Winfrey v. City of Chicago

• Decision Date: 26 July 2001
• Docket Number: PLAINTIFF-APPELLANT,No. 00-2813,DEFENDANT-APPELLEE,00-2813
• Citation: 259 F.3d 610
• Parties: (7th Cir. 2001) RUDOLPH WINFREY,, v. CITY OF CHICAGO,
• Court: U.S. Court of Appeals — Seventh Circuit

Page 610

259 F.3d 610 (7th Cir. 2001)

RUDOLPH WINFREY, PLAINTIFF-APPELLANT, v. CITY OF CHICAGO, DEFENDANT-APPELLEE.

No. 00-2813

IN THE UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS FOR THE SEVENTH CIRCUIT

Argued April 2, 2001

Decided July 26, 2001

Appeal from the United States District Court for the Northern District of Illinois, Eastern Division. No. 96-C-1208--Nan R. Nolan, Magistrate Judge. [Copyrighted Material Omitted] Before Bauer, Cudahy, and Easterbrook, Circuit Judges.

Cudahy, Circuit Judge

Rudolph Winfrey appeals a grant of summary judgment to his employer, the City of Chicago, on his claim under the Americans with Disabilities Act, 42 U.S.C. sec. 12101 et seq. (ADA), and section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973, 29 U.S.C sec. 794, claiming that the City failed to accommodate him.

I.

Winfrey has worked as a laborer for the Chicago Department of Streets and Sanitation since 1971. While retaining the position of laborer, Winfrey was assigned to work as a ward clerk for three months in 1971. In 1977, Winfreybegan to lose his eyesight, and by 1986 he was legally blind. The City was aware of his impairment in 1977. From 1987 through 1991, Winfrey worked in special events. In 1991, while he was employed there, Winfrey was required to work on a ledge; he fell 25 feet and broke one of his legs.

Because of this injury, Winfrey was on disability leave from June through December 1991. He returned to work in January 1992. At that time, he was assigned to work on a garbage truck. Because he could not safely perform that job, Winfrey requested, and was granted, vacation leave while the City purportedly sought a position in which Winfrey could safely perform. Presumably to facilitate that process, Winfrey submitted a letter and resume to the assistant commissioner of the Department of Streets and Sanitation, but the City did not return him to work in 1992. Winfrey then filed a charge with the Illinois Department of Human Rights, alleging that the City failed to accommodate his visual impairment by declining to return him to work. While this charge was pending, Winfrey required additional surgery on his leg, and began receiving worker's compensation. In early 1994, the City requested that Winfrey report for a physical to ascertain his ability to return to active duty. The City's doctors determined that Winfrey had recovered from the leg injury, and they issued him a release to return to work in March 1994. The City did not return him to work, however, because Winfrey had not received a release related to his visual impairment. Nor was he returned to work in 1994 or 1995. In 1994, Winfrey filed a charge with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) alleging that the City discriminated against him on account of his disability by failing to return him to work. The EEOC issued him a right to sue letter in January 1996.

In September 1995, the Department asked Winfrey to fill out a request for a reasonable accommodation form; Winfrey complied with this request. The City then contacted the Mayor's Office for People with Disabilities (MOPD), which began to explore ways to accommodate Winfrey. In September 1996, the MOPD developed a revised job description of the ward clerk position for Winfrey. He began work at this newly fashioned position in December. His supervisor, Francisco Carranza, did not know that Winfrey was blind until he showed up for work. Carranza testified that he did not know how to accommodate Winfrey, so he allowed him to answer phones and take messages, but otherwise gave him nothing to do from December until February. Apparently, Carranza never received the job description prepared by the MOPD.

In February 1997, the Illinois Department of Rehabilitative Services (IDORS) had consultants from the Chicago Lighthouse for People Who Are Blind or Visually Impaired (the Lighthouse) go to Winfrey's worksite to develop adjusted ward clerk duties for him. Prior to the meeting, Carranza prepared a list of four "partial essential" ward clerk duties he thought Winfrey could perform: 1) maintain refuse collection activity records; 2) contact the wards to issue additional instructions or information; 3) answer telephone complaints and log service requests; 4) contact drivers and log their arrival and departure on assigned routes. The Lighthouse prepared a recommendation for Winfrey that concluded that he was capable of performing these ward clerk functions.

