Williams v. Channel Master Satellite Systems, Inc.

• Decision Date: 27 November 1996
• Docket Number: No. 96-1072,96-1072
• Citation: 101 F.3d 346,1996 WL 682213
• Parties: , 6 A.D. Cases 131, 19 A.D.D. 46, 9 NDLR P 26 Linda WILLIAMS, Plaintiff-Appellant, v. CHANNEL MASTER SATELLITE SYSTEMS, INCORPORATED; Channel Master Communications, Incorporated; Avnet, Incorporated, Defendants-Appellees. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission; Equal Employment Advisory Council, Amici Curiae.
• Court: U.S. Court of Appeals — Fourth Circuit

Page 346

101 F.3d 346

65 USLW 2438, 6 A.D. Cases 131, 19

A.D.D. 46, 9 NDLR P 26

Linda WILLIAMS, Plaintiff-Appellant, v. CHANNEL MASTER SATELLITE SYSTEMS, INCORPORATED; Channel

Master Communications, Incorporated; Avnet,

Incorporated, Defendants-Appellees.

Equal Employment Opportunity Commission; Equal Employment

Advisory Council, Amici Curiae.

No. 96-1072.

United States Court of Appeals, Fourth Circuit.

Argued Sept. 23, 1996.

Decided Nov. 27, 1996.

ARGUED: Burton Craige, Patterson, Harkavy & Lawrence, L.L.P., Raleigh, NC, for Appellant. Robert John Gregory, Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, Washington, DC, for Amicus Curiae EEOC. Martin Nesbitt Erwin, Smith, Helms, Mulliss & Moore, L.L.P., Greensboro, NC, for Appellees. ON BRIEF: John J. Korzen, Smith, Helms, Mulliss & Moore, L.L.P., Greensboro, NC, for Appellees. C. Gregory Stewart, General Counsel, Gwendolyn Young Reams, Associate General Counsel, Vincent Blackwood, Assistant General Counsel, Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, Washington, DC, for Amicus Curiae EEOC. Douglas S. McDowell, Ann Elizabeth Reesman, Ellen Duffy McKay, McGuinness & Williams, Washington, DC, for Amicus Curiae Advisory Council.

Before HALL, WILLIAMS, and MOTZ, Circuit Judges.

OPINION

PER CURIAM:

Linda Williams appeals the district court's grant of summary judgment to her employer on her claims for employment discrimination under the Americans With Disabilities Act (ADA), 42 U.S.C. §§ 12101--12213 (1995), and the North Carolina Handicapped Persons Protection Act (NCHPPA), N.C.G.S. § 168A (Michie 1987), and for wrongful discharge under state common law. See Williams v. Avnet, 910 F.Supp. 1124 (E.D.N.C.1995). We affirm, albeit on narrower grounds than those on which the district court relied.

I.

The facts in this case are largely undisputed. In 1985, Linda Williams began working for Avnet, Inc.'s subsidiary, Channel Master Communications, in its Smithfield, North Carolina plant. In March 1992, Williams injured her neck and back in an automobile accident unrelated to work. Following the accident, Williams was unable to work for several months. During this period she visited her doctor every three to four weeks, each time receiving a note excusing her from work until the next appointment. After each visit, Williams submitted the doctor's note to the plant nurse, who extended her disability leave accordingly.

In September 1992, Williams' orthopedist told her that she could return to work, with the restrictions that she refrain from lifting more than 25 pounds and pushing or pulling heavy objects. The doctor rated her impairment as a 5% permanent partial disability of the back. Despite her doctor's rating, it appears that neither Williams nor her employer knew at that time that her disability would be permanent.

When Williams received medical permission to work, she asked her employer, Channel Master, if she could return to the plant in any job position that fit her medical restrictions, even in a job at less pay. A personnel coordinator informed her that she would not be permitted to return to work until her doctor released her from "any and all restrictions" and she could perform all the duties she had before the accident. Later, discovery revealed that there were several job vacancies at the plant during this period of time that would have satisfied Williams' medical restrictions. After her employer refused to reassign her to lighter duty work, Williams suggested other accommodations that Channel Master could make that would enable her to continue to perform the job she had held at the time of the accident. Channel Master refused to accommodate Williams' condition in any way, and on October 2, 1992, after she had received six months of disability leave, the company terminated her.

Williams then filed a timely charge of disability discrimination with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC). The EEOC investigated her claim and determined that Channel Master had violated the ADA by refusing to accommodate Williams' disability, by discharging her due to that disability, and by its policy of terminating temporarily disabled employees who can not return to work after six months.

The district court granted summary judgment to Channel Master finding that as a matter of law, Williams was not entitled to relief under the ADA, NCHPPA, or on her common law claim of wrongful termination. The appeal followed.

II.

