Shields v. Credit One Bank, N.A.

• Decision Date: 06 May 2022
• Docket Number: 20-15647
• Citation: Shields v. Credit One Bank, N.A., 32 F.4th 1218 (9th Cir. 2022)
• Parties: Karen SHIELDS, Plaintiff-Appellant, v. CREDIT ONE BANK, N.A.; Credit One Financial; Sherman Financial Group, LLC, Defendants-Appellees.
• Court: U.S. Court of Appeals — Ninth Circuit

32 F.4th 1218

Karen SHIELDS, Plaintiff-Appellant,

v.CREDIT ONE BANK, N.A.; Credit One Financial; Sherman Financial Group, LLC, Defendants-Appellees.

No. 20-15647

United States Court of Appeals, Ninth Circuit.

Argued and Submitted August 17, 2021 Seattle, Washington

Filed May 6, 2022

Michael P. Balaban (argued), Law Offices of Michael P. Balaban, Las Vegas, Nevada, for Plaintiff-Appellant.

David Lawrence Schenberg (argued), Ogletree Deakins Nash Smoak & Stewart P.C., St. Louis, Missouri; Anthony L. Martin, Amy L. Howard, and Dana B. Salmonson, Ogletree Deakins Nash Smoak & Stewart P.C., Los Angeles, California; for Defendants-Appellees.

Before: William A. Fletcher, Paul J. Watford, and Daniel P. Collins, Circuit Judges.

COLLINS, Circuit Judge:

Karen Shields alleges that her former employer violated Title I of the Americans with Disabilities Act ("ADA") by failing to accommodate her disability and instead terminating her. Because the district court applied the wrong legal standards in holding that Shields had failed to plead a "disability," we reverse its dismissal of Shields's complaint.

I

Because the district court resolved this case on a motion to dismiss under Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 12(b)(6), we must take as true the operative complaint's well-pleaded allegations, including any such allegations that rely on the incorporation of documents attached to the complaint, and we draw all reasonable inferences in favor of Shields. See Hawkins v. Kroger Co. , 906 F.3d 763, 767 n.2 (9th Cir. 2018) ; Courthouse News Serv. v. Planet , 750 F.3d 776, 780 n.4 (9th Cir. 2014). Applying those standards, we take the following facts as established for purposes of this appeal.

In November 2017, Shields began working in the Human Resources ("HR") Department of Defendant Credit One Bank, N.A. ("Credit One") in Las Vegas, Nevada. Her formal job title was "HR Generalist I," and the official job description for that position listed a variety of basic "physical requirements" that "must be met by an employee to successfully perform the essential functions of this job." These requirements included the ability to "use hands to finger, handle, [and] feel," to "reach with hands and arms," and, occasionally, to "lift and/or move up to 2 pounds." The job description also stated, however, that "[r]easonable accommodations may be made to enable individuals with disabilities to perform the essential functions" of the job.

After a concern arose in January 2018 that Shields might have bone cancer, she was scheduled for a bone biopsy surgery, which took place on April 20, 2018. The biopsy surgery was a significant procedure that required a three-day hospitalization. In order to obtain the necessary tissue samples from Shields's right shoulder and arm, the surgeon made what the complaint described as a "10 centimeter skin incision" and created a window "into the bone measuring one centimeter in width by two centimeters in length." Subsequent testing of the samples revealed that "everything was benign" and that Shields did not have cancer after all.

Nonetheless, given the substantial physical impact of the biopsy surgery itself, Shields was unable to return to work for several months. Specifically, her postsurgical injuries prevented her from, inter alia , fully using her right arm, shoulder, and hand to lift, pull, push, type, write, tie her shoes, or use a hair dryer. In order to verify Shields's inability to work, her surgeon, Dr. Hillock, completed a copy of Credit One's standard "ADA Employee Accommodation Medical Certification Form." In completing the form, Dr. Hillock stated that Shields would be unable to perform her essential job functions, with or without accommodation, for two months. In the portion of the form that asked him to identify the "major life activities" that "are substantially limited by the medical condition or accompanying treatment," Dr. Hillock listed "sleeping, lifting, writing, pushing, pulling [and] manual tasks." After submission of the form, Shields was approved for an unpaid, eight-week "medical leave of absence as an accommodation under the ADA." The leave was unpaid rather than paid because Shields did not qualify for paid leave under the Family and Medical Leave Act.

