Schneiker v. Foritis Ins. Co.

• Decision Date: 06 January 2000
• Docket Number: No. 99-1437,99-1437
• Parties: (7th Cir. 2000) SUSAN A. SCHNEIKER, Plaintiff-Appellant, v. FORTIS INSURANCE COMPANY, formerly known as TIME INSURANCE COMPANY, Defendant-Appellee
• Court: U.S. Court of Appeals — Seventh Circuit

Page 1055

200 F.3d 1055 (7th Cir. 2000)

SUSAN A. SCHNEIKER, Plaintiff-Appellant, v. FORTIS INSURANCE COMPANY, formerly known as TIME INSURANCE COMPANY, Defendant-Appellee.

No. 99-1437

In the United States Court of Appeals For the Seventh Circuit

Argued September 24, 1999

Decided January 6, 2000

Appeal from the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Wisconsin. No. 98 C 14--J.P. Stadtmueller, Chief Judge. [Copyrighted Material Omitted] Before BAUER, RIPPLE and DIANE P. WOOD, Circuit Judges.

RIPPLE, Circuit Judge.

After her discharge, Susan A. Schneiker filed this action against her former employer, Fortis Insurance Company ("Fortis"), for violating the Americans with Disabilities Act (the "ADA"). In her complaint, Ms. Schneiker alleged that Fortis failed to accommodate her alcoholism and severe depression and discharged her because of these impairments. The district court granted summary judgment for Fortis; Ms. Schneiker now appeals. For the reasons set forth in this opinion, we affirm the judgment of the district court.

I

Because the district court granted summary judgment, our review of that judgment is de novo. See Ross v. Indiana State Teacher's Ass'n Ins. Trust, 159 F.3d 1001, 1012 (7th Cir. 1998), cert. denied, 119 S. Ct. 1113 (1999). In our review, we consider the evidence in the light most favorable to the non-moving party and draw all reasonable inferences in favor of that party, Ms. Schneiker. See Skorup v. Modern Door Corp., 153 F.3d 512, 514 (7th Cir. 1998). Summary judgment is appropriate when the pleadings, depositions, and other materials in the record show that there is no disputed material fact and that the moving party is entitled to judgment as a matter of law. See Fed. R. Civ. P. 56(c); Celotex Corp. v. Catrett, 477 U.S. 317, 322-23 (1986).

In granting summary judgment, the district court relied primarily on the proposed findings of fact submitted by Fortis because Ms. Schneiker had failed to comply with Local Rule 6.05, which required the submission of her own proposed findings of fact in her response to Fortis' summary judgment motion. Specifically, Local Rule 6.05(b) requires the non-moving party to submit "[a] specific response to the movant's proposed findings of fact, clearly delineating only those findings to which it is asserted that a genuine issue of material fact exists." E.D. Wis. R. 6.05(b)(1). To comply with the local rule, the proposed findings of fact must refer to any contested findings of fact by paragraph number and must cite evidentiary materials to support all factual propositions, whether contested or not. The district court found that the proposed findings of fact submitted by Ms. Schneiker did not comply with the local rule because her submission was not a point-by-point response to the proposed findings of fact submitted by Fortis and was "chock-full of misstatements, unsupported allegations, and legal argument." R.46 at 2.

The district court was entitled to enforce the local rule, and like the district court, we accept as true all material facts as submitted by Fortis and not properly contested by Ms. Schneiker. See Brasic v. Heinemann's Inc., 121 F.3d 281, 284, 285-86 (7th Cir. 1997); see also Spitz v. Tepfer, 171 F.3d 443, 449 (7th Cir. 1999) (enforcing a comparable local rule to the Eastern District of Wisconsin's Rule 6.05); Garrison v. Burke, 165 F.3d 565, 567 (7th Cir. 1999) (same); Joseph P. Caulfield & Assocs., Inc. v. Litho Prods., Inc., 155 F.3d 883, 888-89 (7th Cir. 1998) (enforcing a comparable local rule where the appellant failed to comply with the rule in the district court and in her submission to the court of appeals). We also do not take into account any facts proposed by Ms. Schneiker that are unsupported by references to materials in the record, but as the district court did, we shall include those facts properly presented by Ms. Schneiker and supported by the record. See, e.g., McGuire v. United Parcel Serv., 152 F.3d 673, 675 (7th Cir. 1998). We note, however, that our enforcement of the local rule makes little difference in this case because Ms. Schneiker does not seriously contest the facts submitted by Fortis or relied upon by the district court. See Corder v. Lucent Techs. Inc., 162 F.3d 924, 927 (7th Cir. 1998).

