Court Moves Forward Claims by Former Employee with
Narcolepsy
October 22, 2009 (PLANSPONSOR.com) - The U.S.
District Court for the District of Oregon has denied an
employer's motion for summary judgment on a former employee's
claims under the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), the
Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA), and the Oregon Family
Leave Act (OFLA).
Jackson Lewis reports that the court found Rachel
Waters, who suffers from narcolepsy, had raised sufficient
issues of fact for trial regarding, among other things,
whether she was substantially limited in the major life
activity of sleeping and whether the reason for her
discharge - excessive absences - was pretextual. In
addition, the court ruled Waters could proceed on her
failure-to-accommodate claim and her FMLA and OFLA
claims.
The court concluded that an issue of fact existed
regarding whether Fred Meyer Stores could have reasonably
accommodated Waters' condition by waiving the points
she accrued for three absences during the time she and the
employer were waiting for a corrected medical
certification. While the court found that Waters'
initial medical certification for leave failed to comply
with the laws, that the employer correctly requested
additional information from Waters' physician, and that the
employer could delay Waters' leave until it received the
corrected certification, it denied summary judgment based
on Waters' phone calls regarding her absences.
According to Jackson Lewis, on each occasion, Waters
telephoned the employer, saying her absence was due to
narcolepsy and she needed to take medical leave; however,
because it had not received the corrected medical
certification, the employer noted the absences as unexcused
and charged Waters, under the attendance policy, with 20
points per absence, for a total of 60 points.
The court decided Fred Meyer Stores "had some
obligation to treat the telephone calls in May as requests
for discrete instances of FMLA or OFLA leave, since leave
under the April 24, 2006 application was not yet
approved."
The case is
Waters v. Fred Meyer Stores Inc
.
Rebecca Moore
editors@plansponsor.com