To establish a cause of action under the ADA, a plaintiff must demonstrate: "(1) that [s]he has a disability; (2) that [s]he is otherwise qualified for the employment or benefit in question; and (3) that [s]he was excluded from the employment or benefit due to discrimination solely on the basis of the disability." Doe v. University of Maryland Medical Sys. Corp., 50 F.3d 1261, 1265 (4th Cir.1995); Tyndall v. National Educ. Ctrs., 31 F.3d 209, 212 (4th Cir.1994); White v. York Int'l Corp., 45 F.3d 357, 360-61 (10th Cir.1995). ¹

The ADA defines "disability" as "a physical or mental impairment that substantially limits one or more of the major life activities of such individual; a record of such an impairment; or being regarded as having such an impairment." 42 U.S.C. § 12102(2). The ADA regulations and EEOC interpretive guidelines list a number of major life activities. See 29 C.F.R. § 1630.2(i) (1996) (caring for oneself, performing manual tasks, walking, seeing, hearing, speaking, breathing, learning and working); 29 C.F.R. Pt. 1630, App. § 1630.2(i) (1996) (above activities plus sitting, standing, lifting and reaching). ² Williams asserted that both lifting and working constituted major life activities that her impairment substantially limited.

The district court erred in two respects in analyzing whether Williams had established that she was disabled for purposes of the ADA. First, the court erred in failing even to address Williams' asserted lifting limitation. Secondly, and perhaps more fundamentally, it erred in suggesting that working is not a major life activity, and that the general foreclosure test must be used to determine if any other major life activity is "substantially limited." See Williams, 910 F.Supp. at 1131-33, 1136-37. The district court improperly described the regulatory language discussing working as a major life activity as "superfluous" and thus declared that "[w]hile some courts might entertain claims under the 'major life activity' of 'working,' this Court does not." Id. at 1136. In fact, working is a major life activity, see Gupton v. Virginia, 14 F.3d 203, 205 (4th Cir.1994) (Rehabilitation Act); Dutcher v. Ingalls Shipbuilding, 53 F.3d 723, 724-27 (5th Cir.1995), and the general foreclosure test applies only to claims brought under the major life activity of working. See Gupton, 14 F.3d at 205 (applying general foreclosure test only to the major life activity of working); 29 C.F.R. § 1630.2(j)(3) ("With respect to the major life activity of working, the term substantially limits means significantly restricted in the ability to perform either a class of jobs or a broad range of jobs in various classes ....") (emphasis in original).

However, Williams nonetheless failed to establish that she had a disability sufficient to trigger the ADA. To determine if an employee is disabled under the ADA, a court must evaluate not just whether an employee is restricted but whether she is "[s]ignificantly restricted" in performing a major life activity "as compared to the condition, manner, or duration under which the average person in the general population can perform that same major life activity." 29 C.F.R. § 1630.2(j)(1)(ii). A court may also consider the "nature and severity of the impairment," its "duration or expected duration" and any "permanent or long term impact." 29 C.F.R. § 1630.2(j)(2). Moreover, when the major life activity at issue is working, the "inability to perform a single, particular job does not constitute a substantial limitation;" in this circumstance "substantially limits means significantly restricted in the ability to perform either a class of jobs or a broad range of jobs in various classes...." 29 C.F.R. § 1630.2(j)(3) (emphasis omitted).

Like the Eighth Circuit, we hold, as a matter of law, that a twenty-five pound lifting limitation--particularly when compared to an average person's abilities--does not constitute a significant restriction on one's ability to lift, work, or perform any other major life activity. See Aucutt v. Six Flags Over Mid-America, 85 F.3d 1311, 1319 (8th Cir.1996) (twenty-five pound lifting restriction did not "significantly restrict" major life activities). ³

Even if an individual demonstrates she is disabled, the ADA requires her to establish that, "with or without reasonable accommodation, [she] can perform the essential functions of the employment position that [she] holds or desires." 42 U.S.C. § 12111(8). The employer must arrange "reasonable accommodation" unless doing so imposes an "undue hardship." 42 U.S.C. § 12112(b)(5). In determining whether the failure to accommodate Williams was reasonable, the district court deferred almost entirely to Channel Master's judgment. The court held, as a matter of law, that if a proposed accommodation was not "obviously reasonable," or its reasonableness "is a matter of some serious dispute, courts should defer to the employer's business expertise." Williams, 910 F.Supp. at 1133. The employer's point of view should define "reasonableness," the district court explained, because otherwise the determination of what is reasonable would "authorize[ ] the reviewing court to engage in a subjective, legislative exercise." Id.

This approach was misguided. Courts are often asked to define reasonableness in various contexts; the standard of "reasonableness" is empty if "reasonable" means only "the employer's opinion." The district court's approach is particularly inappropriate in the summary judgment context, where a court must view evidence...