II

Ms. Schneiker worked for Fortis from July 1988, until her termination in July 1994. In late 1989, Ms. Schneiker began experiencing emotional problems and sought assistance through Fortis' employee assistance program. At that time, Ms. Schneiker came under the care of a psychiatrist, Dr. John Wean, who advised Ms. Schneiker that she was suffering from depression and prescribed medication for her. A few months later, in May 1990, Ms. Schneiker again began having emotional problems. This time, Dr. Wean had her hospitalized in a psychiatric hospital. Ms. Schneiker was hospitalized for her depression on two more occasions in 1990. According to Ms. Schneiker, "[t]he third hospitalization identified a problem of alcohol." R.35 at 2. After this hospitalization, Ms. Schneiker was released to an outpatient program, which she attended 3 nights a week for approximately 6 months. She also attended Alcoholics Anonymous meetings.

Ms. Schneiker admitted that, despite her personal struggle with her depression during this time, "[t]hings were going well at work." R.35 at 3. Ms. Schneiker worked as a Benefit Analyst in Fortis' Individual Medical Benefits Department, and, even though she had received a written warning for poor production in early 1990, she improved her performance at Fortis and was even promoted in April of that year. Other than the written warning, she received "excellent reviews." R.34 at 2 (Schneiker Affidavit). In fall 1992, Ms. Schneiker's manager asked her to participate in a temporary project, an assignment Ms. Schneiker gladly accepted because it was headed by the marketing department and Ms. Schneiker was eager to transfer to that department.

Ms. Schneiker's problems at Fortis began in 1993. Early that year, one of Ms. Schneiker's regular supervisors, Dana Sanders, also became her supervisor on the special project on which she was working. Sanders informed Ms. Schneiker that she would no longer be working on the special project and that she should return to her regular position. Ms. Schneiker disputed Sanders' request, and ultimately the vice president for the marketing department overruled Sanders and requested that Ms. Schneiker remain on the special project.

In the spring of 1993, Sanders gave Ms. Schneiker a low job performance rating for phone production, and Ms. Schneiker again disputed his judgment. The two discussed the evaluation but did not resolve their differences. Dissatisfied with the evaluation and treatment that she had been receiving from Sanders, Ms. Schneiker filed a complaint against him with the human resource department at Fortis. The Human Resource Manager, Mary Bond, had her staff investigate Ms. Schneiker's complaint. Bond eventually determined that Ms. Schneiker's allegations were without merit.

During the course of that summer, according to her affidavit, Ms. Schneiker began seeing Dr. Wean more often "in an effort to deal with Dana Sanders." R.34 at 5. Ms. Schneiker even applied for other jobs within Fortis in an effort to escape Sanders' supervision. By September 1993, Ms. Schneiker's depression began to take its toll. On September 7, Ms. Schneiker became emotionally overwrought at work and was sent home. A few days later, on September 15, Ms. Schneiker began crying uncontrollably at a staff meeting conducted by Sanders, who told her she could leave the meeting. That same day, Bond asked Ms. Schneiker to submit to an alcohol test because a staff member had smelled alcohol on her breath. Ms. Schneiker reluctantly took the test, and the results were negative. The ordeal of taking the alcohol test, however, increased Ms. Schneiker's emotional trauma that day, and she later was admitted to the hospital because of her condition.

While Ms. Schneiker was still hospitalized, Dr. Wean, Bond, and Sanders met with her to discuss her return to Fortis. The doctor recommended that Ms. Schneiker be removed from Sanders' supervision, and Bond agreed to a temporary transfer while Ms. Schneiker sought a different position within Fortis. Bond formalized the results of that meeting in a letter, which informed Ms. Schneiker that, as of October 4, 1993, she would be transferred to a temporary position and that she should seek permanent employment by applying for vacant positions at Fortis for which she was qualified.

Upon her return, Ms. Schneiker transferred from her job as a Benefit Analyst to her temporary position in Fortis' Long-Term Care Unit, which was located in a different building from where Sanders worked. In this new position, Ms. Schneiker had a new supervisor, Carol Paap. She also retained the same benefits and salary that she had received while working in her previous position, although the job involved duties of a much lower level of responsibility. According to Ms. Schneiker, the transfer from her previous department and away from Sanders made a difference: "Overall, I really believed I was getting better and contributed this to the change in environment." R.34 at 9 (Schneiker Affidavit).

In more ways than one, Bond and others at Fortis tried to help Ms. Schneiker obtain permanent employment at Fortis. Ms. Schneiker was allowed to post for more than one job at a time, a practice not usually allowed at Fortis. The human resource department arranged interviews for Ms. Schneiker, sometimes without requiring Ms. Schneiker to post formally for the position. When it came time for Ms. Schneiker's performance review, Paap ignored what she considered to be poor attendance and purposefully did not give Ms. Schneiker a written warning because she did not want it included in Ms. Schneiker's personnel file.

Even though she did not formally interview for the...