Wynes v. Kaiser Permanente Hosps. (Summary)

WRONGFUL EMPLOYMENT TERMINATION/ DISABILITY

Wynes v. Kaiser Permanente Hosps., No. 2:10-cv-00702-MCE-GGH (E.D. Cal. Mar. 28, 2013)

In this employment discrimination case, the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of California granted in part and denied in part a motion for summary judgment filed by a hospital.  A nurse brought suit against a hospital after she was terminated from her position.  The nurse had a shoulder injury that forced her to take extended leaves of absence from the hospital.  She complained of an inadequate accommodation at her desk because its size required her to lift her arm in ways that were very painful and which led to another leave of absence.  The hospital terminated the nurse’s employment while she was still on leave.  The nurse claimed that she was discriminated against on the basis of, among other things, disability, age and race.

The district court denied summary judgment with respect to an Age Discrimination in Employment Act (“ADEA”) claim, stating that the nurse had sufficiently demonstrated an issue of fact sufficient to survive a summary judgment motion.  As to an Americans with Disabilities Act (“ADA”) claim, the nurse argued that she could have and would have performed the essential functions of her job with reasonable accommodation.  This issue of fact was enough for the claim to survive summary judgment.

The court granted summary judgment for the race claim because the nurse failed to demonstrate that similarly situated employees of a different race were treated differently.  The court denied summary judgment on the age and disability claims because the nurse’s ADEA and ADA claims provided genuine issues of fact that needed to be addressed.