However, there were other ward clerkfunctions that Winfrey did not perform. Carranza testified that he did not assign those duties to Winfrey because Winfrey's impaired vision prevented him from driving or reading, and because other employees were already taking care of these functions. Winfrey, upon learning of these duties, requested that the Lighthouse consultants return for another assessment. It did, but its second and third sets of recommendations merely elaborated on the adaptive technology--such as a computer--that could help Winfrey perform his duties as a ward clerk; they made no mention of additional duties he might be able to perform. While the City has provided Winfrey with a computer, it has not trained Winfrey to perform all the duties required of a ward clerk. Thus, he is not considered a full ward clerk, nor is he remunerated as one.

Winfrey apparently desires to be assigned the position of laborer, ward clerk or dispatcher--all of which would entail higher pay than he currently receives in his scaled-down job. Winfrey presented evidence that two laborers have worked as ward clerks for at least two years but perform no other laborer duties. Winfrey filed a lawsuit claiming that the City violated the ADA and the Rehabilitation Act by failing to reasonably accommodate his blindness when it did not return him to work from March 1994 to December 1996. He further alleged that the City continues to fail to accom modate him since his return to work in December 1996. Both parties moved for summary judgment. Winfrey also sought to amend his complaint and the City filed a motion to strike certain paragraphs of Winfrey's statement of facts. The district court denied both of Winfrey's motions, granted the City's motion for summary judgment and partially granted the City's motion to strike. The district court found that Winfrey was not a qualified individual under the ADA and the Rehabilitation Act. On another of Winfrey's claims, the court concluded that, although Winfrey might be able to perform the essential functions of a dispatcher--and thus be qualified for that particular job--the City was not required to give him priority over members of the Teamsters Union with seniority, with which it has a collective bargaining agreement.

We review the district court's grant of summary judgment de novo, drawing all inferences in the light most favorable to Winfrey. See Mills v. Health Care Service Corp., 171 F.3d 450, 454 (7th Cir. 1999). Summary judgment is appropriate only if the record reflects no genuine issue of material fact, and the moving party is entitled to judgment as a matter of law. See Anderson v. Liberty Lobby, 477 U.S. 242, 255 (1986).

II.

To establish a claim for failure to accommodate under the ADA or the Rehabilitation Act, the plaintiff must demonstrate that he or she is a disabled person as defined by the statute, that the employer knew about the disability and that he or she is otherwise qualified to perform the essential functions of the job sought, with or without reasonable accommodation. See Dalton v. Subaru-Isuzu Auto., Inc., 141 F.3d 667, 674 (7th Cir. 1998). Winfrey bears the burden of proof to demonstrate these prerequisites. See Bultemeyer v. Fort Wayne Cmty. Schools, 100 F.3d 1281, 1284 (7th Cir. 1996). The City does not dispute that Winfrey was disabled or that the City knew about the disability. But it argues, and the district court held, that Winfrey has nevertheless failed to meet his burden because he has failed to show that he is a "qualified individual with a disability" within the meaning of the ADA. The ADA defines a "qualified individual with a disability" as "an individual with a disability who, with or without reasonable accommodation, canperform the essential functions of the employment position that such individual holds or desires." 42 U.S.C. sec. 12111(8). Thus, to prove that he is a qualified individual, Winfrey must show that he can perform the essential functions of the positions he seeks. See Bultemeyer, 100 F.3d at 1284.

The district court concluded that Winfrey failed to show that he could perform the essential functions of a ward clerk. First, the court had to determine what those duties are. Evidence pointing to essential functions includes, but is not limited to: 1) the employer's judgment as to what functions are essential; 2) written job descriptions prepared for advertising for, or interviewing, job applicants; 3) the amount of time spent on the job performing a particular function; 4) the consequences of not requiring an employee to perform a function; 5) the terms of a collective bargaining agreement; and 6) work experience of past and present employees in the position. 29 C.F.R. sec. 1630.2(n)(3) (2000). The district court concluded (and Winfrey does not appear to question) that the following are the full (but not necessarily essential) duties of ward clerks:

distribute tickets (administrative adjudicative and parking enforcement), sign-in the refuse collection coordinators, collect tickets, contact the wards for Sunday baskets, receive drivers for Sunday baskets, pick-up mail, handle some payroll functions, answer the radio and telephones, order supplies by preparing requisition forms, pick-up supplies, monitor use oF.Supp.lies, facilities management, complete order for repairs, occasionally hand out forms, handle attendance, and handle special details for overtime, i.e., Sunday baskets.

Mem. Op. & Order at 16. Although the parties do not appear to dispute that these are all ward...