Smith v. District of Columbia

• Decision Date: 06 December 2005
• Docket Number: No. 04-7082.,04-7082.
• Citation: 430 F.3d 450
• Parties: Gwendolyn B. SMITH Appellant v. DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA, Appellee.
• Court: U.S. Court of Appeals — District of Columbia Circuit

Page 450

430 F.3d 450

Gwendolyn B. SMITH Appellant v. DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA, Appellee.

No. 04-7082.

United States Court of Appeals, District of Columbia Circuit.

Argued October 14, 2005.

Decided December 6, 2005.

Appeal from the United States District Court for the District of Columbia (No. 02cv00481).

Robin M. Meriweather, appointed by the court, argued the cause as amicus curiae for appellant. With her on the briefs were David W. DeBruin and William M. Hohengarten.

L. Saundra White argued the cause and filed the brief for appellant.

William J. Earl, Assistant Attorney General, Office of Attorney General for the District of Columbia, argued the cause for appellee. With him on the briefs were Robert J. Spagnoletti, Attorney General, and Edward E. Schwab, Deputy Attorney General.

Before: TATEL and BROWN, Circuit Judges, and EDWARDS, Senior Circuit Judge.¹

Opinion for the Court filed by Circuit Judge BROWN.

BROWN, Circuit Judge.

Gwendolyn Smith, a former employee of the District of Columbia's Department of Mental Health (DMH), filed suit against the District, claiming she was the victim of discrimination and retaliation under the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA). The district court granted summary judgment to the District on both claims; Smith now appeals. We find the district court properly granted summary judgment on Smith's retaliation claim but abused its discretion by granting the District's late motion for summary judgment on the discrimination claim. We therefore remand the case for trial on the discrimination claim.

I

Smith worked for the DMH as a mental health specialist for over thirty years. During her service in the Gulf War, Smith was diagnosed with a bacterial infection; the treatment for this condition led to diabetes and hypertension. Smith also suffered back and shoulder injuries. After returning to work in June 1994, she informed her supervisors at the DMH of her disabilities and was given a handicapped parking space and permitted to change her work schedule to start at 10:00 a.m. rather than 8:15 a.m.

In Smith's role as a mental health specialist at the DMH, she had to make home visits to patients; this requirement was always part of her job description, but the required frequency of visits increased in 2000. Smith claims her disability prevents her from making "frequent trips up and down stairs" or "getting in and out of vehicles constantly," and because of these restrictions, she is physically able to make only occasional home visits to patients.

On May 16, 2000, Smith filed a complaint with the D.C. Office of Human Rights and the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC), alleging the DMH had discriminated against her by denying her a reasonable accommodation of her disability. In the section of the complaint form designated "cause of discrimination," Smith checked the boxes for "Retaliation" and "Disability." In part, Smith's complaint stated she "believe[d] that [she had] been discriminated against because of [her] disability, in violation of the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990, as amended." The EEOC dismissed her complaint and issued a "right to sue" letter on November 20, 2000, informing her that she had 90 days to file suit.

On January 3, 2001, Smith requested additional accommodations, including not being counted as "absent without leave" for time she missed, as well as being excused from home visits. On March 12, 2001, a DMH director noted Smith's patients had not been receiving home visits over the previous three months and found this "unacceptable." Smith informed the DMH she was unable to make home visits due to her disability; all of her patients were then assigned to other employees. Later that month, the District sent Smith a letter stating that "conducting `home visits' [was] an essential function of [her] position." The District found her to be an "individual with a disability,"² and thus entitled to reasonable accommodations, but concluded there were "[n]o [p]robable [g]rounds to support a finding that [her] rights in the workplace [were] being violated."

The DMH also filed disciplinary charges against Smith based on her refusal to acknowledge Kevin Martin as her designated supervisor. Smith admitted that she would not accept Martin as her supervisor, claiming he lacked the educational background to give her instructions. Smith stated that if she was given an instruction she viewed as "wrong," she would not comply: "I don't come out and say, no, I'm not going to do it. I just don't do it."

