Late
last month, the Cuyahoga County Court of Appeals affirmed an employer’s jury
verdict in a disability discrimination lawsuit filed by a former employee. Anderson
v. Ohio Bell Tel. Co., 2018-Ohio-5237. In that case, the employer terminated the
plaintiff after she had taken three months of medical leave on account of
undiagnosed wrist and hand pain and sought an indefinite leave of absence which
was not supported by medical documentation.
Several months following her termination, she was diagnosed with major
depression, but the trial court refused to permit her treating psychiatrist to testify
as an expert (when he had not been previously identified as an expert witness
as required by the civil rules) or to matters that existed before he began
treating her two months after she had
been fired. None of her other treating
medical professionals could opine to a reasonable degree of medical certainty
that she was unable to work in the months prior to her termination of
employment. The jury returned a verdict
for the employer, finding that the plaintiff did not prove that she suffered
from a disability on the date that she was terminated. The Court found that the plaintiff’s treating
physicians were reasonably limited to testifying only to what they actually
perceived in their treatment of her.
According
to the Court’s opinion, the plaintiff had complained of various hand, wrist and
back pain and claimed that she was unable to work. She began a medical leave of absence on
August 5 and it was converted to short term disability. The employer extended her medical leave
without requiring any medical documentation. After she was warned that she
could be terminated without supporting medical documentation, her physician provided
medical documentation reflecting her complaints of pain, but providing no
diagnoses or indication that she was unable to work. Her medical leave was extended another month,
at which point she requested on October 22 an indefinite leave of absence as a
reasonable accommodation without providing any supporting medical documentation
or even a diagnosis. She was terminated
on November 5. In January, she was diagnosed with major
depression and her psychiatrist found her unexplained pain was consistent with depression.
The
Court also rejected the plaintiff’s argument that the employer could be held
liable – even if she were not in fact disabled on the date she was terminated –
solely because the employer’s witnesses could not explain the legal definition
of “disability.” Whether the employer
applied the correct definition of disability in practice is irrelevant when the
plaintiff did not prove that she suffered from a disability when she was
terminated.
NOTICE: This
summary is designed merely to inform and alert you of recent legal
developments. It does not constitute legal advice and does not apply to any
particular situation because different facts could lead to different results.
Information here can be changed or amended without notice. Readers should
not act upon this information without legal advice. If you have any questions
about anything you have read, you should consult with or retain an employment
attorney.
