Phillips v. St. Mary Med. Ctr. (Summary)

ADA/REHABILITATION ACT DISCRIMINATION

Phillips v. St. Mary Med. Ctr., No.12-2363 (E.D. Pa. Mar. 19, 2013)

The United States District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania granted in part and denied in part a hospital’s motion to dismiss a disability discrimination case based on the federal Rehabilitation Act and the Americans with Disabilities Act filed by the deaf children of a non-deaf patient.  The brother and sister had requested and been denied the services of an interpreter while visiting their non-deaf father who was a patient in the hospital.  During a subsequent visit, the siblings found their father in a coma, and he died later that day.  The siblings were unable to communicate with anyone involved in their father’s care and were not informed when their father was dying because no interpreter had been provided beyond a five-minute session on one afternoon.  The siblings sued the hospital for disability discrimination, requesting injunctive relief mandating that the hospital be legally required to provide interpreters to companions of their patients. 

The district court dismissed the request for injunctive relief, stating that the siblings were unable to show that there was an actual or imminent threat of injury if the injunctive relief of being granted an interpreter was not granted.  The court noted that there was no guarantee that the siblings would be returning to the hospital, a required element necessary to show that injury to the siblings was imminent.  Neither sibling had sought the services of the hospital before, nor was it indicated that the siblings would seek the assistance of this hospital in the event of an emergency.