On June 14, 2001, the DMH ordered Smith to report for a 120-day detail at the Comprehensive Psychiatric Emergency Program's (CPEP) Crisis Hotline at D.C. General Hospital. Smith informed the DMH she would be unable to report to the CPEP, claiming the hospital was too far from her home and driving there would "compromise [her] health and place [her] in a position for potential and/or imminent severe medical complications." On July 9, 2001, the DMH notified Smith she had no accumulated leave time available and that it was instituting disciplinary measures against her. On August 14, 2001, the DMH denied Smith's request for an advance of 328 hours of sick leave because regulations did not allow such a large advance and informed her she was going to be terminated. The stated grounds for her removal were "insubordination" (i.e., "refusal to carry out assigned duties and responsibilities"), "inexcusable neglect of duty" (i.e., "negligence in performing official duties, including failure to follow verbal or written instructions"), and "insubordination and discourteous treatment" (i.e., "knowingly making false or unfounded face-to-face and written discourteous statements concerning [her] immediate supervisor").

On October 22, 2001, after the 120-day detail to CPEP would have ended, Smith notified the DMH that she was ready and medically able, given accommodations, to return to work. She was not given another assignment, however, and filed another complaint with the D.C. Office of Human Rights and the EEOC on November 23, 2001. In the section of the complaint form designated "cause of discrimination," Smith again checked the boxes for "Retaliation" and "Disability." Smith alleged that since she filed her first EEOC complaint, the District had "retaliated against [her] by not allowing [her] a reasonable accommodation for [her] disability." On December 18, 2001, the EEOC dismissed Smith's complaint and issued her another "right to sue" letter, stating that she had 90 days to file suit. Smith retired from the DMH before disciplinary actions were finalized.

Smith filed suit in the United States District Court for the District of Columbia on March 15, 2002, alleging disability discrimination and retaliation in violation of the ADA.³ The District moved for summary judgment on both claims. The district court denied the motion with respect to the discrimination claim, finding genuine issues of material fact as to whether home visits were essential to Smith's job and whether a reasonable accommodation was possible. Smith v. District of Columbia, 271 F.Supp.2d 165, 172 (D.D.C.2003) (Smith I). However, the court granted summary judgment to the District on the retaliation claim, finding Smith had not established a prima facie case. Id. at 173. The court found her temporary reassignment to CPEP was not an adverse action, and Smith did not present "a single reason or scrap of evidence permitting the inference" that her request for sick leave was denied as retaliation rather than because her request exceeded the amount allowed by regulation. Id.⁴

The district court had set December 27, 2002, as the deadline for the District to file motions for summary judgment. On April 9, 2004, ten days before the scheduled start of trial, the District again moved for summary judgment, arguing Smith's disability discrimination claim should be dismissed as untimely. The district court granted the motion on April 19, 2004, finding Smith had 90 days after the EEOC sent her first "right to sue" letter to file suit on her disability discrimination claim, but that she had waited almost 16 months to do so. Smith v. District of Columbia, No. 02cv00481, 2004 WL 3608248, at *1 (D.D.C. April 19, 2004) (unpublished opinion) (Smith III). The district court also found Smith's second EEOC complaint alleged only retaliation, not disability discrimination; thus, it held that Smith had not exhausted her administrative remedies with respect to her attempt to renew her claim of disability discrimination. Id. at *2-3. Although Smith protested the District's late filing, the trial court concluded the District's "dilatoriness . . . [did] not amount to the kind of delay and `game playing' that have led the courts to hold that the defendant has waived the failure to exhaust defense." Id. at *3. At the same time, the district court attempted to "cure the prejudice [Smith] suffered without nullifying the congressional policy. . . that the courts enforce the procedural requirements Congress mandated" in the ADA. Id. "All of the fees and costs generated since the District's filing of its answer were completely unnecessary," the district court reasoned, as the District could have moved to dismiss the complaint at that early point; hence, the district court ordered the District to pay all costs and attorney's fees incurred by Smith since that point, except those incurred in response to this final motion. Id.

II

As a preliminary matter, we find that we have jurisdiction to hear Smith's appeal. After the district court granted summary judgment on Smith's disability discrimination claim, the parties filed several motions contesting the costs and attorney's fees and asking for reconsideration. Smith also filed a notice of appeal. The District then filed a motion in this court requesting that we hold the case in abeyance pending the resolution of the district court motions. We denied the District's motion but directed the...