Dr. Hillock initially estimated that Shields would be able to return to work on June 20, 2018. However, as that date approached, Shields still lacked full use of her right shoulder, arm, and hand. Accordingly, on June 18, 2018, Dr. Hillock prepared a note indicating that Shields was still unable to return to work. The relevant portion of the note stated, in its entirety: "Patient has an appointment on 7/10 at which point a return to work date will be discussed. Unable to work until appointment."

Shortly after receiving Dr. Hillock's note, the assistant vice president of Credit One's HR Department called Shields and asked her to come into the office the next day. Shields asked "if she was being fired," and the assistant vice president said that she was not and that they needed her to come in to discuss "her healthcare premium." When Shields reported to the office, however, she was told that her position was being eliminated and that she was therefore being terminated. Her healthcare coverage was consequently terminated about a week later.

Shields filed a complaint with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission ("EEOC"), and she received a "Notice of Right to Sue" on March 5, 2019. See 42 U.S.C. § 12117(a) (stating that employment-based claims under Title I of the ADA are generally subject to the remedies and procedures set forth in Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964); see also 42 U.S.C. § 1981a(a)(2) (stating that, in addition to the remedies under Title VII, a plaintiff asserting "unlawful intentional discrimination" in violation of § 102 of the ADA may also recover, subject to certain limitations, "compensatory and punitive damages"). Shields thereafter timely filed this action in the district court in June 2019. Her operative first amended complaint asserts a single cause of action alleging disability discrimination in violation of § 102 of the ADA. See 42 U.S.C. § 12112. Specifically, the complaint alleges that, as a reasonable accommodation for her temporary disability arising from the biopsy surgery, Credit One "had a continuing duty under the ADA to extend Shields'[s] medical leave of absence" for the "short" additional period of time "until she was able to return to her job." Instead, Shields alleged, Credit One unlawfully terminated her. Shields sought, inter alia , back pay, compensatory damages, punitive damages, and attorney's fees.

The district court granted Credit One's motion to dismiss the complaint under Rule 12(b)(6). The court concluded that, for two reasons, Shields had failed adequately to plead a disability within the meaning of the ADA. First, citing the 2010 version of the EEOC regulations defining disability, the court held that Shields had failed to plead facts showing "any permanent or long-term effects for her impairment" (emphasis added). Second, the court concluded that Shields failed to allege sufficient factual detail to "state a plausible impairment" during the requested extension of her medical leave of absence. The court entered judgment, and Shields filed a timely notice of appeal.¹

II

In dismissing this action, the district court relied solely on the ground that the operative complaint failed adequately to allege the threshold element that Shields had a "disability" within the meaning of the ADA. Section 3, paragraph (1), of the ADA defines the term "disability" as follows:

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 impairment (as described in paragraph (3)).

42 U.S.C. § 12102(1). On appeal, Shields relies solely on the first of these three alternatives. Accordingly, the question here is whether Shields adequately pleaded that she has "a physical or mental impairment that substantially limits one or more major life activities." Id. § 12102(1)(A). The district court concluded that Shields had failed adequately to plead that she had a "disability" under this definition, because (1) she had failed to allege enough facts to establish that she had an "impairment"; and (2) even if she had alleged an "impairment," she had failed to establish a substantial limitation arising from that impairment, because she had not pleaded "facts that plausibly show any permanent or long-term effects for her impairment." Because the latter argument implicates the legal standards governing such a claim of disability, we address it first.

A

In holding that an impairment is not substantially limiting unless it involves "permanent or long-term effects," the district court relied dispositively on Curley v. City of North Las Vegas , which held that an impairment is not "substantially limiting" if its "expected long term impact ... is small." 2012 WL 1439060, at *3 (D. Nev. 2012) (emphasis added), aff'd on other grounds , 772 F.3d 629 (9th Cir. 2014). Curley purported to derive this temporal requirement from the definition of "substantially limits" that was contained in the EEOC's 2010 regulations concerning the ADA. Specifically, Curley stated that the EEOC regulations provided that, in "determining whether an individual is substantially limited in a major life activity," a court should consider: "(i) the nature and severity of the impairment[;] (ii) the duration or expected duration of the impairment; and (iii) the permanent or long-term impact , or the expected permanent or long-term impact resulting from the impairment." Id. (quoting 29 C.F.R. § 1630.2(j)(2) (2010) ) (emphasis added). The district court's reliance on Curley and the 2010 regulations was legally erroneous.

Section 106 of the ADA has long granted the EEOC authority to ...