Taylor v. Phoenixville School Dist.

• Decision Date: 05 April 1999
• Docket Number: No. 98-1273,98-1273
• Parties: 134 Ed. Law Rep. 714, 9 A.D. Cases 311, 15 NDLR P 50 Katherine L. TAYLOR, Appellant v. PHOENIXVILLE SCHOOL DISTRICT
• Court: U.S. Court of Appeals — Third Circuit

Page 142

174 F.3d 142

134 Ed. Law Rep. 714, 9 A.D. Cases 311,

15 NDLR P 50

Katherine L. TAYLOR, Appellant v. PHOENIXVILLE SCHOOL DISTRICT

No. 98-1273.

United States Court of Appeals, Third Circuit.

Argued Dec. 17, 1998.

Decided April 5, 1999.

Joseph A. Ryan (Argued), Paoli, PA, for Appellant.

Michael I. Levin (Argued), Michael I. Levin & Associates, Huntington Valley, PA, for Appellee.

Before: SLOVITER and COWEN, Circuit Judges and RODRIGUEZ, ^* District Judge

OPINION OF THE COURT

COWEN, Circuit Judge.

Katherine Taylor brought suit under the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990(ADA), 42 U.S.C. § 12101 et seq., and the Pennsylvania Human Relations Act (PHRA), 43 Pa.Cons.Stat.Ann. § 951 et seq., alleging that her former employer, the Phoenixville School District, failed to provide her reasonable accommodations for her mental illness. The District Court granted summary judgment for the school district, reasoning that Taylor's mental illness, bipolar disorder, or manic depression as it is sometimes called, did not qualify as a disability under the ADA. Alternatively, the District Court held that even if Taylor did have a disability, the only accommodation she specifically requested, transfer to another position, was not possible and, consequently, she was not an otherwise qualified individual with a disability. We will reverse and remand for further proceedings.

I

Before she was terminated on October 28, 1994, Katherine Taylor had worked for twenty years as the principal's secretary at the East Pikeland Elementary School in the Phoenixville School District. Prior to the fall of 1993, Taylor had not received a single disciplinary notice from any of the various principals she worked with over the years, and when formal evaluations were instituted in the 1991-92 school year, she received high praise.

Trouble began after Taylor suffered the onset of bipolar disorder in late August of 1993, regrettably during the first full week that a new principal, Christine Menzel, assumed her duties at East Pikeland. While Taylor was at work during that week, she began acting strangely, alarming Menzel and Linda Ferrara, the school district's administrative assistant for personnel. Menzel and Ferrara were so disturbed by Taylor's behavior that they doubted Taylor's capacity to leave on a train by herself and had someone at the school district contact Taylor's son, Mark Taylor. He soon drove his mother to Coastal Plain Hospital, a psychiatric institution in Rocky Mount, North Carolina, where she was admitted as an in-patient on August 31, 1993.

Hospital records indicate that Taylor had become manic and was increasingly agitated and psychotic. According to the records, Taylor hid herself at the train station, believing that someone was after her, and tried to disguise herself by covering her head with a scarf. On the car ride from Pennsylvania to the hospital, she was delusional and announced that the car was being escorted by state troopers and helicopters. She also claimed that her son's boss was after him and that there were many people on the highway who were "firefighters" who were trying to protect her. The hospital report noted that Taylor did not have any insight into the severity of her condition and believed she was being admitted due to "acute stress." The school district's own expert, Dr. Rieger, agreed that during Taylor's hospitalization, she "clearly had paranoid delusions" and was hyperactive and psychotic.

Taylor was treated by two psychiatrists at the hospital who diagnosed her illness as bipolar disorder and treated her with lithium carbonate and an antipsychotic drug, Navane, when lithium alone was insufficient. Once Taylor's symptoms were brought under control by the combination of drugs, she was discharged on September 20, 1993, and her care was taken over by Dr. Louise Sonnenberg, a psychiatrist in Phoenixville, Pennsylvania. Since her discharge from the hospital, Taylor has continued to take lithium, see Dr. Sonnenberg, and receive the necessary, periodic blood tests. ¹

Taylor's son stated in an affidavit that during his mother's leave of absence, he had numerous phone conversations with Ferrara in which he explained that his mother would be absent from work because she had been diagnosed with bipolar disorder and required hospitalization. Mark Taylor also asserted in his affidavit that during a phone call on October 8, one week before Ms. Taylor resumed working, he told Ferrara that due to Ms. Taylor's bipolar disorder, she "would require accommodations when she returned to work." The affidavit adds that he provided Ferrara with the information he received from his mother's doctors "including diagnosis and treatment information and medications." Coastal Plain Hospital itself sent a letter to the school district on September 13, 1993, identifying one of Taylor's physicians and providing a phone number to address any additional questions the school district might have.

