. Morris also told Rodriguez that he did not believe Rodriguez was controlling his diabetes.

Rodriguez immediately disputed Dr. Morris's assessment, informing him that Rodriguez "had [had] a complete physical not even two months ago and [his] physical was all right and [he] was taking pills for [his diabetes] and everything and [he] never had no trouble." Indeed, Rodriguez's oral medical history and physical exam confirmed that he suffered no physical or mental problems attributable to his diabetes. And, Dr. Morris testified that he observed no ill-effects attributable to Rodriguez's diabetes.

Following the exam, Rodriguez took his completed medical form to Zamora. She thereupon informed Rodriguez that he would not be hired because (1) he had failed the physical exam, and (2) Dr. Morris did not recommend him for employment.

Four days after ConAgra withdrew the job offer, Rodriguez filed a charge of discrimination with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission ("EEOC") and the Texas Commission on Human Rights ("TCHR"). After both organizations failed to find a violation of Rodriguez's rights, the TCHR issued him a right-to-sue letter. That was in June of 2002; two months later, Rodriguez sued ConAgra in Texas state court, alleging that ConAgra violated the TCHRA¹ when it refused to hire him because of what it perceived to be uncontrolled diabetes. ConAgra removed the case to federal court on the basis of diversity jurisdiction,² but the district court remanded it in November of 2002, after concluding that the diversity jurisdiction statute's amount-in-controversy requirement was not satisfied. Rodriguez filed an amended original petition in state court, and ConAgra again removed the suit on diversity grounds, after which the matter proceeded in federal court.

In October 2003, ConAgra filed a motion for summary judgment, and Rodriguez filed for partial summary judgment. In granting ConAgra's motion and dismissing Rodriguez's claims with prejudice, the district court reasoned that "Rodriguez ... failed to present any evidence tending to demonstrate that his employment offer was withdrawn because of the fact that he had diabetes."³ "Rather, the overwhelming undisputed evidence is that Zamora withdrew the job offer because she believed that Rodriguez's diabetes was uncontrolled."⁴ This, according to the district court, is "a distinction with a difference"; "numerous courts have concluded, albeit on differing grounds, that an employer's adverse action in response to a plaintiff's failure to control an otherwise controllable illness does not give rise to a disability discrimination claim."⁵ And, in the district court's opinion, diabetes is a "generally controllable" illness.⁶ Therefore, ruled the court, Rodriguez did not have a claim under the TCHRA.⁷ Rodriguez timely filed a notice of appeal.⁸

II. ANALYSIS

A. Standard of Review

We review both grants and denials of summary judgment motions de novo.⁹ "[I]f the pleadings, depositions, answers to interrogatories, and admissions on file, together with affidavits, ... show that there is no genuine issue as to any material fact and that the moving party is entitled to a judgment as a matter of law," then summary judgment in favor of that party is appropriate.¹⁰ Initially, it is the moving party's burden to "show[ that] there is no genuine issue of material fact"; if that burden is met, then the nonmoving party must "produce evidence or designate specific facts showing the existence of a genuine issue for trial."¹¹ In conducting our analysis, we resolve any doubts and draw any reasonable inferences raised by the evidence in favor of the nonmoving party.¹²

B. The Texas Commission on Human Rights Act and the Americans with Disabilities Act

The TCHRA, like the Americans with Disabilities Act ("ADA"),¹³ prohibits employment-based discrimination grounded in an individual's disability.¹⁴ Given the similarity between the ADA and the TCHRA, Texas courts "look to analogous federal precedent for guidance when interpreting the Texas Act."¹⁵ As must federal diversity courts when deciding an issue of state law, we will follow the Texas courts' lead. Our analysis today is thus focused on those analogous federal precedents and their interpretation of the federal act banning discrimination in employment on the basis of disability: the ADA.

The ADA makes it unlawful for an employer to discriminate against "a qualified individual with a disability because of the disability of such individual in regard to job application procedures, the hiring, advancement, or discharge of employees, employee compensation, job training, and other terms, conditions, and privileges of employment."¹⁶ The ADA defines a "qualified individual with a disability" as "an individual with a disability who, with or without reasonable accommodation, can perform the essential functions of the employment position that such individual holds or desires."¹⁷ "The term `disability' means, with respect to an individual — (A) a physical or mental impairment that substantially limits one or more major life activities of such individual; (B) a record of such an impairment; or (C) being regarded as having such an...