According to Taylor, Ferrara did eventually contact one of her treating physicians. Ferrara's own handwritten notes show that she attempted to obtain copies of Taylor's records from Coastal Plain Hospital and planned to speak to at least one of Taylor's doctors. The school district had other contact with Taylor's doctors because before Taylor was permitted to return to work, the school district required her to submit a note from Dr. Sonnenberg saying that Taylor was no longer disabled. Even prior to Mark Taylor's October 8th phone call, Ferrara sent a letter to the school district's superintendent which stated that:

Mrs. Taylor has been released from the Coastal Plain Hospital in North Carolina and her son will be picking her up this coming weekend to bring her back to Pennsylvania. She will be receiving out-patient care in Phoenixville through the Phoenixville Psychiatric Associates. They will monitor her Blood Lithium [sic] levels. It was stressed that she must maintain and continue her medication. He felt, as well as the doctor, that the first week should be easing her transition back into the work place.

App. vol. I at 80.

A notation on the letter indicates that a copy was forwarded to Menzel. However, Menzel has submitted an affidavit denying that she saw the memo and asserting that: "I did not learn the specifics of the Plaintiff's alleged condition (i.e., bipolar disorder) until after reading a newspaper article describing her filing of the current lawsuit." App. vol. II at 2. Ferrara has also submitted an affidavit asserting that "at no time was I or anyone else at the School District aware of Plaintiff's alleged diagnosis of bipolar disorder or the details or frequency of any treatments she may have been receiving after returning from Coastal Plain until after the current lawsuit was filed." App. vol. II at 50.

After Taylor provided the note from Dr. Sonnenberg, she resumed work on October 15, 1993 although, as Ferrara's letter indicated, Taylor was only authorized to work half days for the first week. Prior to her hospitalization, Taylor had received high praise for her performance. In June of 1993, about two months before Taylor's hospitalization, the outgoing principal, Dr. Herron, wrote that Taylor "excels in all aspects" of her job, was a "credit to our school," and "a tribute to excellence." App. vol. I at 86. In a subsequent letter of recommendation, Dr. Herron again praised Taylor's performance without reservation and stated that:

As a secretary, Mrs. Taylor served me and the entire school family exceeding [ly] well ... I felt comfortable in leaving the building, sometimes for an extended amount of time, because of Mrs. Taylor's skills. Indeed, at such times, Mrs. Taylor carried on the full functions of the school as if she herself was capable of running the functions of the building without supervision, and, indeed, in such cases, she was entirely capable of doing so.

App. vol. I at 87.

Almost immediately upon Taylor's return to work, Menzel, following Ferrara's advice, began documenting errors Taylor committed. The errors were then compiled into a bullet-format list, the list was presented to Taylor, and soon thereafter Menzel and Ferrara would call Taylor into a disciplinary meeting and offer her a chance to rebut the charges. A representative from Taylor's union also attended although it is unclear to what extent the representative participated.

Taylor's first disciplinary notice, dated November 9, 1993, listed errors as early as October 19, 1993, only four days after Taylor's return to work and while she was still working part time. Eight more disciplinary notices followed, dated 11/23/93, 12/9/93, 1/6/94, 2/1/94, 3/11/94, 4/22/94, 9/2/94, and 10/27/94, the last arriving shortly before Taylor was terminated. Over the course of the disciplinary meetings, Taylor disputed some charges and tried to explain others, but as 1994 wore on, Menzel documented many errors that Taylor did not contest, and the interpersonal friction between Menzel and Taylor continued unabated. Disciplinary notices during this period list problems such as missed deadlines, mishandling of records, typing errors, interpersonal conflicts, and undelivered messages.

Part of Taylor's complaint about her treatment is that Menzel often did not speak to her informally and in-person about problems as they arose. Instead, Taylor alleges that Menzel documented every misstep, saved letters containing typos, photographed Taylor's desk and trash can, as well as the inside of the office refrigerator, and waited to confront Taylor with the evidence in the disciplinary meetings.

Taylor also objects that the school district made her job more difficult upon her return from the hospital. First, during Taylor's absence, Menzel instituted a number of changes in the office: she introduced new office policies, created new forms, relocated documents, rearranged furniture, threw out Taylor's old filing system, and discarded files, including some in...